To C. V. Riley 1 June [1871]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
June 1st
My dear Sir
I received some little time ago your Report on Noxious Insects, & have now read the whole with the greatest interest.2 There are a vast number of facts & generalizations of value to me, & I am struck with admiration at your powers of observation. The discussion on mimetic insects seems to me particularly good & original.—3 Pray accept my cordial thanks for the instruction & interest which I have received.
What a loss to natural science our poor mutual friend, Walsh, has been; it is a loss ever to be deplored.4
Pray believe me with much respect | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Your country is far ahead of ours in some respects; our Parliament would think any man mad who should propose to appoint a State Entomologist.5
Footnotes
Bibliography
ANB: American national biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 vols. and supplement. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999–2002.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Riley, Charles Valentine. 1869–77. Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial, and other, insects of the State of Missouri. Jefferson City, Mo.: Regan & Edwards, public printer [and others].
Summary
Comments on CVR’s book [Third annual report on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects of the State of Missouri (1871)].
Discusses mimetic insects.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7794
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Valentine Riley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Profiles in History (dealers) (December 1996)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp and C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7794,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7794.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19