My dear Sir

Knowing your interest in the subject of hereditary transmission, I hope you will not mind my troubling you by submitting to you the enclosed forms.¹

There is so little acquaintance on the part of most persons with the common form in which a genealogical table is drawn up, that I find a great difficulty in getting full reports of families even when they are offered by medical friends. The usual plan being to mention only the individuals who have presented some peculiarity, and then the exact relationship between them is often difficult to get at; and all the collateral bearings of the case are lost.²

I am thinking, therefore, of having some forms & directions printed so that I can forward them to friends who are willing to report cases, and I have drawn up the specimen enclosed which appears to me to give all the assistance necessary. I think that I could thus get the materials from which to draw up a proper genealogical table of 3 or 4 generations.³

If you will be so good as to look at it & suggest any alterations which you think advisable I shall take it as a great favour, & I shall have great pleasure in furnishing you with any cases I may obtain which I think may interest you.

I hope you will pardon my troubling you in this matter, on the strength of so slight an acquaintance as ours, as I am very anxious to have your opinion before proceeding further in the matter.

I am my dear Sir | very truly yours | Horace Dobell.

Ch Darwin Esq | &c—