From John Edward Gray 4 February 1868
BM
4 Feb 1868
My Dear Darwin
My Bookseller sent me your Dom Anim last night1 I naturally turned to the part I was last at work on the Pig.
Can you tell me where I can see Nathusius Especially the Figure of the skull2
In my late monograph the result of the Examination of nearly 100 skull mostly of Wild Pigs & different breed of domestic ones I had come to the conclusion that there are two sorts of Domestic Pig. The true Domestic & the semidomestic animal of the Wild Species3
Indeed I divide Pig
1 Wild—head long tapers. Young streaked, ears prick
2 Domestic head short nose keeled forehead flat. Young coloured like parent ears often large & flapping
I am amused at Narthusius saying that the Masked Pig has the skull of the Domest4 it almost makes one lose one confidence in his observation
This to the Potamochœrus or Painted Pig as Domestic Pig which I call Scroffa has to Sus but it cannot be a domestic breed of that genus—.5
Potamochœrus was said to be Naturalized in Brazil, it is so no longer but it may be the Red Pig you speak of in the West Indies6
I suspect the great defect of Narthusius Essay will be his want of Skull of Exotic Pig There is a Sus Indicus that is the name of the Wild Boar of India7
We have not Narthusius here is it in Roy Soc8
With kindest Regards | Ever Yours sincerely | J E Gray
Wattled Pig are not uncommon in English farm yard or were not.9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Gray, John Edward. 1843. List of the specimens of Mammalia in the collection of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Nathusius, Hermann von. 1860. Die Racen des Schweines. Eine zoologische Kritik und Andeutungen ùber systematische Behandlung der Hausthier-Racen. Berlin.
Nathusius, Hermann von. 1864. Vorstudien für Geschichte und Zucht der Hausthiere zunächst am Schweineschädel. 1 vol. and atlas. Berlin: Wiegandt und Hempel.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Discussion of the pig in light of CD’s Variation.
Work of Hermann von Nathusius [Die Racen des Schweines (1860)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5839
- From
- John Edward Gray
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- British Museum
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 213
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5839,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5839.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16