To A. R. Wallace 1 February [1865]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Feb 1
My dear Wallace
I am much obliged for your photograph, for I have lately set up a Scientific Album;2 & for the papers which I will read before long.3 I enclose my own Photo, taken by my son & I have no other.4 I fear it will be a long time before I shall be able to sit to a Photographer otherwise I should be happy to sit to Mr Simms5
Thanks for information about the Aru pig, which will make me very cautious.6 It is a perplexing case, for Nathusius says the skull of the Aru resembles that of the Chinese breed & he thinks that Sus Papuensis has been founded on a young skull; DeBlainville stating that an old skull from New Guinea resembles that of the wild pigs of Malabar, & these belong to the S. scrofa type, which is different from the Chinese domestic breed. The latter has not been found in a wild condition7
Believe me dear Wallace | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Blainville, Henri Marie Ducrotay de. 1841–55. Ostéographie, ou description iconographique comparée du squelette et du système dentaire des cinq classes d’animaux vertébrés récents et fossiles pour servir de base à la zoologie et à la géologie. 3 vols. and atlas (2 vols.). Paris: Arthus Bertrand.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Nathusius, Hermann von. 1864. Vorstudien für Geschichte und Zucht der Hausthiere zunächst am Schweineschädel. 1 vol. and atlas. Berlin: Wiegandt und Hempel.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1862. List of birds from the Sula Islands (east of Celebes), with descriptions of the new species. [Read 13 January 1862.] Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1862): 333–46.
Summary
Exchange of photographs.
Aru pigs present perplexing case, whether wild or domesticated.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4760
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add. MS 46434, f. 53)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4760,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4760.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13