To T. H. Huxley 15 September [1857]1
Down Bromley Kent
Sept 15th
My dear Huxley
I must just thank you for your three last Lectures which I have read with much interest (& have forwarded to J. Lubbock), & for your magnificent compliment to me.—2 I declare you will turn my head right round. You have given, as it seems to me, a capital account of the Cirripedes. I have been glad to read what you say on the value of the Group; & I daresay you are right; but how difficult, not to say impossible it is to classify the higher groups.3 Take the Crustacea & see what differences in opinion in the half-dozen best judges, without much difference in the facts they go on.
I am, also, particularly obliged for the Lecture on the Nerves: which has struck me as eminently curious & interesting; & all new to me.—4
I suppose you will soon set off for a Holiday or perhaps are gone,5 so I have marked this note not to be forwarded.— I hope Mrs Huxley & the wonderful Baby are well.—6
My dear Huxley | Yours very 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–.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. 1856–7. Lectures on general natural history. Medical Times & Gazette n.s. 12: 429–32, 481–4, 507–11, 563–7, 618–23; 13: 27–30, 131–4, 157–60, 278–81, 383–6, 462–3, 537–8, 586–8, 635–9; 14: 133–5, 181–3, 255-7, 353–5, 505–8, 638–40; 15: 159–62, 186–9, 238–41, 467-71.
Summary
Thanks for three last lectures and the account of cirripedes.
Difficulty of classifying the higher groups.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2141
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 137)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2141,” accessed on 28 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2141.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6