To A. R. Wallace 13 January [1873]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Jan 13th
My dear Wallace
I have read your Review with much interest, & I thank you sincerely for the very kind spirit in which it is written.2 I cannot say that I am convinced by your criticisms. If you have ever actually observed a kitten sucking & pounding, with extended toes, its mother, & then seen the same kitten when a little older doing the same thing on a soft shawl, & ultimately an old cat (as I have seen) & do not admit that it is identically the same action, I am astonished.3
With respect to the decapitated frog, I have always heard of Pflüger as a most trustworthy observer. If indeed anyone knows a frog’s habits so well as to say that it never rubs off a bit of leaf or other object, which may stick to it though, in the same manner as it did the acid, your objection wd. be valid.4 Some of Flouren’s experiments, in which he removed the cerebral anterior hemispheres from a pigeon, indicate that acts, apparently performed consciously, can be done without consciousness,—I presume through the force of habit, in which case it would appear that intellectual power is not brought into play.—5
Several persons have made suggestion & objection as yours about the hands being held up in astonishment: if there was any straining of the muscles, as with protruded arms under fright, I would agree: as it is I must keep to my old opinion, & I daresay you will say that I am an obstinate old blockhead.6
My dear Wallace | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
The Book has sold wonderfully; 9000 copies have now been printed.7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Expression 2d ed.: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. Edited by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1890.
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Flourens, Marie Jean Pierre. 1824. Recherches experimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux, dans les animaux vertébrés. Paris: Crevot.
Pflüger, Eduard Friedrich Wilhelm. 1853. Die sensorischen Functionen des Rückenmarks der Wirbelthiere: nebst einer neuen Lehre über die Leitungsgesetze der Reflexionen. Berlin: August Hirschwald.
Summary
Response to ARW’s criticisms in his review [of Expression, Q. J. Sci. n.s. 3 (1873): 113–18].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8735
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add MS 46434)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8735,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8735.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21