To John Lubbock 5 September [1862]1
Cliff Cottage | Bournemouth
Sept 5th
My dear Lubbock
Many thanks for your pleasant note in return for all my stupid trouble.—2 I did not fully appreciate your insect-diving-case before your last note;3 nor had I any idea that the fact was new, though new to me. It is really very interesting. Of course you will publish an account of it.4 You will then say whether the insect can fly well through the air. My wife asked how did he find out that it stayed 4 hours under water without breathing; I answered at once “Mrs. Lubbock5 sat four hours watching”. I wonder whether I am right—
I long to be at home & at steady work, & I hope we may be in another month.6 I fear it is hopeless my coming to you, for I am squashier than ever, but hope two shower baths a day will give me a little strength:7 so that you will, I hope, come to us. It is an age since I have seen you, or any scientific friend.—
I heard from Lyell the other day in Isle of Wight & from Hooker in Scotland.8 About Huxley I know nothing; but I hope his Book progresses, for I shall be very curious to see it—9
I do nothing here except occasionally look at a few flowers; & there are very few here, for the country is wonderfully barren.
Ever dear Lubbock | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
See what it is to be well trained. Horace10 said to me yesterday, “if everyone would kill adders they would come to sting less”. I answered “of course they would, for there would be fewer”. He replied indignantly “I did not mean that; but the timid adders which run away would be saved, & in time they would never sting at all” Natural selection of cowards!
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Post Office directory of Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire: Post Office directory of Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire. Post Office directory of Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, including the Isle of Wight. London: Kelly & Co. 1848–75.
Summary
Finds JL’s facts on the diving insect that remains four hours under water new and interesting [see "On two aquatic Hymenoptera", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 24 (1864): 135–42].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3713
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
- Sent from
- Bournemouth
- Source of text
- DAR 263
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3713,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3713.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10