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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Henry Lonsdale   3 May 1871

Carlisle.

May 3. 1871

Sir

Permit me to call your attention to what you say in your first Chapt. (“Descent of Man”) regarding the “Supra Condyloid Foramen.” You give my pupil & friend Dr Struthers the credit which is really due my old teacher Dr Knox.1 If you cd. find time to read p 249–252 of my Life of Knox pubd. by MacMillan & Co last october, you will see the whole subject fully discussed.2 Twenty years before Struthers wrote on the subject, Knox had described the “Sup. Condy. process” in the Edin. Med: & Surg. Journal; and considering the mode in which Knox predicted the human homologue I feel certain that you will be ready to do the old anatomist justice.3 Struthers only began to study Anatomy the year (1842) that I said my case; of the same Sup: Condyloid process.

Though I have not the honour of your personal acquaintance I hope I may be permitted to add my hearty congratulations to others of your friends on the rapid growth of your views, of the success of your labours in science.

I am yours truly | Henry Lonsdale | M.D.

P.S. In my biography of John Goodsir I alluded to the happy generalization of Knox (Vol 1. p. 26. Goodsir’s Anatomical Memoirs).4

To | Chas. Darwin. | Author of the Descent of Man.

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘Supracondyloid’ blue crayon

Footnotes

John Struthers had sent CD a copy of his 1863 paper on the supracondyloid process in the human arm (Struthers 1863; see Correspondence vol. 12, letter from John Struthers, 31 December 1864). CD credited ‘Dr. Struthers and others’ with the observation, but he also referred to Robert Knox in a note (see Descent 1: 28 and n. 37).
The reference is to Lonsdale 1870.
In the second edition of Descent, CD added the note: ‘Dr. Knox, as I am informed, was the first anatomist who drew attention to this peculiar structure in man’ (Descent 2d ed., p. 21 n. 49).
See Goodsir 1868, 1: 26 n.

Bibliography

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

Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

Goodsir, John. 1868. The anatomical memoirs of John Goodsir. Edited by William Turner with a biographical memoir by Henry Lonsdale. 2 vols. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.

Lonsdale, Henry. 1870. A sketch of the life and writings of Robert Knox, the anatomist. London: Macmillan and co.

Summary

Credit for observation on supra-condyloid foramen in man is really due to Robert Knox, not John Struthers, as in Descent.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7736
From
Henry Lonsdale
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Carlisle
Source of text
DAR 87: 47–8
Physical description
ALS 4pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7736,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7736.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19

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