To G. H. Darwin 24 November [1877]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Nov. 24th
My dear old George
I shd. like to sign your paper, but as it will be obvious to all on Council that I cannot judge in the least of your work,—that is whether well or ill done, & as I am your Father, my impression is that I had better not sign.—2 Cd you ask Glaisher,3 if you see him?— But do whatever seems best to you. I do hope your new results will turn out good.—
Did not Thompson overlook the heat generated by the crushing & folding of the strata during the secular refrigeration of the globe, to which Mallet attributes all volcanic phenomena?— If I remember rightly Malet enters an estimation of amount of heat thus generated. This must add something to your tidal heat—4
Yours affect | C. D.
An Engineer Mr Read(?) of Liverpool wrote to me that he is going to publish versus Thompson about refrigeration of globe.—5
The more I think the more I am inclined to believe I had better not sign.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Burchfield, Joe D. 1990. Lord Kelvin and the age of the earth. With a new afterword. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Mallet, Robert. 1872. Volcanic energy: an attempt to develop its true origin and cosmical relations. [Read 20 June 1872.] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 163 (1873): 147–227.
Reade, Thomas Mellard. 1878. The age of the world as viewed by the geologist and the mathematician. Geological Magazine n.s. decade 2 vol. 5: 145–54.
Summary
Thinks he had better not sign GHD’s paper [as a candidate for F.R.S.], since he obviously is no judge of the quality of his work.
Asks if Thomson did not overlook heat generated by the crushing and folding of strata during the refrigeration of the globe.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11251
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Howard Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 210.1: 65
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11251,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11251.xml