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From P. H. Pye-Smith   18 March 1882

56, Harley Street. | W.

March 18. 1882

My dear Sir

You have no doubt received a formal invitation to a meeting at the College of Physicians on the 28th. which is to carry out the objects of your correspondence with Brunton & with me.1 I need not say that everyone there will feel honoured & pleased if you should be able to be present, even if it were for a quarter of an hour. But your time & your health forbid, I know, your taking part in London meetings, except on such rare occasions as the College of Physicians enjoyed a few years ago.2 I therefore write to ask whether it would be agreeable to you to write a reply to the invitation which could be read at the Meeting. Your public adhesion would be very valuable.

Would Dr. Francis Darwin care to come? If he has not already been asked I will send him an invitation as soon as I get some copies, or will tell our hon. Sec. Gerald Yeo to do so.3

We shall have a very good muster. Beside the best men in the profession, in London & out, we expect the Master of the Rolls Ld Sherbrooke Ld Rayleigh Ld Lilford Ld Camperdown, if he can get there the Solicitor General Sir Joseph Hooker Sir John Lubbock Sir Trevor Laurence Ld. Arthur Russell Mr Spottiswoode, Mr F. Galton, Profs. Williamson, Odling, Dewar, Huxley, Moseley, Newton, Tyndall &c.4

I was at High Elms the other day and glad to hear a good account of you from Mrs Mulholland.5

I have not heard from Nash for a long time but he sent me the other day a new little book he has written about Oregon.6

Believe me to be, dear Mr Darwin, | Sincerely & most respectfully Yours | P H Pye-Smith.

Footnotes

1
CD had planned to support a proposed fund to defend physiological research, including the use of animal experiments; see letter from T. L. Brunton, 12 February 1882. In the event, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Research was formed in April and had its first meeting on 20 April 1882, one day after CD died. CD’s contribution of £100 was recorded in the list of subscribers (see Boddice 2021, p. 40).
2
On 26 June 1879, CD was presented with the Baly medal, a biennial award in physiology, on the occasion of the Harveian oration at the Royal College of Physicians (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter from H. A. Pitman, 9 May 1879, and letter from Samuel Wilks, 26 July 1879).
3
Francis Darwin was CD’s secretary. Gerald Francis Yeo was secretary of the Physiological Society.
4
The master of the rolls was George Jessel. Robert Lowe was the first Viscount Sherbrooke. John William Strutt was the third Baron Rayleigh. Thomas Littleton Powys was the fourth Baron Lilford. Robert Adam Philips Haldane Haldane-Duncan was the third earl of Camperdown. The solicitor general, Farrer Herschell, was the first Baron Herschell. Pye-Smith also refers to Trevor Lawrence, William Spottiswoode, Francis Galton, William Crawford Williamson, William Odling, James Dewar, Thomas Henry Huxley, Henry Nottidge Moseley, Alfred Newton, and John Tyndall.
5
High Elms, Lubbock’s home, was near Down. Amy Harriet Mulholland was Lubbock’s daughter.
6
Wallis Nash, a former neighbour of CD’s who emigrated to Oregon, had just published his book, Two years in Oregon (Nash 1882).

Bibliography

Boddice, Rob. 2021. Humane professions: the defence of experimental medicine, 1876–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Nash, Wallis. 1882. Two years in Oregon. New York: D. Appleton and Company.

Summary

CD invited to [Science Defence Association] meeting at Royal College of Physicians.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13729
From
Philip Henry Pye-Smith
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Harley St, 56
Source of text
DAR 174: 84
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13729,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13729.xml

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