From James Crichton-Browne 27 December 1873
West Riding Asylum. | Wakefield.
27th. Decem. 1873.
My dear Sir,
I venture to make a request which you must not hesitate to refuse should you see any objection to acquiescence in it. Impatient of the slowness of the advance which is made in our knowledge of the Pathology and Treatment of Nervous Diseases, I am about to try a new method of dealing with these subjects. Instead of trusting any longer to independent exertions scattered over a wide area, I propose to test the efficacy of combined effort upon one point. Having selected one well marked variety of mental disease—General Paralysis—throughout the whole course of which physical and mental symptoms progress pari passu I have induced a number of able and distinguished friends to undertake its investigation in different aspects. Thus one will work out the Microscopic Anatomy, another—the Chemistry of the urine, another the variation of temperature another the appearances of the retinae. &c &c. Each investigator will briefly and clearly set forth the results at which he arrives and the monographs thus produced, will I believe when collected together form a complete natural history of the disease and greatly elucidate its causes, course and treatment Now it has occured to me that you might immensley aid us in our work if you would consent to give us a very few remarks on the Physiognomy of the Disease. I could submit to you a series of photographs illustrating its various stages, and a very few words of yours would I am certain embody the true significance of the whole. I am aware that it is a very audacious request that I am making and nothing could justify it but the motive which is an earnest desire to advance Medical Science. You will at least forgive my boldness &c1
Believe me to be with profound esteem and all seasonable good wishes. | Yours very faithfully | J. Crichton Browne
Charles Darwin Esq | &c &c
P.S. Among my fellow labourers in this work are to be Prof. Ferrier. Dr Hughlings Jackson. Dr. Clifford Allbutt. Dr. Brunton2 &c &c | J. C. B.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Crichton-Browne, James. 1876. Notes on the pathology of general paralysis. West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports 6: 170–231.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Pearn, Alison M. 2010. ‘This excellent observer …’: the correspondence between Charles Darwin and James Crichton-Browne, 1869–75. History of Psychiatry 21: 160–75.
Summary
Is about to undertake an intensive investigation with other scientists of general paralysis in its various aspects. Would appreciate CD’s comments on photographs he would submit.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9190
- From
- James Crichton-Browne
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- West Riding Asylum, Wakefield
- Source of text
- DAR 161: 321
- Physical description
- ALS 11pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9190,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9190.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21