To Raphael Meldola 14 December [1878]
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Dec. 14th
My dear Sir
I am very glad that you are making good progress with the book.— You could not apply to a worse person than myself on any philological question. I presume that “phyletische” has been adopted or modified from Häckel.1 As the latter uses the word, it has nearly the sense of genealogical. It always applies to the line of descent, & therefore differs somewhat from “innate”; for an inherited character, though derived from the father alone or only a single generation, would be innate in the child, I shd think “phyletic” wd. do very well, if you gave the German word & an explanation, in a foot-note.2
There has been a delay in answering your letter, but I have just heard from my son who is away from home, & he says that he is sorry but he cannot well spare the time to Lecture.—3
My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Weismann, August. 1882. Studies in the theory of descent. Translated by Raphael Meldola. 2 vols. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
Summary
Is glad book progresses; answers translation query.
Francis Darwin does not have time to lecture.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11793
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Raphael Meldola
- Sent from
- Down
- Postmark
- 14 DE 78
- Source of text
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11793,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11793.xml