To John Price 10 February [1878]1
Down | Beckenham Kent. &c.
Feb 10th.
My dear Price.
I am very much obliged for your kind congratulations about the L.L.D.—2 Why the Senate conferred it on me I know not in the least. I was astonished to hear that the R. Prof: of Divinity3 & several other great Dons attended, & several such men have subscribed, as I am informed for the picture for the University to commemorate the honour conferred on me—4
I am very sorry to hear that you are an invalid at present, but trust your own mountain air will do you good.
I have no copy in German of Virchow’s address.5 Naturally I did not admire it as much as you do & he seemed to me to lecture in a very arrogant manner many of his audience, who knew much more of natural science than he does, Not that I mean Virchow has not done good work, though many think his famous aphorism “omnis cellula e cellulâ”, false—6 If we were to meet I dare say neither of us wd. recognise the other!7
Hoping that you may soon get stronger. Yours very faithfully: | Ch Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Geison, Gerald L. 1969. Darwin and heredity: the evolution of his hypothesis of pangenesis. Journal of the History of Medicine 24: 375–411.
Price, John. 1863–4. Old Price’s remains; præhumous, or during life. 12 pts. London: Virtue, Brothers & Co.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Virchow, Rudolf. 1877. Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat: Rede gehalten in der dritten allgemeinen Sitzung der fünfzigsten Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte zu München am 22. September 1877. 2d edition. Berlin: Wiegandt, Hempel & Parey.
Weindling, Paul. 1981. Theories of the cell state in imperial Germany. In Biology, medicine and society, 1840–1940, edited by Charles Webster. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Summary
Thanks JP for congratulations on LL.D. [awarded by Cambridge University].
Comments on Rudolf Virchow’s book [Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat (1877)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11350
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Price
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 147: 280
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11350,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11350.xml