From J. H. Schmick 3 May 1872
Cologne, | Trutzenberg 68.
Mai 3d 1872.
Most honoured Sir,
About eighteen months since I had the honour to send you two essays of mine, in which my new theory on “A secular transposition of oceans” was developed, and established by facts of geology, geography and natural history.1 I then also told you of a book of mine to be published as soon as possible, in which particularly facts of geology and geognosy were to be adduced as so many evidences of the truth of my theory, and in which I intended to explain the breaks or intermittence of the series of petrifactions. You had the kindness to acknowledge the receipt of the two essays, to encourage me in the pursuit of researches and to style as greatly meritorious for science a result as promised in my letter to you. That result is now obtained, as far as I can see, and I have the pleasure of forwarding to you, together with this note, the book, in which I think to have succeeded in establishing my theory as an “eternal law of nature”.2
I wish you would not shun the trouble to read the work and to mediate, if possible, its more general notoriety among English geologists, to whose enquiries we are indebted for so numerous important facts concerning the formation of the earth’s crust.
I remain with the most distinguished consideration | Yours | ob. serv. | Dr. H. Schmick.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Schmick, Jacob Heinrich. 1869. Die Umsetzungen der Meere und die Eiszeiten der Halbkugeln der Erde, ihre Ursachen und Perioden. Cologne: M. DuMont-Schauberg’schen Buchhandlung.
Schmick, Jacob Heinrich. 1871. Thatsachen und Beobachtungen zur weiteren Begründung seiner neuen theorie einer Umsetzung der Meere durch die Sonnenanziehung und eines gleichzeitigen Wechsels der Eiszeiten auf beiden Halbkugeln der Erde. Görlitz: E. Remer’s Buchhandlung.
Schmick, Jacob Heinrich. 1872. Die neue Theorie periodischer säkularer Schwankungen des Seespiegels und gleichzeitiger Verschiebungen der Wärmezonen auf Nord- und Südhalbkugel der Erde: mit allgemeinen und besonderen Forschungs-Ergebnissen der Geologie in Uebereinstimmung gezeigt; durch ganz specielle geognostische Untersuchungen als ewiges Naturgesetz begründet und erwiesen und demzufolge als solches zur Aufhellung geologischer, palaeontologischer und ethnologischer Dunkelheiten benutzt. Münster: Russell.
Summary
Having sent CD his two essays outlining his theory on "A secular transposition of oceans" [see 7368], JHS now forwards to CD a book he believes establishes his theory as an "eternal law of nature" [Die neue Theorie periodische säkularer Schwankungen des Seespiegels [periodischer!?] (1872)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8309
- From
- Jacob Heinrich Schmick
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Cologne
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 56
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8309,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8309.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20
