To William Henry Sykes 20 December [1859]1
Down Bromley Kent
Dec. 20th.—
My dear Sir
As this note requires no acknowledgment or answer, I trust to your kindness to excuse my troubling you.2 Mr Blyth hears that there is some chance of a naturalist being appointed for the China Expedition, & he is very anxious to receive this appointment.—3 I think that it is of infinite importance that a skilled naturalist should go rather than a mere collector. Mr Blyth seems to me well fitted for the post, from having attended to several branches of natural history; & he has lately been specially attending to Chinese productions.—
Therefore I venture to hope that you may be favourably inclined to support the appointment of a naturalist to the Chinese Expedition & that Mr Blyth should have the place.—4 I do not know how far you are now directly concerned with Indian affairs; but your indirect influence must be great.—5
With apologies for troubling you, I remain | My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Urges appointment of Edward Blyth as naturalist on an expedition to China.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2588
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Henry Sykes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.185)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2588,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2588.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7