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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Ernst Krause   28 November 1880

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

Nov. 28th 80

My dear Sir

I must thank you for your most interesting letter.1 It is very bad news about Kosmos: I shall regret much its cessation, for I found in every number something which interested me greatly. Anyhow you must have the satisfaction of feeling that you have been an excellent editor, & have aided Science in every way.—2

It is, also, grievous news about Fritz Müller,—that is if he has lost his instruments & books. I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world. I have written to his brother, Hermann, to learn whether he has suffered much loss, & whether for the sake of Science, he would allow me to aid him in purchasing new microscopes &c &c.—3

I do not know when I have been so much astonished, as by your account of the Crustacean which repairs its legs by those of an ancestral form. If I understand the case, it must be a kind of localised reversion! This seems to me to support, the hypothesis of Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends in this world. I can conceive a small collection of molecules (ie one of my imaginary gemmules) remaining dormant in an organism for almost any length of time; but I think it will be difficult for Häckel to make others believe that certain molecules, of which the body is built, have gone on vibrating for countless generations in a peculiar manner, so as to form when occasion offers an ancestral limb. If I remember rightly the reproduced tail of Lacerta differs from the normal tail. I have given one case in some slight degree analogous, namely that of a hen which when barren assumed the male plumage of an ancestral breed, & not of her own breed.—4 But I did not intend to trouble you with my notions or about pangenesis.—

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Chas. Darwin

Footnotes

See letter from Ernst Krause, 26 November 1880 and n. 4; Krause continued as editor of Kosmos until 1882.
In his letter of 26 November 1880, Krause told CD about a short article by Fritz Müller, ‘Haeckel’s biogenetisches Grundgesetz bei der Neubildung verlorener Glieder’ (Haeckel’s biogenetic law and the rebuilding of lost limbs; F. Müller 1881b). For CD’s hypothesis of pangenesis, see Variation 2: 357–404; it was revised in Variation 2d ed. 2: 349–99. For Ernst Haeckel’s theory of heredity, perigenesis, see Haeckel 1876. Lacerta is a genus of lizards; for CD’s observations, see Journal of researches (1860), p. 390. For CD’s examples of hens that acquired male characteristics, see Variation 2: 51, 54, and 399.

Bibliography

Haeckel, Ernst. 1876b. Die Perigenesis der Plastidule, oder die Wellenzeugung der Lebenstheilchen. Ein Versuch zu mechanischen Erklärung der elementaren Entwickelungs-Vorgänge. Berlin: Georg Reimer.

Journal of researches (1860): Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle around the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. By Charles Darwin. Reprint edition. London: John Murray. 1860.

Müller, Fritz. 1881b. Haeckels biogenetisches Grundgesetz bei der Neubildung verlorener Glieder. Kosmos 8 (1880–1): 388–9.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Bad news about Kosmos [ceasing publication].

Fritz Müller’s losses [in a flood]; "I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world."

EK’s astonishing account of crustacean that repairs its legs in an ancestral form seems to support Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12871
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause
Sent from
Down
Source of text
The Huntington Library (HM 36209)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12871,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12871.xml

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