From Hugh Falconer 18 January [1863]1
The Athenæum
18th. Jany
My Dear Darwin
Many thanks for your note with the enclosure from Wallace which I shall try and hunt down—I mean the Mastodon.2 But I do not fear him quoad the Australian Case.3 That was an imposter from the outset—probably picked up in the valley of Tarija, when a certain enterprising traveller—not Charles Darwin—was there.4
Wallace—whom I called up at Cambridge—was disposed to stick up for the Sumatran Elephant—but I do not think the case will hold—beyond a moderate measure of variation, not of specific value.5
John Evans has found a jaw with teeth in the line between the angle of the perfect leg and wing of Archæopteryx!!6
Waterhouse I am told pronounces it to be a fish’s jaw.7 Fancy only a feathered Fish! But joking apart it is odd, that this jaw should present itself alongside of the fossil.— I enclose John Evans’ sketch.8 Kindly return it to me. I am sure you will be amused—at so many signs of the shallow examination given to the precious object in the first instance.9
I do hope and trust that you will seize an occasion, to do what you hint at doing in one of your notes,10—i.e. to strike in Charles ‘with the Strong Arm’ against the Charlatan pretensions of the common enemy of British Naturalists.11
I have been collating your charming lines, forming the commencement of your little paper on the ‘sac’ in the cirripedes N.H.R.—with the avowal of the blunder about British Foss. monkeys.12 What a contrast in the Candour of the one—and the double eyed Fouchè-ism of the other!13 Had Satan himself been compelled to a confession, that is the style he would have adopted. But we are philosophes—and must not use naughty words—for fear of the example.
My Dear Darwin | Yours Ever Sinly | H Falconer
PS. When you write thank Wallace very much.
Footnotes
Bibliography
ADB: Allgemeine deutsche Biographie. Under the auspices of the Historical Commission of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 56 vols. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. 1875–1912.
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Evans, John. 1865. On portions of a cranium and of a jaw, in the slab containing the fossil remains of the Archæopteryx. Natural History Review n.s. 5: 415–21.
Krohn, August David. 1859. Beobachtungen über den Cementapparat und die weiblichen Zeugungsorgane einiger Cirripedien. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 25 (pt 1): 355–64.
Mackie, Samuel Joseph. 1863. The aeronauts of the Solenhofen age. Geologist 6: 1–8.
Owen, Richard. 1840. Description of the Mammalian remains found at Kyson in Suffolk. Annals of Natural History 4: 191–4.
Schneider, Carl Friedrich Adolph. 1863. Bijdrage tot de geologische kennis van Timor. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië 25: 87–107
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1905. My life: a record of events and opinions. 2 vols. London: Chapman & Hall.
Summary
Jaw with teeth found associated with Archaeopteryx fossil. Waterhouse pronounces it a fish’s jaw.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3926
- From
- Hugh Falconer
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Athenaeum Club
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 13
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3926,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3926.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11