From H. B. Brady 18 October 1871
Mosley St, | Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Oct: 18th. 1871
My dear Sir,
I have just returned from a little tour in the United States. Whilst at Boston—Prof Shaler1 shewed me much kindness and one day when talking after dinner at his home I elicited the fol⟨lowing⟩ circumstances which, unless they are already well known to you, will I think be of much interest— if known, no harm is done,— to me they were quite new, but that might easily be. ⟨ ⟩ I manifested some ⟨curi⟩osity as to what the rattle of the ⟨ ⟩ snake really sounded like— ⟨ ⟩ only by the shaking of the ⟨ ⟩ skins one sees in European museums. He replied—in reality it is such a sound as you might imagine the dried specimen to produce if hung or a tuning fork or if by any other means a musical rythm could be imparted to it— in fact (he added) knowing rattlesnakes as well as I do, I could ⟨ ⟩ now, distinguish their ⟨ ⟩ from the whirr of the g⟨ ⟩ so common in the west.2 I suggested that there was wonderful significance in this fact from a Natural Selection point of view & to this he not only assented but said it had long appeared to him to be the real explanation.— I don’t know how far this observation may be original—but I told Prof. Shaler I shd. transmit it to you on my return on the chance of its being of value—, the rattle snake having been regarded by many as a difficulty in the way of the natural selection doctrine.3
I met my friend Mr. Pryor4 of Trin. College at Philadelphia again a little more than a fortnight ago at the 5th Ave. Hotel at New York.— Your sons were with him & well;5 but as chance had it, though a good deal with Mr Pryor I never met them personally.
Yours very truly | Henry B. Brady.
Charles Darwin Esq MA. F.R.S. | &c. &c. &c.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
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.
Summary
On visit to Boston was told by N. S. Shaler how habits of rattlesnake are consistent with natural selection. Informs CD, as rattlesnake is considered by some a difficult case for his theory.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8015
- From
- Henry Bowman Brady
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 277
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp damaged †, 2 CD notes damaged
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8015,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8015.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19