To Charles Lyell [7 May 1863]1
at J. Wedgwoods Esq2 | Leith Hill Place | Dorking | Surrey
Thursday
My dear Lyell
When you have time please let me have an answer for Mr. Maw.—3 We shall stay here till Tuesday morning.4 What a poor letter the last one of Falconer’s.5 I was much pleased at the last sentence till I came to the last most unjust words; & never were words more unjust.—6 That beggar Owen sneers well at me & with some justice. I was an ass to write to Athenæum.—7
You alluded in your previous note to Haughton; I received, but did not read, his paper, but shall do.—8 I saw it was the same style of thing, which he has several times published before.—9 He must be a desperately clever fellow; for, amongst other things, he has made very important discoveries in medicine, as he is an amateur attendant on Hospitals!10
Ever yours very truly | C. Darwin
Asa Gray tells me he has written long Review on Decandolle for next Silliman & I fancy will discuss species question;11 he has, also, written a Review on Bates’ Butterflies for a succeeding number.—12
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1862. Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley. Coleoptera: Longicornes. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3d ser. 9: 117–24, 396–405, 446–58.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Darwin pedigree: Pedigree of the family of Darwin. Compiled by H. Farnham Burke. N.p.: privately printed. 1888. [Reprinted in facsimile in Darwin pedigrees, by Richard Broke Freeman. London: printed for the author. 1984.]
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.
Haughton, Samuel. 1863. On the form of the cells made by various wasps, and by the honey bee; with an appendix on the origin of species. Dublin: University Press.
Hull, David L. 1973. Darwin and his critics: the reception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by the scientific community. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Falconer’s letter [attacking CL, Athenæum 4 Apr 1863, pp. 459–60] is most unjust.
Regrets his letter [to Athenæum, on heterogeny] now criticised by Owen.
Comments on article by Samuel Haughton [On the form of cells made by wasps – with an appendix on the origin of species (1863)].
Mentions forthcoming reviews by Asa Gray [in Am. J. Sci.].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4145
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Leith Hill Place
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 46
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4145,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4145.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11