skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To H. A. Pitman   [13 May 1879]1

[Bassett, Southampton.]

Sir

Absence from my home has prevented me from sooner acknowledging your letter May 9th., received yesterday Evening.2 The honour which the R. C of Physicians has conferred on me by the award of the Baly medal is a very great one, & it is as deeply gratifying as it is surprising to me.3

I hope to be able to attend on June 26th to receive the medal, but my health is very doubtful & I may not be equal to the exertion. I will however, have the pleasure of communicating with you nearer to the time.

With my thanks for your obliging letter | I have the honour to remain | Sir | Your obdt servant | C. D

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter, the letter from H. A. Pitman, 9 May 1879, and the letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 13 May 1879.
See letter from H. A. Pitman, 9 May 1879. Between 6 and 26 May 1879, the Darwins visited Worthing, Southampton, and Leith Hill Place; CD would have received Pitman’s letter in Southampton, where they stayed from 8 to 21 May (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
On the Baly medal, awarded biennially by the Royal College of Physicians of London, see the letter from H. A. Pitman, 9 May 1879 and n. 1.

Summary

Appreciates award of the Baly Medal and hopes to attend ceremony on 26 June.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12047
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Henry Alfred Pitman
Sent from
Bassett
Source of text
DAR 174: 46
Physical description
ADraftS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12047,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12047.xml

letter