Falconer, Hugh to Darwin, C. R.
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Hopes CD will be able to receive the Copley Medal in person. HF sees it as doubly significant in recognising CD's work and as a protest against the profession of religious as opposed to scientific faith.
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Transcription
21 Park Crescent | Portland Place N.W.
7
My Dear Darwin
Thanks f<or your> kind and genial note <If there> is a spice of dull bante<r> <now> and then in my missives to you, do not interpret them too seriously.
Quoad the Copley.— There is a double significance
in the award. 1. as regards due appreciation of
yourself. 2
Taking therefore everything into <accoun>t, & which will strike
you <one or two words missing> my going into
detail—<one or two words missing> be of great
service—and comfort and Solace to your friends, if you could nurse yourself up
so as to be able to attend the anniversary meeting of the Royal
Soc
If this would emperil your health in the slightest degree, no one would for a moment think of it.
But bear the thing in mind as the time approaches
Yours Ever Sinly | H Falconer
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- f1 4662.f1
The year is established by the reference to the Copley Medal (see n. 3, below). - +
- f2 4662.f2
Letter to Hugh Falconer, 4 November [1864]. - +
- f3 4662.f3
The Council of the Royal Society of London voted to award CD the Copley Medal on 3 November 1864 (Royal Society, Council minutes). - +
- f4 4662.f4
Falconer refers to the declaration that had been drafted in April 1864 by a group of London chemists, including John Stenhouse, a fellow of the Royal Society, and later signed by David Brewster and twenty-nine other Royal Society fellows. For a discussion of the declaration, see the letter from J. D. Hooker, [19 September 1864] and n. 24. - +
- f5 4662.f5
Because of fears of ill health, CD did not attend the 30 November meeting at the Royal Society (see letter to Hugh Falconer, 8 November [1864], and letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1864]).