From G. H. Darwin 5 December 1874
Trin. Coll.
Sat. Dec. 5. 74
My dear Father,
I send you the finale of my cousin paper— do you think it will do. I have summed up the result of my own job at the end of the last part. Norman is copying it, & so I shall have polished it off soon—thank goodness. I shall then write to Farr & offer it to him for Statist. Soc.1
Have you seen some very curious papers by Prof. A. Mayer of the U.S on audition of insects, if not I will bring home the Phil. Mag. with it. He is going on to the Hemiptera & Homop.2
The cousin business & polit. Econ. have been keeping me away from the Squashy Solids,3 but I’ve read one long paper & have now a vol. of 400 or 500 pp. of quarto to read. It’s before the French Instit. so I do’nt know what I shall do in Xmas Vac.
I’ve sent off my defence of Jevons, (wh. he read & approved) to Fortnightly, but fear it may be too dull for them.4
Venn5 is picking my polit. Econ. to pieces now, but I’ve not heard what he has to say yet. He’s perhaps better than Sidgwick6 as being mathematical. I shall be much disappted if Contemp. thinks it too stiff as I think it worth something.7 At Glaisher’s request I’m just sending a little Mathematical paper to ‘the Messenger’ on a mechanical contrivance for finding an important function.8 I found it out for a problem at the lakes,9 but didnt think it worth anything, but G. rather likes it— I’ve had the thing made in the rough, but I don’t supp. anyone wd. ever use it—but it’s the idea that’s curious.
Jevons is coming today & he & Mrs.10 dine with me on Tuesd. Fawcett is coming & so wd. Mrs. F. but that she’s away.11 So Mrs J. will be my only lady. The rest are Sidgwick, Venn (a friend of Eleanor Dicey’s),12 Colvin13 & a friend of his. So we shall be quite small.
I’ve been very seedy for 4 or 5 days, & not in my usual way quite, & I do’nt know what to make of it unless it’s another cold coming on. Whether its these violent changes of temperature, I dont know,—but nothing agrees with me. I’ve been playing tennis every day all the same. If I’m very bad on Tuesd. I must write & put it off, but I fear it’ll be a grind, tho’ I must try to get thro’ without it somehow
Lady Rayleigh, asked me to visit them in Dec. when she was here the other day, in coming thro’ from Scotland;14 but I’ve not heard when it’ll be yet, but I expect I shall go straight from here, & prob. not come home till Xmas. I hope yr. London visit is suiting you, & that mother & Uncle R. are both pretty fair.15
I’ve read hardly anything this term, as work of one sort or another has filled almost the whole time; but much of it has been merely tiresome e.g the cousins.
Mayer finds the fibres of a mosquito’s antennæ m. more sensitive to one note than to any other;16 I suspect it is the note of their own humming, I’m going to try to find out— If it is it’ll be a curious case of Sexual Selection
Yr affec son | G H Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Jevons, William Stanley. 1871. The theory of political economy. London and New York: Macmillan.
Mayer, Alfred Marshall. 1874–5. Researches in acoustics.—No. V. Philosophical Magazine 4th ser. 48 (1874): 266–274, 371–85, 445–52; (1875) 513–25.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Has finished the "cousin paper" and will offer it to W. Farr for the Statistical Society.
Describes other work in progress.
Has CD heard of A. M. Mayer’s curious work on audition of insects [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 8 (1874): 89–103?]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9743
- From
- George Howard Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Trinity College, Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 210.2: 45
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9743,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9743.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22