From V. O. Kovalevsky 17 May 1873
Munich | Palaeontological Museum. Academy.
17 May 1873.
Dear Sir
I write You with a peculiar request and should be very gratified for Your granting it. The whole winter I was occupied by a memoir on the Anthracotheriums, of which I found in different collections a large quantity, so that many species may be completely restored and their bony frame completely investigated.1 But, besides, at the request of some palaeontological friends, especially Prof. Rutimeyer, I tried to make a general review of all the extinct Ungulates and propose a natural classification for them.2
Little by little as my materials grew more abundant the sketch enlarged until it reached now considerable dimensions, the result beeing a very clear account of the developement of the whole Ungulata from the oldest Eocene to the recent period. There is little circumlocution, but a large body of dry positive facts, and these prove most undoubtedly the gradual evolution of all the recent forms from a limited number of Eocene and miocene types. I am actually printing the memoir in the “Palaeontographica”, but as it contains about twenty sheets, it will not be out before ten or twelve weeks.3 Will You allow me dear Sir to dedicate it to You; as it is the first positive attempt in this direction, founded on a large body of evidence derived from the whole skeleton I will be very happy if the dedication will be made to You as the founder of the Evolution-theory.—4
My paper in the Royal got through the Ordeal of the comittee and is ordered to be printed, so that my German memoir and the paper in the Ph. Trans. will appear at once.5
As good news I may communicate to You that my brother is gone to la Calle, near the Tunisian frontier and made there the complete development of two Brachiopoda, the Argiope and Thecidium.6 The Argiope has a free swimming larva very alike the Sagitta with a bipartite mantle and a slender tail; after some time the larva attaches itself by this tail to some surface and turns her mantle over the head; the tail grow now to a peduncle and both halves of the upturned mantle begin to secrete the shell. The development of internal organs is also completely worked out. Thecidium is much more complex.— There are some faint hopes that the Crania will lay eggs too, but it is not quite sure.
When I left England Your health was far from being well, I hope You had a better winter and are going well now.7 More than one thousand copies of Your book is sold in Russia, as soon as the cost of printing will be covered my brother will be most happy to send in Your schare in the Edition.—8
Please remember me to Mrs. Darwin and the ladies.—
Your very truly | W. Kowalevsky
P.S. You have certainly read the account of Marsh about the cretaceous bird with teeth in both jaws and fish vertebrae.9 And the Dinoceras! really one is happy to be a Palaeontologist in the Vertebrates.10
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Gaisinovich, A. E., ed. 1988. A. O. i V. O. Kovalevskie. Perepiska 1867–1873gg. Moscow: Nauka (science).
Kovalevsky, Alexander Onufrievich. 1874. Nabliudenia nad razvitiem Brachiopoda (Observations on the development of the Brachiopoda.) Izvestia Obshchestva liubitelei estestvoznanii, antropologii i etnografii 14: 1–40.
Kovalevsky, Vladimir Onufrievich. 1873–4. Monographie der Gattung Anthracotherium Cuv. und Versuch einer natürlichen Classification der fossilen Hufthiere. Palaeontographica. Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Vorwelt 22 (1873–6): 131–347.
Kovalevsky, Vladimir Onufrievich. 1873. On the osteology of the Hyopotamidae. [Read 6 February 1873]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 163: 19–94.
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.
Wheeler, Walter Hall. 1961. Revision of the uintatheres. Bulletin 14. New Haven, Conn.: Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Summary
Wishes to dedicate his memoir ["Monographie der Gattung Anthracotherium", Paleontographica 22 (1876): 131–347] to CD as founder of evolutionary theory.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8914
- From
- Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский)
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Munich
- Source of text
- DAR 169: 94
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8914,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8914.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21