To Anton Dohrn 24 May 1875
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
May 24 | 1875
My dear Dr Dohrn
I am very much obliged for the present of your “Ursprung &c”.1 I have read the whole, so far as my shameful ignorance of German has permitted me. It has interested me extremely, & has astonished me not a little. Your views seem very ingenious, but I have not knowledge enough of comparative anatomy to form a judgment of any value. Should your views be even partially accepted by competent authorities, it will shew how much we have to learn about the history of every animal. May I venture to caution you not to extend too far the degradation principle.2
Nothing has surprized me so much as your belief in the changed position of the mouth of vertebrates, & of the œsophagus having aboriginally passed between the 2 main nerve-chords3 I shd be greatly pleased if your explanation of the development of our limbs from branchiæ is true, for I never dreamed of their origin being explained. I have for a long time seen the full importance of the principle of Function wechsel; though I never enunciated it as a distinct principle.4
With all good wishes | I remain my dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin
P.S | Please to give my thanks to Prof: Claus. for the present of his memoir on the “Arguliden”, which I hope to read immediately5
Footnotes
Bibliography
Claus, Carl Friedrich. 1875. Ueber die Entwickelung, Organisation und systematische Stellung der Arguliden. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie 25: 217–84.
Dohrn, Anton. 1875. Der Ursprung der Wirbelthiere und das Princip des Functionswechsels. Genealogische Skizzen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. [Reprinted in Theory in Biosciences 125 (2007): 181–241.]
Maienschein, Jane. 1994. ‘It’s a long way from Amphioxus’: Anton Dohrn and late nineteenth century debates about vertebrate origins. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 16: 465–78.
Summary
Thanks AD for his Ursprung [der Wirbelthiere (1875)], which astonished CD. AD’s views, if accepted by competent authorities, will show how much we have to learn about the history of every animal. Suggests caution on "degradation principle". Comments on other views in the work. Has long seen importance of the principle of "Functionswechsel" [transfer [change!?] of function], but never enunciated it as a distinct principle.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9991
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Ana 525. Ba 1122)
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9991,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9991.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23