To Joseph Augustin Hubert de Bosquet 9 September [1856]1
Down Farnborough | Kent
Sept. 9th.—
My dear SIr
I am much obliged for your very kind & interesting letter.2 I am astonished & delighted at your discovery of a Cretacean Chthamalus. It seems to me a very curious discovery. The fact seems to me eminently worth publishing,3 with a careful & full description & enlarged drawing of the shell. Generally I have not the smallest faith in negative Geological evidence;4 but in the case of sessile cirripedes, the evidence did appear (vide my remarks in Introduct. p. 5 to Fossil Lepadidæ) of some value;5 & now you show that the evidence is worth nothing.
Do insist strongly on the caution requisite in our ever presuming to say when a new group first has appeared on the earth. Are you familiar with structure of recent Chthamalus: I think the woodcut at p. 39 of recent Balanidæ shows well the arrangement of the comparments. See my remark p 172 on the odd fact of no extinct Chthamalinæ having been discovered.6
The drawings you have sent me are beautiful; but I have been so hard at work for two years at other subjects that cirripedes are gone rather out of my head, which could never boast of a good memory. In truth I have not the least doubt that you are far more capable of forming a correct judgment than I am on every point of the subject.
Nevertheless I will just give my impression on one or two points.— I should hesitate greatly about admitting a specimen to be Lithotrya, without I could see the serration on the upper scales of Peduncle (see Pl. VIII fig 3d. Balanidæ)7 for they are of such importance for burrowing: in your fig 1 the tergal margin of scutum seems too simple for Lithotrya: can fig. 2. be a carina; if I understand the drawing
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bosquet, Joseph Augustin Hubert de. 1854. Monographie des Crustaces fossiles du terrain Crétacé du Duché de Limbourg. Haarlem.
Bosquet, Joseph Augustin Hubert de. 1857. Notice sur quelques cirripèdes récémment découverts dans le terrain crétacé du Duché de Limbourg. Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen té Haarlem 2d ser. 13, pt 3: 1–36.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Fossil Cirripedia (1851): A monograph on the fossil Lepadidæ, or, pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain. By Charles Darwin. London: Palaeontographical Society. 1851.
Jagt, John W. M. 1994. Nogmaals Joseph de Bosquet enzijncirrips. Naturhistorisch (Maandblad) 83 : 142–4.
Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Rudwick, Martin John Spencer. 1974. Darwin and Glen Roy: a ‘great failure’ in scientific method? Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 5 (1974–5): 97–185.
Summary
On JAHdeB’s discovery of Cretaceous Chthamalus. Cites his own acceptance of negative evidence about Chthamali in Fossil Lepadidae.
Comments on JAHdeB’s cirripede drawings.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1952
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Augustin Hubert de Bosquet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.138)
- Physical description
- inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1952,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1952.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6