To W. D. Fox [30 April 1857]1
Moor Park | Farnham | Surrey
Thursday
My dear Fox.
I have now been here for exactly one week, & intend to stay one week more.— I had got very much below par at home, & it is really quite astonishing & utterly unaccountable the good this one week has done me.— I like Dr. Lane & his wife & her mother, who are the proprietors of this establishment very much.— Dr. L. is too young,—that is his only fault—but he is a gentleman & very well read man.2 And in one respect I like him better than Dr. Gully, viz that he does not believe in all the rubbish which Dr. G. does; nor does he pretend to explain much, which neither he or any doctor can explain.—3 I enclose a paper for the strange chance of your ever knowing anyone in the S. in want of Hydropathy.— I really think I shall make a point of coming here for a fortnight occasionally, as the country is very pleasant for walking.—4
But I, also, think it highly probable that we all shall move to Malvern this summer, not for my sake, but for Etty’s, who has now been out of health for some six or 8 months. I hardly know yet when we shall go, if we do go; but I very much wish that we might meet you there. Etty is now & has been for some time at Hastings.5 I am well convinced that the only thing for Chronic cases is the water-cure.—6 Write to me either here or after Wednesday next to Down, & tell me how the world goes on with you, & how, especially, the Sciatica has been, if it was sciatica, which caused you so much suffering.—7
I believe that I worked too hard at home on my species-Book, which progresses, but very slowly. Whenever you write, as you are, I know, very learned in Pigs, pray tell me, whether any breed, known to have originated or to have been greatly modified, by a cross with the Chinese or Neapolitan Pig, whether any such crossed-breed, breeds true or nearly true.—8 I am pretty sure I have read of some breed known to have been formed by a cross with one of the above Breeds, but I cannot remember particulars.— I must now take a sitz Bath, my treatment being,—daily Shallow, Douche, & Sitz.9
Farewell, my dear Fox | Yours most truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Post Office directory of the six home counties: Post Office directory of the six home counties, viz., Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
His impressions of the hydropathic establishment and E. W. Lane. Is convinced the only thing for "chronic cases" is the water-cure.
Asks if WDF knows of any breed of pig that originated or was modified by a cross with a Chinese or Neapolitan pig, and whether the crossbreed bred true.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2085
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Darwin Fox
- Sent from
- Moor Park
- Source of text
- Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 103)
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2085,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2085.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6