From Reginald Darwin 9 April 1879
Derbyshire Club
April 9 | 1879.
My dear Cousin
I have found amongst some Medical Pamphlets which belonged to my Father, one relating to Charles Darwin, which was previously unknown to me— It was printed at Lichfield in 1780, & consists of a beautiful letter of dedication from Dr Darwin to Dr Duncan, the Thesis translated into English, & a sketch life of Charles, with a short account of his last illness—1 I see he lived at least a fortnight after receiving the virus when dissecting the Brain of a Child— The title page has an engraving of the Medal gained by him—2 If you have not got this Pamphlet I shall be most happy to send it to you— I am here for the day on Sessions business, & have seen my sister, who is deeply interested in your work.3 She has done a charming little picture of the Priory for you, & has found two early records of Dr Darwin: one, some verses to a Chesterfield school fellow about 1749; & another, a long letter & verses to Dr Burrows the Schoolmaster, & written from St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1750.4 She proposes sending you these, with a Manuscript book of Dr D.’s.—5
Affectly yours | R Darwin—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Darwin, Erasmus, ed. 1780. Experiments establishing a criterion between mucaginous and purulent matter: and, an account of the retrograde motions of the absorbent vessels of animal bodies in some diseases. Lichfield: J. Jackson.
Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.
King-Hele, Desmond, ed. 2003. Charles Darwin’s ‘The Life of Erasmus Darwin’. First unabridged edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Summary
Has found a pamphlet of 1780 about Charles Darwin [1758–78].
RD’s sister, Violetta, has found some early verses and a MS by Dr Erasmus Darwin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11983
- From
- Reginald Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Derbyshire Club
- Source of text
- DAR 99: 152–153
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11983,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11983.xml