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Darwin Correspondence Project

From J. D. Hooker   11 April 1873

Kew

April 11/73

Dear Darwin

G. Henslow has become so rapidly worse, that we have given up all intentions of going abroad—1 He has become very suddenly blind of one eye, & they seem to think that the disease is a fatty degeneration of the nervous tissues, causing paralysis. His mind is perfectly clear. Paget2 has seen him & considers the case hopeless & that under the present symptoms it may rapidly terminate.

I enclose Pagets answers which destroy. I have not heard from Bowman.3

Ever yours affec | J D Hooker

Footnotes

George Henslow was Hooker’s brother-in-law.
The enclosure has not been found. William Bowman’s letter to Hooker informing him that he had donated £100 had evidently not yet arrived (letter from William Bowman to J. D. Hooker, 11 April 1873 (DAR 160: 270)). The donation was for the subscription for Thomas Henry Huxley (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [6 April 1873] and n. 2).

Summary

George Henslow is worse. All plans to go abroad have been given up. James Paget’s diagnoses enclosed.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-8857
From
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Kew
Source of text
DAR 103: 151–2
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8857,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8857.xml

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

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