My dear Sir

It had occurred to me that you might be ill, and I was thinking of writing to Dr. Maudsley to enquire.¹ I fully sympathise with you in the heavy losses to which you refer, and quite understand how little you could feel inclined to employ yourself on miscellaneous subjects. I thank you cordially for your extremely kind note and offer of further assistance; but as I know how hard worked you must be, I will try and be reasonable. The essays which you have sent are exactly what I wanted and the fullest which I have received. Your results about blushing closely agree with what Mr. Paget has observed; but all that you tell me about cerebral affections influencing the action of the skin is quite new to me. Mr. Paget after numerous observations has noticed one woman who blushed on the femora and other parts of the body, and I must enquire whether she was subject to epilepsy or anything of the kind.² I will ask two questions about your blushing cases: does the young lady who is so great a blusher blush over her arms; and does she frequently wear short sleeves? Was the epileptic woman who blushed over the upper part of her bosom a lady, so as to have been in the habit of wearing a low gown? With respect to the platysma I infer from your observations that Duchenne’s statement that its contraction expresses great fear or horror is extremely doubtful.³ Our imagination easily leads us astray on such a subject. But I should be very much obliged if you would attend to this muscle in any patients suffering from extreme terror and horror. With respect to the grief muscles you speak twice or thrice in your MS. of the upper eyelid being angularly drawn upwards; this is quite new to me; and the suspicion has occurred to me that you may have written by mistake eyelid for eyebrow. I daresay I shall receive Duchenne early next week;⁴ and I shall then anxiously look for any remarks, however few, which you may have made on any of the plates. Pray believe that I feel grateful for your kindness and all the trouble which you have taken in giving me most valuable information.

Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

Pray never hurry yourself in answering my questions: your apologies made me feel guilty.