To ? 10 May [1866?]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
May 10th
My dear Sir
Many thanks for your note & kind desire for me not to answer.—2 The case seemed worth enquiry, so I wrote to Mr Dorrell, a head man in Messrs. Clowes enormous establishment3 & he assures me that the difference in apparent length of arms is by no means common with compositors,4 & that when it occurs it is only apparent from one shoulder drooping. Hence compositors often walk with one arm retained in a peculiar position. He says when the apparently unequal arms are measured there is no real difference in their length.— File-makers, I may add, get into a habit of standing in so peculiar a position, that they always speak of one of their legs as the hind leg, even when not at work.—
With many thanks | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
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.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
The apparent difference in arm lengths of compositors is due to a drooping shoulder. File-makers stand in a peculiar position and call one of their legs the hind leg.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5083
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Unidentified
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5083,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5083.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14
