skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To O. C. Marsh   31 August 1880

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

Aug 31 1880

My dear Prof. Marsh

I received some time ago your very kind note of July 28th, and yesterday the magnificent volume. I have looked with renewed admiration at the plates, and will soon read the text.1 Your work on these old birds, & on the many fossil animals of N. America has afforded the best support to the theory of evolution, which has appeared within the last 20 years. The general appearance of the copy which you have sent me is worthy of its contents, and I can say nothing stronger than this.

With cordial thanks, believe me yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

See letter from O. C. Marsh, 28 July 1880. Marsh had showed CD the plates for Odontornithes: a monograph on the extinct toothed birds of North America (Marsh 1880) on his visit to Down in 1878. CD’s copy has not been found.

Bibliography

Marsh, Othniel Charles. 1880. Odontornithes: a monograph on the extinct toothed birds of North America. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Summary

Has received OCM’s Odontornithes memoir. Believes his work affords the best support to evolution that has appeared in the last 20 years.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12673
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Othniel Charles Marsh
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Physical description
LS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12673,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12673.xml

letter