From L. H. Jeitteles 3 November 1872
Salzburg (Austrian Empire),
3. November 1872.
Sir!
A long space of time has elapsed, since I had the last time the honor to send you a scientific paper. Sorrowful years, years full of adversity have passed over me after my publication in 1867 at St. Pölten on Myoxus dryas and other little mammalia of Austria.1 Notwithstanding I have not quite lost the joy of investigating zoological objects, and particularly the prehistoric antiquities of Olmütz in Moravia, discovered by me in 1864, formed incessantly the theme of my studies. In 1869 and 1870 I have been with all the found objects during more than eight months in the Switzerland, of which six months were passed at Basel in the nearness of Prof. Rütimeyer, and in 1871 I published the first part of a little preliminary labour on Olmütz in the “Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien”, the second half of which I have the honor to present you now. Of the first part, containing a short description of the implements of stone and bone, the pottery etc, I have got only a very little number of copies; I do not know, whether I have taken occasion to send you a copy or not.2
I may hope, that the second prevailingly zoological half, although not at all free from errors and great imperfections, as I feel it the best myself, will notwithstanding not be quite unworthy of a fugitive revision by yourself. The dates on the cock, the daim, the rabbit and perhaps also on the horse are, as I think, partially new.3 And as for the dog, I believe that the descendence of the Canis palustris of the stone-time from the little Shacal, the Sacalius of Ham. Smith, of Africa, the total difference of the dog of the bronze-age from the dog of the earlier period (named by me Canis matris optimæ in honor to my dear mother buried at Olmütz) and the great affinity of this dog of the bronze-period with the Canis latrans Say of North-America are not ill prooved.4 Other discussions are, it is true, more hypothetical and request still more materials of comparative objects.
Begging a kind reception of this labour and an indulgent judgment, I have the honor to be | your | most obedient | L. H. Jeitteles.
Pfarrgasse 229.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Columbia gazetteer of the world: The Columbia gazetteer of the world. Edited by Saul B. Cohen. 3 vols. New York: Columbia University Press. 1998.
Jeitteles, Ludwig Heinrich. 1867. Ueber einige seltene und wenig bekannte Säugethiere des südöstlichen Deutschlands. Offprint from the fourth "Programm der n. ö. Landes-Oberrealschule zu St. Pölten". St Pölten: Franz Lorenz.
Jeitteles, Ludwig Heinrich. 1871–2. Die vorgeschichtlichen Alterthümer der Stadt Olmütz und ihrer Umgebung. Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 1 (1871): 127–36, 238–42; 2 (1872): 18–32, 53–64, 86–91, 130–6, 162–84, 233–49, 274–88.
Smith, Charles Hamilton. 1839–40. The natural history of dogs: Canidæ or genus Canis of authors. Including also the genera Hyæna and Proteles. 2 vols. (Vols. 4 and 5 of Mammalia in The naturalist’s library, edited by William Jardine.) Edinburgh: W. H. Lizars.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Sends CD a copy of the second part of his paper on the remains and antiquities of Olmütz in Moravia.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8594
- From
- Ludwig Heinrich Jeitteles
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Salzburg
- Source of text
- DAR 184: 7
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8594,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8594.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20
