To T. M. Reade 9 February 1877
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Feb 9th 1877
My dear Sir,
I am much obliged for your kind note & the present of your Essay.1 I have read it with great interest & the results are certainly most surprising.2 It appears to me almost monstrous that Prof: Tait should say that the duration of the world has not exceeded 10 million years. The argument which seems the most weighty in favour of the belief that no great number of million of years have elapsed since the world was inhabited by living creatures is the rate at which the temperature of the crust increases; & I wish that I could see this argument answered.3
I hope that you will continue your interesting & laborious researches, & I remain | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Burchfield, Joe D. 1990. Lord Kelvin and the age of the earth. With a new afterword. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Reade, Thomas Mellard. 1876. President’s address. [Read 10 October 1876.] Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society 3 (1874–78): 211–35.
Tait, Peter Guthrie. 1876. Lectures on some recent advances in physical science with a special lecture on force. 2d edition. London: Macmillan and Co.
Summary
Comments on TMR’s essay ["Geological time"].
It is monstrous that P. G. Tait should say that earth is less than ten million years old.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10836
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Mellard Reade
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of Liverpool Library (TMR1.D.7.2)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10836,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10836.xml
