Darwin Correspondence Project

Down Bromley Kent

March 31^st

My dear Hooker

I hope your Book has arrived safely with your M.S.. Have you noticed in the fourth vol. of Wilkes, there is a short discussion on the Flora of the Sandwich I^ds, & he considers it as of a very peculiar & confined character: I shall be curious to see the real scientific reports, if they turn out as trust worthy.— What a capital tour you have had, & how many great men, you have become acquainted with: by the way I have heard from Ehrenberg, who grieves much at your not having come, & says you would have been hospitably received at Berlin. He has returned me my M.S. & most goodnaturedly has written to Dieffenbach, from whom also I heard seven weeks ago assuring me that my &c &c sh^d arrive in a few days & laying all the blame on the Publishers; but nothing has arrived! I have many things to write about, but am determined to write nothing, which will require any answer from you, as I am sure your time must be now fully occupied & more than occupied; but I shall keep some memoranda hereafter to screw knowledge out of you. Nothing would do you so much good as a little vanity, & then you would not talk of collecting facts for others, when, say just what you please, I am sure no one could put them to better use than yourself.—

I hope & trust you will find Edinburgh far pleasanter than you expect, though the lecturing must be a direful break in your Antarctic flora (of which there is a little recommendatory notice in L'Institut of last week): I sh^d think that Forbes was one of the cleverest men there; I have found him very civil in correspondence, but I am told he is as frigid as one of his own glaciers: & a capital theory I fully believe his to be.—

You are very kind in your enquiries about my health; I have nothing to say about it, being always much the same, some days better & some worse.— I believe I have not had one whole day or rather night, without my stomach having been greatly disordered, during the last three years, & most days great prostration of strength: thank you for your kindness, many of my friends, I believe, think me a hypocondriac. How late shall you be in Edinburgh: I ask because I think I shall probably take a tour, for my unlucky stomach's sake, to the Eildon hills near Melrose, in September to see some appearances like the ‘parallel roads of Glen Roy’.— & perhaps I might go further on & see you in Edinburgh if there.— I see I have kept to my determination, in a highly praiseworthy manner, & asked you nothing which requires an answer— one of the subject I am curious to discuss hereafter with you—is the position, as a method of induction, in which morphology stands; it seems to me a very curious point.— I will order St Hilaires book; I have just finished three huge volumes by Is. St Hilaire on animal monsters, and a nasty curious subject it is.—

Farewell with all good wishes Ever yours | C. Darwin

N.B. You may see that I have dubbed you a D^r again, as you are to be a Professor: have I not done right?—