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Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. D. Hooker   [3–17 February 1844]

Down. Bromley Kent

Saturday

My dear Sir

I write a line merely to acknowledge & thank you for your long & to me most agreeable letter & to tell you that I am in communication with Ehrenberg to find out more definitely, what objects he wishes for, and I will let you know in time for you to send me any likely objects to contain infusoria. I know thus far that his chief present object is the geographical range of infusoria, so that I cannot doubt, of all things, he would most value specimens from the Antarctic regions.—

Would not floating sea-weed probably still contain some attached to it— I am astonished at your description of the number of Infusoria in the far-antarctic seas.—

Once again I thank you for your letter, & I can hardly tell you, how much all your facts & opinions interest me.—

In Haste | mp; I can hardly tell you, how much all your facts & opinions interest me.—

In Haste | Believe me | Most truly yours | C. Darwin

PS. | Dr. Dieffenbach, the New Zealand traveller,1 (who has translated my Journal into German)2 (& I must with unpardonable vanity boast to you, that it was at the instigation of Liebig3 & Humboldt4 ) wrote to me about the Infusoria at the request of Ehrenberg & to him I have written some further questions.—

I cannot doubt, Ehrenberg would value all your notes & drawings whether imperfect or perfect.

Footnotes

His travels were described in Dieffenbach 1843.
Dieffenbach trans. 1844.
Justus von Liebig, professor of chemistry in Giessen and patron of Ernst Dieffenbach.
Alexander von Humboldt. For his favourable opinion of CD’s Journal of researches see Correspondence vol. 2, letter from Alexander von Humboldt, 18 September 1839.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Dieffenbach, Ernst. 1843. Travels in New Zealand; with contributions to the geography, geology, botany, and natural history of that country. 2 vols. London.

Summary

Thanks for information for Ehrenberg.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-735
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 114: 5
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 735,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-735.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3

letter