skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To Richard Fordman   4 December [1873]

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Dec. 4th

My dear Sir

I thank you for your extremely kind note, which has pleased me much.—1

I am utterly perplexed what to think about the printed statement (like those published by Col. Sleeman in reference to the same district) in regard to children brought up by wolves.—2 I cannot quite disbelieve the accounts, & yet I can by no means believe them.—

With my thanks, I remain, | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
Fordman’s letter has not been found.
2
William Henry Sleeman’s account of wolves nurturing children in their dens ([Sleeman] 1852) was reprinted in the Zoologist 3d ser. 12 (1888): 87–98. Sleeman had summarised several reports of children found in wolf dens in the Sultanpur district in northern India.

Bibliography

[Sleeman, William Henry.] 1852. An account of wolves nurturing children in their dens. By an Indian official. Plymouth: Jenkin Thomas.

Summary

Thanks RF for his kind note; cannot quite believe or disbelieve stories of children raised by wolves.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9170
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Richard Fordman
Sent from
Down
Postmark
DE 4 73
Source of text
Massachusetts Historical Society (Grenville H. Norcross Autograph Collection)
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9170,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9170.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

 

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge