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To Thomas Spencer Cobbold   9 August [1869]1

Down, Beckenham, Kent,

August 9.

Dear Sir,—

In looking over some bottles with specimens in spirit from S. America and adjoining seas, collected by me nearly forty years ago, I find a few parasitic worms, which it has occurred to me you might possibly like to have. Should this prove the case, be so kind as to inform me and they shall be sent to you. I have looked at only one lot, viz. from the Rhea, or American Ostrich, and these seemed not in a bad state;2 2nd, worms from stomach of a Porcupine;3 3rd, from the mouth of a Snake;4 4th, from the wild Cavia Cobaya—these might be compared with any worms from the domestic Guinea-pig, which some authors think (I believe falsely) to be descended from the C. Cobaya.5 Also three sets from fish; but as I was very ignorant when I collected them, these perhaps are Lerneæ or their allies.6 Should you care to have these specimens, I will give exact locality and date at which they were preserved.

Pray believe me, | Dear Sir, | Yours faithfully, | Charles Darwin.

Footnotes

1
The year is established by Cobbold’s statement that he received this letter in the autumn of 1869 (Cobbold 1885, p. 174)
2
When he later sent this specimen to Cobbold, CD labelled it ‘From the stomach of a Rhea, Bahia Blanca, North Patagonia, 1832’; Cobbold identified it as Filaria horrida (a synonym of Dicheilonema rheae; Cobbold 1885, pp. 175–6). CD’s ‘Catalogue for specimens in spirits of wine’ (Down House MS, Notebook 63.2, entry 400) lists an ‘Intestinal worm taken out of the stomach of an Ostrich’ at Bahia Blanca in September 1832 (R. D. Keynes ed. 2000, p. 333).
3
This is likely to be a mistaken transcription for ‘Porpoise’. Included with the specimens that CD sent to Cobbold were some labelled ‘Worms from stomach of a Porpoise off the I. of Chiloe, Jan. 1835’ and identified by Cobbold as Ascaris simplex (now Anisakis simplex; see Cobbold 1885, pp. 176–7). See also CD’s ‘Catalogue for specimens in spirits of wine’ (Down House MS, Notebook 63.2, entry 1159; Keynes ed. 2000, p. 357).
4
CD labelled this specimen ‘Worm from mouth of a Snake allied to Coluber; Maldonado, Rio Plata, May 1833’; Cobbold identified it as Distoma incerta (Cobbold 1885, pp. 177–8). Distoma is an unaccepted genus of trematode worms. CD’s ‘Catalogue for specimens in spirits of wine’ (Down House MS, Notebook 63.2, entry 645) lists a ‘Small worm from mouth of Coluber’ collected in Maldonado in May or June 1832 (R. D. Keynes ed. 2000, p. 340).
5
CD labelled the specimen ‘Worm from the duodenum of Cavia Capybara, floating amidst the green digesting mass: Rio Plata, May 1833’ (‘Catalogue for specimens in spirits of wine’, Down House MS, Notebook 63.2, entry 633 (R. D. Keynes ed. 2000, p. 340)). When CD sent Cobbold the specimens, he included a note that read, ‘N.B. I see I made a mistake and spoke in my letter of Cavia Cobaya’. Cobbold identified the worm as Oxyuris obesa (now Protozoophaga obesa; see Cobbold 1885, p. 176). Cavia capybara is now Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris, the capybara.
6
Cobbold identified one specimen labelled by CD, ‘Worm buried in the tail of a Gadus; T. del Fuego, Mar. 1833’, as Lernea branchialis (now Lernaeocera branchialis). The remaining specimens remained unidentified and were labelled: ‘Worm from under branchial covering of fish; T. del Fuego, 1834’, ‘Worm on scale of fish; T. del Fuego, Jan. 1833’, and ‘Worm from branchiae of Lota or Gadus; when caught protruded a transparent case full of eggs; T. del Fuego, Jan. 1834’ (Cobbold 1885, p. 178; see also CD’s ‘Catalogue for specimens in spirits of wine’, Down House MS, Notebook 63.2, entries 521, 552, 805 and 836 (R. D. Keynes ed. 2000, pp. 336–7, 345–6).) Lota is the genus of burbots; Gadus is the genus of codfishes.

Bibliography

Cobbold, Thomas Spencer. 1885. Notes on parasites collected by the late Charles Darwin, Esq. [Read 3 December 1885.] Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology) 19 (1886): 174–8.

Summary

Offers TSC specimens of parasitic worms collected by CD in S. America.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6858
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Thomas Spencer Cobbold
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Cobbold 1885, p. 174

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6858,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6858.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17

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