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Darwin Correspondence Project

To B. G. Wilder   26 January [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Jan 26.

Dear Sir

I have much pleasure in stating that I have read several of your papers, & have been much struck by the ability shown in many of them, as well as by your great energy in the pursuit of Natural Science. One of your latest investigations, that on the brain of dogs, appears to me particularly valuable.2 As I do not know who your competitors are for the Chair of Comparative Anat & Physiology in Harvard University,3 I cannot of course express any opinion of your claims to fill it but you have my good wishes for your success in all ways.

I remain dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

To | Dr Burt G. Wilder.

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to the chair of anatomy and physiology at Harvard (see n. 3, below).
2
There is an annotated copy of Wilder’s paper on cerebral variation in domestic dogs (Wilder 1873), along with other papers by Wilder, in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. CD cited Wilder 1873 in Variation 2d ed. 1: 35 n. 56.
3
The Hersey Professorship of anatomy had been held by Jeffries Wyman, who died in September 1874 (ANB). The chair was left vacant until 1885 (Harvard University catalogue).

Bibliography

ANB: American national biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 vols. and supplement. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999–2002.

Harvard University catalogue: Harvard University quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates 1636–1925. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1925.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Wilder, Burt Green. 1873. Cerebral variation in domestic dogs, and its bearing upon scientific phrenology. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1873) section B: 234–49.

Summary

CD expresses his high opinion of BGW’s papers. Thinks one on brains of dogs particularly valuable ["Anatomical papers on brain of dogs", Rep. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. (1874)].

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9830,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9830.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23

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