To V. O. Kovalevsky 22 February [1870]¹

Down. | Beckenham. | Kent. S.E.

Feb. 22^d

My dear Sir

I received a very large box full of beautiful tea from Russia yesterday, & no doubt from you.— It is very kind of you, but you are really too magnificent. I suppose you are at Heidelberg, but I have always regretted, since your visit here,² that I forgot to ask you to […]

[…] As for myself—my life is as regular & monotonous as a clock. I make sure, but wofully slow progress, with my new book, & do not yet in the least know when I shall go to press.³ I doubt whether I shall be ready before the end of the year […]

[…] I saw lately an allusion to some paper confirming his remarkable discovery about the chorda dorsalis in the lance of Ascidia [… ]⁴

Footnotes

1

The year is established by the reference to Heidelberg; see letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 20 February [1870] and n. 1.

2

Kovalevsky visited Down from 30 September to 1 October 1869 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).

3

Descent was published at the beginning of 1871.

4

CD refers to Kovalevsky’s brother, Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky, and to A. Kovalevsky 1866. There is a heavily annotated copy of A. O. Kovalevsky’s article in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. The paper confirming Kovalevsky’s discovery was Kupffer 1870. CD discussed the findings in Descent 1: 205. Chorda dorsalis: the notochord, a cartilaginous rod forming the primitive basis of the spinal column (OED).

Bibliography

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

Kupffer, Carl. 1870. Die Stammverwandtschaft zwischen Ascidien and Wirbelthieren. Nach Untersuchungen über die Entwicklung der Ascidia canina. Archiv für Mikroskopische Anatomie 6: 115–72.

OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.

Summary

"I have received a very large box full of beautiful tea from Russia yesterday … my life is as regular & monotonous as a clock.

I make sure, but wofully slow progress, with my new book."

Letter details

Letter no.: DCP-LETT-13060
From: Charles Robert Darwin
To: Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский)
Sent from: Down
Source of text: J. A. Stargardt (dealers) (17 March 1995); Swann Auction Galleries (dealers) (1 October 1953)
Physical description: ALS ** 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13060,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13060.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18

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Darwin Correspondence Project

To V. O. Kovalevsky 22 February [1870]¹

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To V. O. Kovalevsky 22 February [1870]1

Footnotes

Bibliography

Summary

Letter details

Please cite as

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge

To V. O. Kovalevsky 22 February [1870]¹