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Darwin Correspondence Project

From F. S. B. F. de Chaumont   31 January 1873

Oakland | Woolston | Nr. Southampton

Jan: 31st. 1873

Dear Mr. Darwin,

The enclosed is a paper by my friend & colleague Dr. MacDonald and is intended for the Royal Society.1 Thinking however that it might interest you, as bearing on the question of evolution, he has asked me to forward it to you for perusal before despatching it.— It is evidently a pet subject of his and I have had the advantage of having it explained by him personally and of examining a number of very beautiful drawings he has made illustrative of the various points. My own knowledge of the matter is very limited but I was greatly interested by the way in which his views were explained.—

I have lately had an addition to my household in the shape of a fourth daughter,—very tiny as she made her appearance at seven months— she is very like my eldest child but as yet she is too small to show any peculiarities—2

I hope Mrs. Darwin & yourself are keeping well—

Believe me, | Yours very sincerely | F. de Chaumont

C. Darwin Esqr. F.R.S.

Footnotes

De Chaumont refers to John Denis Macdonald’s paper on the distribution of invertebrates (Macdonald 1873).
Louise François de Chaumont was born in 1873 (BMD (Birth index)); de Chaumont’s eldest daughter was Helen François de Chaumont (Correspondence vol. 19, letter from F. S. B. F. de Chaumont to W. E. Darwin, 11 March 1871).

Bibliography

BMD: General Register Office, England and Wales civil registration indexes. England & Wales birth index, 1837–1983. England and Wales marriage index, 1837–1983. England and Wales death index, 1837–1983. Online database. Provo, Utah: The Generations Network. 2006. www.ancestry.com.

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

Macdonald, John Denis. 1873. On the distribution of the invertebrata in relation to the theory of evolution. [Read 20 March 1873.] Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 21 (1872–3): 218–23.

Summary

Sends a paper on evolution by his friend J. D. MacDonald ["Distribution of Invertebrata", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 21 (1872–3): 218–23] for CD’s perusal before dispatching it to the Royal Society.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-8753
From
Francis Stephen Bennet François de Chaumont
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Woolston
Source of text
DAR 162: 138
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8753,” accessed on 14 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8753.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21

letter