To R. H. Meade 23 January [1860?]1
Down Bromley Kent
Jan. 23rd
Dear Sir
I hope that you will excuse the liberty I take in writing to you, & requesting a favour. In the Annals of Nat Hist, vol. 15, p. 396 you remark “The variations of forms in the maxillæ are of no value amongst the Phalangidæ, in affording generic or specific characters, as with the true spiders.—”2 Am I to understand from the latter part of sentence that with the individuals of the same undoubted species the maxillæ vary in form? Is not this a very surprising fact? Would you have the great kindness, if the fact be so, to give me some details on the amount & kind of variation, & in what species. And further would you permit me to quote any such facts on your authority?3
With many apologies for troubling you, I beg to remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin.
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Footnotes
Bibliography
Meade, Richard Henry. 1855. Monograph on the British species Phalangiidæ or Harvest-men. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2d ser. 15: 393–416.
Summary
Asks RHM to clarify his statement in Annals of Natural History, vol. 15, p. 39, about variation in the maxillae of Phalangiidae and in true spiders, and to provide information on the variation in maxillae of spiders.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2664A
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Henry Meade
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Leeds University Library Special Collections (SC MS 1975/2/1)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2664A,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2664A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8