To Hugh Falconer 20 [January 1863]1
Down.
20th
My dear Falconer
It was really very good of you to tell me of the jaw.2 What a strange accident if a fish’s jaw has got there; but if it belongs to the Archæopteryx, it will surely show some great peculiarity.3 I hope it may belong to it. Already a German author has advanced the case as a grand argument in favour of the “Origin”.4 Has God demented Owen, as a punishment for his crimes, that he should overlook such a point?5 I hope to be in London on the first week in February and to nothing do I look forward with more pleasure than seeing you.6
I have a pile of letters to answer so farewell my good old friend. | C. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Rolle, Friedrich. 1863. Chs. Darwin’s Lehre von der Entstehung der Arten im Pflanzen- und Thierreich in ihrer Anwendung auf die Schöpfungsgeschichte. Frankfurt: J. C. Hermann.
Summary
If jaw belongs to Archaeopteryx, it will show great peculiarity. A German author has advanced the case as argument for Origin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3928
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Hugh Falconer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 144: 30
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3928,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3928.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11
