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Darwin Correspondence Project

From C. W. Thomson   22 June 1878

Bonsyde | Linlithgow, N.B.

June 22d | 1878

My dear Sir,

The Professorship of Nat: Hist: in the University of Aberdeen is to be vacant at the close of the current Summer Session— Dr. McIntosh of Murthly is a candidate—and I think his careful work on the Annelids and Nemerteans gives him a good claim.1 He has been my colleague for some years past as Examiner in Zoology in Edin University and he has won our entire confidence in that capacity being at once well-informed and judicious—

Pray do not take the trouble of answering this note, but if you see your way to giving him a help I think his appoint would be an advantage.

Dr. Hoeck has I understand nearly finished the “Challenger” Pycnogonids and I am still reserving the Cirripeds for him— I wish to see his Pycnogonid work before I send them to him.2 One of the Nat: Hist: memoirs is finished— Mr. Davidson on the Brachiopoda— I only wish a larger departmt had been in his hands.3

Believe me with great respect, yours very truly | C. Wyville Thomson

Footnotes

William Carmichael McIntosh had published two volumes of his Ray Society monograph on British marine annelids (McIntosh 1873–1922); the first volume dealt with nemertine worms (ribbon worms; now included in phylum Nemertea). The position of regius professor of natural history at Aberdeen was vacated by James Nicol in 1878, and awarded to James Cossar Ewart in 1879. Thomson was regius professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh.
Paulus Peronius Cato Hoek’s report on specimens of Pycnogonida (sea spiders) collected by HMS Challenger between 1873 and 1876 was published in 1881 (Hoek 1881); his report on Cirripedia came out in 1884 (Hoek 1884).
Thomas Davidson’s report on Brachiopoda was received on 28 September 1878 and published in 1881 (Davidson 1881).

Bibliography

Hoek, Paulus Peronius Cato. 1881. Scientific results of the the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology Part X. Report on the Pycnogonida dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Hoek, Paulus Peronius Cato. 1884. Scientific results of the the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology Part XXVIII. Report on the Cirripedia collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

McIntosh, William Carmichael. 1873–1922. A monograph of the British marine annelids. 4 vols. in 7. London: Ray Society.

Summary

Seeks CD’s support for W. C. M’Intosh, candidate for Chair in Natural History at Aberdeen.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11562
From
Charles Wyville Thomson
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Bonsyde
Source of text
DAR 178: 116
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11562,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11562.xml

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