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Darwin Correspondence Project

To H. Ramu   13 September 1871

Down, Beckenham, Kent

Sept. 13, 1871.

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for your great kindness in writing to me. I have so many other subjects on hand, that I am not likely again to attend to domesticated animals; nevertheless the appendages on the faces of certain pigs have always appeared to me so inexplicable, that I should certainly much like to hear about the analogous structures in goats.1 I am not willing that you should take much trouble, but I should be grateful for a sketch with a description, in comparison with the analogous appendages as described by me in the case of pigs.2

With my best thanks and much respect I have the honour to remain dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin.

It has sometimes occurred to me as an idle speculation whether these appendages could be formed by a reduplication of the external ear, as the reduplication of organs is a common form of monstrosity.

Footnotes

CD wrote about maxillary appendages on pigs in Variation 1: 75–6.

Bibliography

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Obliged for letter about appendages on faces of goats.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7941
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
H Ramu
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 147: 290
Physical description
C 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7941,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7941.xml

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

letter