To Grant Allen 2 [May] 18791
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
April 2d. 79
My dear Sir
I have just read with much interest your article in the Fortnightly & your views seem to me very probable.2 But my judgment is worth nothing, as I have of late been attending to other subjects. The sole source of doubt which crossed my mind relates to the faces of some monkeys, which, as far as I remember, are nearly hairless & yet can hardly have been subjected to rubbing. Is not the hairless condition of the feet of animals due to the thickening of the skin? would the hair disappear if the skin was not thickened? But my object in writing was solely to send enclosed, in case you have not seen the later edition of the Descent of man.3
It is something wonderful to me to hear of anyone defending Sexual Selection, which, such is my stock of conceit, I have still full confidence in.4
Believe me | My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allen, Grant. 1879a. The colour-sense: its origin and development. An essay in comparative psychology. London: Trübner & Co.
Allen, Grant. 1879b. A problem in human evolution. Fortnightly Review 25: 778–86.
Richards, Evelleen. 2017. Darwin and the making of sexual selection. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Summary
Has just read GA’s article in Fortnightly Review ["A problem of human evolution", 31 (1879): 778–86]. GA’s views very probable. Something wonderful to hear anyone defending sexual selection.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11967
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Grant Blairfindie (Grant) Allen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11967,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11967.xml