To P. B. Mason 31 March [1871]
Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.
March 31st
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged for your prompt information.1 In the next Edit. of my Book, I will certainly quote on your authority the statement about the hair on the back; it is quite new to me.—2 No doubt the proportion of hairy backs out of even 100 children at the Hospital in Ormond St, would add immensely to the value of the statement; but I can hardly hope that you could persuade any medical man to take so much trouble.
Your suggestion is very good about the size of male infants, & my blindness equally bad.3 I suppose that I shall find in Dr. Duncan’s paper in Transact. of R. Socy. of Edinburgh, the actual weights of male & female infants; as I imagine he could not have overlooked this in giving the weights of infants from mothers of different ages.—4 Nevertheless I can hardly think that your solution, though it certainly ought not to be neglected, can apply to the whole case, as male infants for some years after birth die at a greater rate than female infants.
With cordial thanks | Pray believe me | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Thanks him for information on children with hairy backs.
Discusses paper by J. M. Duncan on the relative weights of male and female infants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7647
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Philip Brookes Mason
- Sent from
- Down
- Postmark
- MR 31 71
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.391)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7647,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7647.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19