To J. S. Dismorr 13 June [1851]
Down Farnborough | Kent
June 13
My Dear Sir
I cannot tell you where to get a dredge—but if you will call on Professor Forbes at the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street1 (taking this note as an introduction—& tell him you wish to dredge on the S Australian Coast I am very sure he will gladly take you & give you five minutes advice & Prof Forbes knows more about dredging than all the other naturalists in Europe put together2
I am delighted that you will look after the fossil bones in the clay, whatever they are.3 whether simply the wonderful great Kangaroos or not, they will be well worth collecting & sending home, particularly heads teeth jaws & joints
As I live in the country, you had better direct to me to care of my friend Profr Owen Royal College of Surgeons Lincoln’s Inn Fields—4
I am really obliged & flattered by the wish you so kindly express to send me something interesting— There is a little pedunculated cirripede I believe common on the whole South Australia ——?5 which I should be very glad to have several specimens of all sizes still attached sent home, having been placed immediately in strong spirits—well corked & bladdered up— They consist of 4 little bluish valves mounted on a flexible peduncle crossed with yellowish spines—6 There is a most extraordinary anatomical peculiarity which I want to disect There is also another cirripede attached to corallines of So Australia in deep water of which I enclose a rude tracing which I should much like to have several of for same purpose in spirits—7 I am at present hard at work on a Monograph on the Anatomy & Classification of all the Cirripedes (Lepas Balanus &c) in the whole world—
With every good wish for health & prosperity & success in Geology & Natural History | Believe me | My Dear Sir | Yours Sincerely | C Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Owen, Richard. 1853a. Description of some species of the extinct genus Nesodon, with remarks on the primary group (Toxodontia) of hoofed quadrupeds, to which that genus is referable. [Read 13 January 1853.] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 143: 291–310.
Rehbock, Philip F. 1979. The early dredgers: ‘naturalizing’ in British seas, 1830–1850. Journal of the History of Biology 12: 293–368. [Vols. 6,7,9,11]
Summary
Suggests that JD consult with Edward Forbes about dredging.
Delighted he will look for fossil bones.
Asks him to look for Australian cirripedes.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1436
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- James Stewart Dismorr
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 143: 387
- Physical description
- C 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1436,” accessed on 20 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1436.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5