Letter 4171 — Quatrefages de Bréau, J. L. A. de to Darwin, C. R., 19 May [1863]

Paris

19 mai 6<3>

Monsieur et cher confrere

Mille remerciements pour votre photographie.^f3 Elle a d´epass´e mon attente et je suis curieux de voir ce qu’en diront les partisans de la fixit´e absolue que j’ai `a combattre en ce moment.<sup>f4</sup> Je l’ai recue il y a deja quelques jours et aurais voulu vous remercier sur le champ mais vous savez au milieu de quelles grandes affaires je me trouvais jet´e. Le proc`es de la machoire, comme dit M^r Carpenter, me pr´eoccupait entierement.^f5 J’ai ´et´e profond´ement touch´e de la conduite de vos compatriotes dans cette circonstance. Il est impossible d’apporter dans l’examen d’une question tr`es vivement controvers´ee plus de franchise, de loyaut´e et de cordialit´e. J’espere qu’ils nous auront trouv´es anim´es des memes sentiments. Je me suis fait un devoir et un plaisir `a la fois d’exprimer hier `a l’Acad´emie tout ce que je pense `a cet ´egard.^f6

J’ai depuis 4 jours sur mon bureau, pli´e `a votre adresse, un exemplaire des deux photographies de la fameuse machoire en v´eritable ´etourdi je n’ai pas song´e `a la remettre `a M^r Christy qui emportait le semblable pour M^r Falconer.^f7 J’ai cru vous l’avoir deja envoy´e mais ce ne sera qu’un court retard.

Adieu Monsieur et cher confr`ere et merci encore. Votre bien devou´e | De Quatrefages

Footnotes

f1

For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.

f2

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 14 May [1863].

f3

CD sent Quatrefages two photographs of a skull of the niata breed of cattle. See letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 14 May [1863].

f4

Quatrefages was engaged in a debate at the Soci´et´e d’Anthropologie de Paris with Andr´e Sanson, who challenged him to cite a single species in which the action of the environment had produced anatomical modifications (see letter from Armand de Quatrefages, [28 March --] 11 April 1863 and n. 4). Quatrefages responded with CD’s example of the niata cattle (Journal of researches 2d ed., pp. 145–6) and, on 2 July 1863, exhibited the photographs that CD had sent to him. On 16 July 1863, Quatrefages continued to expand his case for the environmental modification of species by reading from Journal of researches 2d ed., pp. 145–6, and from the letter to Armand de Quatrefages, [14 April 1863] (Bulletin Soci´et´e d’Anthropologie de Paris 4 (1863): 350–3 and 376–80). For Sanson’s response to Quatrefages, see Bulletin Soci´et´e d’Anthropologie de Paris 4 (1863): 374–5 and 380–3.

f5

William Benjamin Carpenter’s phrase the `trial of the jaw’ was used to describe the inquiry into the authenticity of the fossil human jawbone and other remains discovered at Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, France, in March 1863 by Jacques Boucher de Perthes (Falconer et al. 1863, p. 423). See also n. 6, below. For a summary of this dispute, see the letter from J. D. Hooker, [7 May 1863], n. 5.

f6

A conference of French and British scientists on the Moulin-Quignon archaeological finds took place in Paris and Abbeville from 9 to 13 May 1863. Quatrefages paid tribute to the British scientists at the meeting of the Acad´emie des Sciences in Paris on 18 May 1863 (Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des s´eances de l’Acad´emie des Sciences 56 (1863): 933–5. The British scientists included Carpenter, Hugh Falconer, Joseph Prestwich, and George Busk. The French scientists included Quatrefages, Edouard Lartet, and Alphonse Milne Edwards. A summary of the conference proceedings was published in the Athenæum, 23 May 1863, p. 682. For a full report of the proceedings, see Falconer et al. 1863.

f7

Henry Christy was an English ethnologist, archaeologist, and geologist who worked closely with the French palaeontologist and archaeologist Lartet; together they excavated a number of European prehistoric sites in the 1860s (DNB). Lartet and Falconer were both involved in determining the authenticity of the Moulin-Quignon jawbone (see nn. 5 and 6, above).