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To James Dwight Dana    15 June [1851]1

Down, Farnborough, Kent,

June 15, 1851.

I thank you much for your note of the 13th of May, and the tracings of the curious Bopyrid.2

Considering how overwhelmed you are with work, I am quite sorry that you should have had this trouble.3 I have always been utterly astonished at the amount of work which you have done, and allow me to add that I have been frightened at it. I do not believe any head can long withstand such work; reflect sometimes how much you will do if you can keep ten years of good health. I know to my cost what ill-health is,—may you never have my experience.

Footnotes

1
Gilman 1899 gives the year as 1857. However, both the address ‘Down, Farnborough, Kent’, used by CD prior to October 1855, and the subject of the letter suggest an earlier date. CD had mentioned his intention to send Dana specimens of parasitic Crustacea found attached to cirripedes in a letterto J. D. Dana, 24 February [1850] (Correspondence vol. 4). In Living Cirripedia (1851): 55 n., CD described these forms as related to Bopyrus. This suggests that the letter may have been written as early as 15 June 1851, perhaps in response to Dana’s letter of 13 May (now missing) mentioned in the text.
2
See n. 1, above.
3
In 1851, Dana was engaged in preparing his report on Crustacea collected by the United States Exploring Expedition (Dana 1852–3).

Summary

Thanks for note of 13 May and tracings of the "curious Bopyrid".

Is astonished at amount of work JDD does and frightened it will cause ill-health, such as CD has experienced.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-2107
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
James Dwight Dana
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Gilman 1899, p. 310

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2107,” accessed on 7 December 2019, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2107.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7 (Supplement)

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