From Thompson Forster 8 November 1870
Daventry.
Nov 8th 1870
Dear Sir
I send you the outline of a case I think may be interesting to you if it is, it can be proved or tested anytime as the people live close to this town—
The father when a baby had disease of the hip joints, with dislocation & shortening, & the discharge of a large quantity of pus— in due course he married, & had children all sound but the second one wh had shortening of the leg of the same side at the hip joints, the whole side of the pelvis seemed smaller & the tuber ischii lower, the femur shorter & smaller, but never any indication of disease
In the father you feel a thickening see a scar & find by touch & measurement dislocation upwards of the femur, with general thickening, the leg shortened 3 inches. The Son without any evidences of disease with leg shortened, shortening entirely in Femur & pelvis into only general diminution of size1 should you think this case of any use as, proving the transmission of deformity from disease to offspring, I shall be happy to give you any further information you may require.
believe me | Yours Truly | Thompson Forster.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Details of an apparently hereditary deformity in a man.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7360
- From
- Thompson Forster
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Daventry
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 160
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7360,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7360.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18