To G. H. Darwin 10 June 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
June 10th 74
My dear George
Your paper strikes me as very clearly & modestly written. An impression of distrust & doubt is necessarily raised by the difficulties which you reveal at every point. I had no idea what a complex subject it is. As far as my judgment goes, I think your paper is well worth publishing. To take the lowest ground, it is well to show how difficult a problem it is.— I suppose you intend to add a general summary or conclusion giving the limit of error within which the percentage of cousiny marriages can be arrived at with fair confidence. The general reader would much desire this, & he would trust you largely from the honesty shown throughout your paper. To men not accustomed to mathematic your abbreviations are perplexing in the Tables. I have marked some of them with pencil; for I did not at first take a glimmering of meaning. A Table ought, I think, to be intelligible without reading the context.— Certainly I hope that you will publish your paper, & have it read before the Statistical Socy.1
We were very glad to get your letter this morning with a somewhat better account of yourself & about those accursed exam: papers.2
We are making a hole in the Proof-sheets, & shall soon come to Part II.— I have not received for some days any new sheet.— I have detected very few errata—one or two, as age for ago & full-stop omitted.—3
I cannot resist correcting rather more than you do,—but not much, so do not see Revises.
I have sent your interesting notes on direction to Spalding.—4
I return old Proofs & your Paper.
Yours affect | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Comments on GHD’s paper ["Marriages between first cousins in England and their effects", Fortn. Rev. n.s. 18 (1875): 22–41]. Hopes it will be published and read at the Statistical Society.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9487
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Howard Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 210.1: 23
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9487,” accessed on 27 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9487.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22