To Edward Forbes [1 May – 5 June 1851]1
Down Farnboro. Kent.
Thursday.
My dear Forbes
I have read with much interest, Mr Bate’s paper & admired his beautiful & excellent drawings—2 I am sorry to say that Mr. Bates is not at all aware (as he suggests himself) how much has been published on the Cirripedia— I presume he would consider that the Chief Point in his paper is the fact that the metamorphosis commences under a quite different form (viz a six-legged little crustacean) compared with the last form described by V. Thompson;3 it must no doubt have been a great satisfaction to him having made out this important fact independently But Burmeister in his Beitrage zur an Rankenfüsse has published figures (poor) & detailed description of the whole series of similar changes in the larva of Anatifa4
And Goodsir in the Edin New. Phil. Journal. has done the same thing for Balanus—5 Goodsir’s figures of the first & second (not the last) stages are closely similar, but not identical with those of Mr Bates.— Mr B. does not seem aware of V. Thompson’s second Paper in Royal Soc Transt. on the first (N.B. V. Thompson did not even conjecture there were two stages) stage of the larva of Anatifa;6 for he gives a copy of Thompsons figure copied by Profr. Harvey of Dublin (not Captn!) in his sea side book.—7 I will give some other authorities not known to Mr Bates, who speaks of the mature Cirripedes not having eyes, which shows he has not heard of Profr. Leidy’s discovery8 which I have repeatedly verified having found optic nerve & ganglion &c.— Kölliker has figured the spermatozoa of Cirripedia,9 but as far as I have seen Mr Bates figures seem more accurate, than Kölliker, & yet I hardly like to distrust on such a subject such an observer.10
When Mr Bates speaks of the pulp (an inappropriate name I think) in the tubes of shell of Balanus being isolated, I conceive he is mistaken, as he would see if he read Dr. Coldstream’s paper in Encycp. of Anatomy—11 But the most valuable & extensive paper unknown to Mr Bates is by Martin St Ange read 16 years ago to the Acad: Sc: Paris, with excellent figures;12 if Mr Bates had read this he would have seen that his figure Tab. V. is very erroneous; I can assure him I have repeatedly verified St Ange’s observations; Mr B. makes the two so called testes (really vesiculæ seminales, the testes being quite distinct) debouch at the anus! & the alimentary canal debouch at the end of the probosciformed male organ or penis! My unpublished observations are of course of no authority but I see many points very different from Mr Bates, & it would be unfriendly not to caution him that his description of the female parts of generation are very far, as I believe from the truth.—13 Indeed St Ange would show this in two leading points & St Ange has been confirmed by Rudolph Wagner14 and Lovèn15 in parts of his description—
I do not know whether Mr Bates will think my advice uncalled for,16 but I would recommend him to publish only his observations on the larva out of Justice sake, alluding to Burmeister, &, Goodsir’s previous discovery of the great fact of the complex metamorphosis of the Cirripedia— Perhaps he had better look at Goodsir’s figures (Edin: New. Phil. Journal. July 1843) & see how near his are, & allude to points of difference, some of which I consider of very considerable interest I will add that letters of reference to each corresponding part would make his figures plainer in Tab I.— If I might venture to beg a favour it would be, when Mr Bates paper is published, if he would give me (supposing he has such) two or three specimens of the larva in the 2nd & 3rd stage as figured in Tab I. I should like to see rather a fuller description of the curious point on the basal segments of the legs, which Goodsir imperfectly figures—17 Would Mr Bates permit me in my introduction to my systematic volume to be published this autumn in which I shall give an abstract of my anatomical observations, to allude to his drawings of the early stages of the larva?18 One word more, would it not be advisable for Mr Bates to give some measurements of the embryo figured 18–19, for they must be excessively minute—19 The fact of the 21 segments being reckonable is exceedingly curious— Forgive this long letter, but I did not like to say simply—that parts of Mr Bates work had been forestalled without going into details—
Believe me dear Forbes with sincere thanks for your kind expressions about our bitter loss.20
Yours most truly. | C. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bate, Charles Spence. 1851. On the development of the Cirripedia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2d ser. 8: 324–32.
Burmeister, Karl Hermann Konrad. 1834. Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Rankenfüsser (Cirripedia). Berlin.
Coldstream, John. 1836. Cirrhopoda. In vol. 1 of Cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology, edited by Robert Bentley Todd. London.
Crisp, Dennis J. 1983. Extending Darwin’s investigations on the barnacle life-history. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 20: 73–83.
Goodsir, Henry D. S. 1843. On the sexes, organs of reproduction, and mode of development, of the cirripeds. Account of the Maidre of the fishermen, and descriptions of some new species of crustaceans. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 35: 88–104.
Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Martin-Saint-Ange, Gaspard Joseph. 1835. Mémoire sur l’organisation des cirripèdes et sur leurs rapports naturels avec les animaux articulés. Memoires présentés par divers Savans à l’Académie Royale des Sciences de l’Institut de France (Science Mathematiques et Physiques) 6: 513–55.
Thompson, John Vaughan. 1830. Memoir IV. On the cirripedes or barnacles; demonstrating their deceptive character; the extraordinary metamorphosis they undergo, and the class of animals to which they indisputably belong. In Zoological researches, and illustrations; or, natural history of nondescript or imperfectly known animals. 6 vols. Cork. 1828-34. Facsimile reprint. London:
Thompson, John Vaughan. 1835. Discovery of the metamorphosis in the second type of the Cirripedes, viz. the Lepades, completing the natural history of these singular animals, and confirming their affinity with the Crustacea. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, pp. 355–8.
Wagner, Rudolph. 1834. Ueber die Zeugungsorgane der Cirripeden und ihre Stellung im System. Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medizin, pp. 467– 73.
Summary
Comments on MS by C. S. Bate. Bate not aware of other work on Cirripedia; cites Bate’s errors. Would Bate allow CD to use his drawings in Living Cirripedia? [See Living Cirripedia 1: 9–16.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1214
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Edward Forbes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 144: 131
- Physical description
- C 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1214,” accessed on 8 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1214.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5