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From C. W. Thomson   1 May 1877

University | Edinburgh

May 1st. | 1877

My dear Sir,

Since our return to England I have been gradually getting the great collection of Invertebrates made in the ‘Challenger’ into something like order. I have just gone over the Crustacea with Mr. Norman and we have separated out the different groups.1 There is a very fine little set of Cirripeds not very extensive but with some very large and marked forms, some of them from great depths.

I do not know at all whether you would be inclined to take them up— At all events it is only my duty to put them at your disposal, and to say how much I feel having your name among our collaborators would enhance the value of the final Report—2

I send a list of the observing Stations, and the ‘preamble’ will give you an idea of our plan of operation.3

Believe me | My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Wyville Thomson

Footnotes

1
Thomson was chief of the civilian scientific staff of the HMS Challenger expedition, which had returned to England in 1876. Alfred Merle Norman was an expert on marine invertebrates.
2
CD had studied Cirripedia (barnacles) from 1846 until 1854 (see Living Cirripedia (1851) and (1854), and Fossil Cirripedia (1851) and (1854)). Paulus Peronius Cato Hoek described the Challenger Cirripedia specimens (Hoek 1883 and Hoek 1884).
3
The enclosure has not been found; the Challenger narrative included a short preface and tables and charts of the sounding and dredging stations (see Tizard et al. 1885, pp. xi–xii and 1007–15).

Bibliography

Fossil Cirripedia (1851): A monograph on the fossil Lepadidæ, or, pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain. By Charles Darwin. London: Palaeontographical Society. 1851.

Hoek, Paulus Peronius Cato. 1883. Scientific results of the the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology Part XXV. Report on the Cirripedia collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Hoek, Paulus Peronius Cato. 1884. Scientific results of the the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology Part XXVIII. Report on the Cirripedia collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.

Summary

Is sorting material collected by the Challenger and wonders whether CD would care to examine the cirripedes.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10947
From
Charles Wyville Thomson
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
University of Edinburgh
Source of text
DAR 178: 114
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10947,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10947.xml

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