From Hugh Falconer 24 August [1863]1
21 Park Crescent N.W.
24 Augt.
My Dear Darwin
I learn from your Brother that you are up to the eyes in tendrils2—and I think you were disposed to be rather angry with me about my raid, in the Spring.3 But I am not going to let myself be dropt out of your acquaintance—on either account.
About this time last year, I sent you the M.S. of remarks on the persistence of specific characters in the Elephants—founded upon mammoth molar anterior to the Boulder clay.4
I have now got another still stranger case—out of the Pliocene Fauna of the “Forest Bed” of the Norfolk Coast—namely a genus described by Owen as extinct—yet the form in reality an existing species frequenting rivers in Russia.5 It is an insectivore The fact was made out by Lartet—who was lately over on a visit to me,6 and he communicated it to Owen. I carefully compared, the old & the new specimens. In my opinion they are of the same species—unchanged—absolutely identical.
Has Suess sent you his brochure—“Über die Verschiedenheit &c”.?7 He there formulates Heer and me for the following generalization p. 25.8
“That the time during which a new species is formed, is (as a rule) very short in comparison with the time during which it persistently presents the same peculiar specific characters”.
The “Forest-Bed” Species gives wonderful Countenance to this heretical generalization. But your fertility of resource, in the way of explanation, will I have no doubt, make light work in demolishing it.9
My Dear Darwin | Yours Ever Truly | H Falconer
P.S. Lartet has not yet published his rectification.10 I have therefore only mentioned the case to you in a general way. But if you desire it I will send you all particulars—for demolition hereafter.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Suess, Eduard. 1863. Über die Verschiedenheit und die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiären Landfaunen in der Niederung von Wien. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe 47 (pt 1): 306–31.
Summary
Sends information about Pliocene fauna of the "Forest Bed" of the Norfolk coast.
A genus described as extinct by Owen is found by E. A. I. H. Lartet to exist in Russia.
Edouard Suess attributes to Oswald Heer and HF the generalisation "That the time during which a new species is formed, is (as a rule) very short in comparison with the time during which it persistently presents the same peculiar specific characters". [Edouard Suess, "Über die Verschiedenheit und die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiären Landfaunen in der Niederung von Wien", Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (Math-naturw. Klasse) 47 (1863): 306–31.] [See 4277.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4273A
- From
- Hugh Falconer
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 16
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4273A,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4273A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11