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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Abraham Dee Bartlett   5 January [1870]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Jan 5th

My dear Sir

Many thanks about Limulus.2 I am going to ask another favour, but I do not want to trouble you to answer it by letter.

When the Callithrix sciureus screams violently does it wrinkle up the skin round the eyes like a Baby always does? When thus screaming do the eyes become suffused with moisture? Will you ask Sutton to observe carefully.— Could you make it scream without hurting it much?3

I shd. be truly obliged some time for this information, when in Spring I come to Gardens,—or Sutton cd. write to me.—4

Your’s very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Anton Dohrn, 4 January 1870.
See letter to Anton Dohrn, 4 January 1870. Bartlett’s letter to CD has not been found.
Callithrix sciureus, the squirrel monkey, is now Saimiri sciureus. CD discussed the secretion of tears by screaming monkeys in Expression, pp. 166–7, but did not mention Callithrix. CD also refers to Seth Sutton.
CD stayed in London from 5 to 10 March 1870 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). No letter from Bartlett or Sutton on the subject has been found.

Bibliography

Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Summary

Thanks ADB for Limulus.

Does Callithrix sciureus wrinkle the skin around its eyes when it screams? Do the eyes become suffused with moisture?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7072
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Abraham Dee Bartlett
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7072,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7072.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18

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