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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. B. Tegetmeier   8 August [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Aug 8th

My dear Sir

You have often helped me, & can you do so again? I have said in my Var: under Dom: (of which I am correcting a new Edit.) that Eclipse has never been beaten in speed. A stranger writes to me that this an error.2 Now can you find out from the great authorities of the Field, whether it is known that any horse has been swifter & if so his name; or even whether Racing men confidently believe that any horse has ever been swifter than Eclipse.

Will you kindly do what you can for me.—

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S | I daresay I owe to you a very favourable & good review in the Field of my Insectivorous Plants.—3

Footnotes

The year is established by the reference to corrections for Variation 2d ed., which CD worked on between 6 July and 3 October 1875 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
See Variation 2: 242. In his letter of 22 February 1873 (Correspondence vol. 21), William Frederick Collier claimed that a number of racehorses had already broken Eclipse’s record. CD modified his remarks in Variation 2d ed. 2: 229.
The unsigned review appeared in the Field, 24 July 1875, p. 92. CD’s copy is in DAR 139: 18.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Is preparing new edition of Variation and has a query on speed of racehorses.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10111
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10111,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10111.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23

letter