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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Fanny Kellogg1   13 April 1879

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

April 13th 1879

Dear Madam

I am obliged to you for so kindly communicating the curious case of an habitual gesture, like that which I have described as inherited. I may add that since I wrote, the action has been transmitted to another generation. Your case shall be sent to Mr Galton, who gave me the information.2

Dear Madam | Yours faithfully | & obliged | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

1
This letter was previously published in Correspondence vol. 27, when less of the text was available. The addressee is taken from the sale catalogues; when the letter was sold in 1981 it was accompanied by an original holograph envelope, with the flap missing.
2
In Expression, pp. 33–4 n. 8, CD had quoted Francis Galton on the inheritance of a characteristic arm gesture: the habit, when sleeping, of placing the forearm across the top of the head, whence it would fall onto the bridge of the nose, was exhibited in three generations of a family. In his correspondence, Galton had revealed that the individuals were his father-in-law, George Butler; George Butler’s son, Henry Montagu Butler; and George Butler’s granddaughter, Agnes Isabel Butler (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from Francis Galton, 22 December 1871).

Bibliography

Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Summary

Sends thanks for "communicating the curious case of a habitual gesture, like that which I have treated as inherited. I may add that since I write, the action has been transmitted to another generation. Your case shall be sent to Mr Galton, who gave me the information".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11992
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Fanny Kellogg
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Charles Hamilton (dealer) (28 May 1981); Sotheby’s, New York (dealers) (28 April 2021, lot 49)
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11992,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11992.xml

letter

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