To Armand de Quatrefages 21 January [1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
Jan. 21st
My dear Sir
I am sorry to hear that you have been ill, & that you should have had the trouble of writing to me. I thank you cordially for all your great kindness. The gentleman who wishes to translate my Book is M. Talandier, Professor of French at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was a procureur-general, & I imagine is an exile; but I hear on very good authority that he writes a remarkably good style, & is a very clever man.2 Should he not succeed in getting a Publisher, or for any reason change his mind, I will in that case venture to apply to you again. But I have no reason to doubt his success.
I have heard this morning from N. America that my Book is exciting considerable attention there amongst the naturalists. But I further hear that Agassiz is very savage at it.—3
With my most sincere thanks for all your kindness, I remain, with much respect. My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
P.S. How I should like to know whether Milne Edwards has read the copy which I sent him & whether he thinks I have made a pretty good case on our side of the question. There is no naturalist in the world for whose opinion, I have so profound a respect. Of course I am not so silly as to expect to change his opinion.—4
I did not understand in your former note whether your Lectures on Anthropology are published; but I shall soon know for I have sent to my Bookseller to procure them, if they are published.—5
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Milne-Edwards, Henri. 1867. Rapport sur les progrès récents des sciences zoologiques en France. (Recueil de rapports sur les progrès des lettres et des sciences en France). Paris.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Quatrefages de Bréau, Jean Louis Armand de. 1867–8. Anthropologie. Cours de M. de Quatrefages. Revue de cours scientifique 5: 366–9.
Summary
Discusses P. T. A. Talandier as possible translator [of Origin].
Comments on reception of book in North America and opposition of Louis Agassiz.
Asks about reaction of Henri Milne-Edwards.
QdeB’s lectures on anthropology.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2659
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.193)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2659,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2659.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8