To William Henry Flower 13 April [1863]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
April 13th
My dear Sir
I have been so long familiar with your name, that I trust you will excuse me addressing you, as if we were acquainted.
Several years ago I presented to the College the skull of the Niata Ox.2 This day I received a letter from M. Quatrefages, asking me, if I possibly could get for him a photograph of this skull, or a cast for the Museum.—3
Would it be possible to make so huge a cast & would it not be very expensive? Will you have the great kindness to assist M. Quatrefages & greatly oblige me.—
Do you know any photographer & could you get a photograph (I presume side & front view would be necessary) made.4 If you will take this trouble I shd. be very much obliged. Perhaps, also, you can give me some information about a cast: if permission were granted & it could be made, I think I had better give M. Quatrefages some idea of cost. He could judge best after seeing Photographs.— I hope that you will forgive me thus troubling you. I would have come to London; but my health is so indifferent that this is no slight fatigue to me.—
My dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Summary
Asks WHF to obtain photographs of skull of ox for J. L. A. Quatrefages de Bréau.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4090
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Henry Flower
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Quaritch (dealers) (2007)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4090,” accessed on 27 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4090.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11