To T. H. Huxley 3 [September 1855]1
Down Farnborough Kent
3d.
My dear Huxley
I think your Diagrams will do very well.— What an advantage to be able to sketch easily! no one has a right to attempt to be a naturalist who cannot.—2 I have made a few pencil marks— The chief correction is the position of the great ganglion, which ought to be more to left-hand.— I never cd. see cement-gland in Lepas, though I traced cement-duct some way up peduncle; but from the analogy of 4 other genera its most probable position is where I have put cross.3
I think the stomach ought to be larger, though of course there is some variability in its size according to its contents &c. in same species.—4
Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
It wd. be more strictly correct, but really does not signify on this scale, if the antennæ were put a little more to left. ie not quite medial, or not at basal point of peduncle.
The whole stomach ought to be larger & I think this wd also make your drawing plainer: you had better not have put in cæca, as their presence is evidently of very little importance. The arborescent testes ought to extend posteriorly over whole stomach, but perhaps you purposely leave them out to prevent confusion.— You had better draw two thin reddish-brown lines from the ovaria to within the Antennæ.
Footnotes
Summary
Approves drawing. No one who cannot draw should attempt to be a naturalist. Suggests corrections to [Lepas?] drawing. Comments on position of ganglia, cement glands, and stomach.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1759
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 18)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1759,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1759.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5