To Richard Owen [2 April 1848]1
Down Farnborough Kent
Sunday
My dear Owen
My notes have run out quite into a little treatise. There is not, however, a word which I should not have been most deeply grateful for, when I started on my voyage.2
If too long, there is no harm done, for you can cut it about as much as you like. I really felt it a relief of gratitude to my dear microscope praising it, after having worked for years with one, such as is generally sold. Hooker gave me many hints & he is a really beautiful dissector, as I have seen. Both he & R. Brown have praised to me beyond measure the Adies lenses, which I have recommended, as I have, also, found them excellent.—3 I do not think there can be any objection, though that of course is for your decision, to the note I have put, that the kind of microscope, recommended can be seen at Smith; for this is really the best advice that can be given.—4
I sent in my M.S a fortnight ago & it has been lost, I believe at the Admiralty: is it not an accursed bore.—5
I will call on you, rather early on Wednesday morning, as I want much to have of an hour’s talk,6 & likewise I want to look at Thompson’s Zoolog. Researches. & Goadby’s preparations of the Lepas, especially that of the nervous system:— could you let me look at it, through a simple or weak compound microscope? If you shd. be going out, wd you be so very kind as to leave the Book & preparations out for me.7
Thanks for your Synopsis: it is quite instructive to read the mere Headings; how glad I shall be to see it in type.8
Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Jardine, Boris. 2009. Between the Beagle and the barnacle: Darwin’s microscopy, 1837–1854. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 40: 382–95.
Rupke, Nicolaas A. 1985. Richard Owen’s Hunterian lectures on comparative anatomy and physiology, 1837–55. Medical History 29: 237–58.
Thompson, John Vaughan. 1828–34. Zoological researches, and illustrations; or natural history of nondescript or imperfectly known animals, in a series of memoirs. Cork: King and Ridings.
Summary
Apologises for length of notes of advice for microscopic work.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1167F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Owen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Hyde 77: 2. 82. 1)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1167F,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1167F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)