To Lawson Tait 16 July [1880]1
My dear Sir
I shd be the most ungracious of men if I hesitated to accept the honour of the intended prize-medal, & will answer accordingly when I receive the official letter.—2
I saw something in the newspaper about the Fund, & admired greatly the noble spirit of Birmingham. I supposed that it was confined to the place; otherwise I hope & believe that it wd have occurred to me spontaneously to have subscribed.— As it is, I shall be most happy to do so. I do not, however, understand whether it is an annual subscription; or a donation for a fund, the interest of which alone is employed.— I shd be glad to subscribe 2.2.0 annually or what I shd prefer wd be to give 25£ the interest of which wd be about 1£ annually, & as I am an old man, this wd be best plan for the Fund. Will you kindly take the trouble to advise me.3
I wd give more, but in truth the claims on my purse are many.—
Pray Believe me | my dear Sir | yours very f. C. D.
P.S. You sent 2 surgical papers to my son F. (who at present is away from home) and I have read them with interest.4 Your success in ovariotomy is truly wonderful. I had a sister who many years ago died from this cause, and now she might have been saved!5 Surgery is indeed a grand scientific art.—
L. Tait Esqre— July 16th
Footnotes
Bibliography
Tait, Lawson. 1880a. The antiseptic theory tested by the statistics of one hundred cases of successful ovariotomy. [Read 10 February 1880.] Medico-Chirurgical Transactions 63: 161–80.
Tait, Lawson. 1880b. On the treatment of pelvic suppuration by abdominal section and drainage. [Read 11 May 1880.] Medico-Chirurgical Transactions 63: 307–16.
Summary
Is honoured by RLT’s announcement, and offers a contribution to the Birmingham scientific fund.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12659
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 202: 86
- Physical description
- ADraftS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12659,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12659.xml