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To E. A. Wheler   31 March [1879]1

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

March 31st

My dear Cousin

I want to trouble you on one very little point. I looked on map to see how far it was from Derby to Margate & to my surprise found that Newmarket was quite out of the line. I suppose that you are sure that it was Margate where your Aunt was.— If indeed our grandfather went to Harwich & thence a short Voyage by sea to Margate, the route wd. be intelligible.2 But it seems odd that a Doctor shd have chosen even short sea transit before the time for steam-ships.

Owing to your most useful suggestion, I wrote to R. Darwin & have an extremely kind answer from him, & he will send the Journal with some letters.3 I am now trying to find out how far the Zoonomia influenced medical practice in England, but doubt whether I shall succeed.4

My dear Cousin | Yours sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin

P.S. I have got a photograph of Elston Hall,— but I think I mentioned this before.—5

I will post the life of Ch. Darwin tomorrow & will register it.6

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letters to E. A. Wheler, 25 March 1879 and 28 March 1879.
2
See letter from E. A. Wheler, 25 March 1879 and n. 7. Wheler had recounted a story that took place when Erasmus Darwin stopped at Newmarket on his way to Margate. At the time (1793; letter from E. A. Wheler, 28 March 1879), he was living in Derby. Wheler’s aunt was Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Harwich is the northernmost coastal town in Essex; Newmarket, in west Suffolk, lies in a direct line between Derby and Harwich. Margate is on the Isle of Thanet in north-east Kent.
3
See letter from Reginald Darwin, 29 March 1879 and n. 2. The journal was Erasmus Darwin’s Commonplace book (Down House MS).
4
Zoonomia; or, the laws of organic life (E. Darwin 1794–6) contained observations on anatomy, diseases, and treatment, as well as presenting a theory of organic evolution; CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. For CD’s remarks on its influence, see Erasmus Darwin, pp. 105–9.
5
Charlotte Maria Cooper Darwin had sent CD two photographs of Elston Hall with her letter of 27 March 1879.
6
Emma Sophia Galton, who was Wheler’s sister and neighbour, had sent CD a book compiled by Erasmus Darwin containing the medical writings of his son Charles Darwin (1758–78), together with a brief biography (see letter from E. A. Wheler, 28 March 1879 and n. 1).

Bibliography

Darwin, Erasmus. 1794–6. Zoonomia; or, the laws of organic life. 2 vols. London: J. Johnson.

Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.

Summary

Requests information about a travel route used by their grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. Thanks FG for his help.

CD is "now trying to find out how far the Zoonomia influenced medical practice in England".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11963A
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Elizabeth Anne Galton/Elizabeth Anne Wheler
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 185: 105
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11963A,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11963A.xml

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