To Lawson Tait 11 June [1875]1
Abinger Hall | Wotton, Surrey
June 11th
My dear Sir
I telegraphed to my son to bring Bronn, but he has brought wrong work, & I cannot hunt for passage about tails of mice, if, as I believe there is such a passage.2
I enclose memorandum by my eldest son, who has just read book referred to, & quotes from my memory, but you may trust his his memory— The case illustrates well your view of use of bushy tails.—3
I shall be proud if you think fit to dedicate your essay to me.—
It is very kind of Mrs Tait to offer to aid me in proofs, but I fear that it is indispensable for me to correct my own proofs.—4
Believe me | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
P.S. It has just occurred to me to look at the Origin of Sp. (6th Edit. p. 170, & it is certain that Bronn in the appended Chapt. to his translation of my book into German, did advance ears & tail of various species of mice as a difficulty opposed to Nat. Selection.— I answered with respect to ears by alluding to Schöbl curious paper (I forget when published) on the hairs of the ears being sensitive & provided with nerves.—5 I presume he made fine sections: if you are accustomed to such histological work, wd it not be worth while to examine hairs of tail of mice?
At p. 189 I quote Henslow (confirmed by Günther) of Mus messorius (& other species?) using tail as prehensile organ.—6
[Enclosure]
Dr. Kane in his account of the Second Grinnell Expedition says that the Esquimaux in severe weather carry a fox’ tail tied to the neck which they use as a respirator by holding the tip of the tail between their teeth7
He says also that he found a frozen fox curled up with his nose buried in his tail.
NB. It is just possible that the latter fact is stated by McClintock not by Dr Kane8
Footnotes
Bibliography
ANB: American national biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 vols. and supplement. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999–2002.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Kane, Elisha Kent. 1856. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54, ’55. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson.
McClintock, Francis Leopold. 1859. The voyage of the Fox in the Arctic seas: a narrative of the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions. London: John Murray.
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
Has found that H. G. Bronn in the chapter appended to his translation of Origin cited ears and tail of mice as facts opposed to natural selection. Suggests RLT examine hairs of tails of mice for possible nerves.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10013
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
- Sent from
- Abinger Hall
- Source of text
- DAR 221.5: 24–5
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp, encl 1p (photocopy)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10013,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10013.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23