To Thomas Gold Appleton 2 March [1866]1
Down Bromley Kent
Mar 2.
My dear Mr Appleton
I am very much obliged to you for your kind note & wish to aid my heretical transmutation doctrines.2 I hope you will be so good as to give my sincere thanks to Mr C. C. Fuller for all the trouble which he has taken.3
The creature I am sorry to say is not a fish; but the larva of some Batrachian or Frog-like animal.
I have sent the specimen to the British Museum where they are glad to have it for they have nothing exactly the same, but tell me that it is closely allied to the Axoltl of Mexico & to the Mud devil of the lakes of N. America.4
We often remember the very pleasant visit you paid us many years ago, & sincerely wish it cd be repeated.5
My wife joins in very kind remembrances to you & I remain | my dear Mr Appleton | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Wedgwood, Barbara and Wedgwood, Hensleigh. 1980. The Wedgwood circle, 1730–1897: four generations of a family and their friends. London: Studio Vista.
Summary
The specimen is not a fish but the larva of some batrachian or frog-like animal. Has sent it to British Museum, which says it resembles the axolotl of Mexico.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5427
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Gold Appleton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Boston Public Library Rare Books and Print Departments–Courtesy of the Trustees
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5427,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5427.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14
