To T. H. Farrer 31 July [1877]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
July 31st
My dear Farrer
I cannot advise, as I know hardly any of the younger entomologists. The man ought to know the larvæ of the genus, & very few entomologists in England have attended to the larvæ of insects. He ought, also, to have attended to the destruction of insects.2 I think Prof Westwood of Oxford wd. be the best man to advise, as he formerly & for many years wrote for Gardener’s Chronicle.— He was lately or is Pres. Ent. Soc. & so knows the younger men; & the man ought to be young & active.3
I may tell you privately that the man who probably wd. expect to be appointed & whom many persons wd. recommend is Andrew Murray, who has lately been propounding wild schemes about the destruction of all insect-pests;4 but he is in my judgment a prodigy for his incapacity for forming a reasonable opinion on any subject.— He has just published such nonsense about carbonic acid & Plants.—5
Lindley, former Ed. of Gard. Ch.6 & a very acute man, I know, thought Andrew Murray a wonderful blockhead & yet he is in one sense a clever man.
This is all the little which I have got to say.— | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
We shall be quite delighted to come to Abinger.—7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Clark, J. F. M. 2009. Bugs and the Victorians. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press.
Murray, Andrew. 1877. Experiments on the flow of the sap. Gardeners’ Chroncle, 21 July 1877, pp. 72–4.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
THF is seeking advice regarding the selection of an entomologist to carry out some duties [apparently pest destruction].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11083
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- V&A / Wedgwood Collection (MS W/M 546)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11083,” accessed on 7 June 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11083.xml