From George Maw 27 August [1861]1
Benthall Hall, | nr. Broseley.
27th. Augt. 62
Dear Sir
I just write a line to thank you for yr. letter of the 19th. July & the consideration you have given my review.2 I should have written sooner but only got back from an absence of 5 weeks on the continent last Thursday.
Several fresh points have occurred to me since I last wrote & as soon as I can find time to note them down I shall take the liberty of troubling you with a further communication3 Pray do not however feel any necessity to reply as you have doubtless something better to occupy yr time than to answer all the communications that are made to you on the subject of yr book
Believe me Dear Sir | very truly yrs. | Geo Maw.
Charles Darwin Esqr
an immense number of cases of correlation of organization have occurred to me.—4 all the fancy varieties of scarlet Pelargonium that have contracted or imperfect leaves have contracted flowers5 castration of many male animals—as the ox tribe where the contour of the 2 sexes is notably distinct producing the contour of the female is another remarkable instance of correlated organization— The number of isolated functions that become co-modified at Parturition—as Production of Milk in the mother—Respiration of Fœtus—Independent circulation in fœtus—completed organization of heart of fœtus all taking place at the time of independent existence looks wonderfully like preordination—or when we remember that the imperfection of any one of these processes would be death to the fœtus, how difficult is it to believe that they can have been accumulated by gradual modifications.
CD annotations
CD note:7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Maw, George. 1861. The pavements of Uriconium. Journal of the British Archaeological Association 17: 100–10.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Thanks CD for his letter about GM’s review of the Origin.
Sends instances of correlative organisation and functions which he finds difficult to believe could have accumulated by gradual modifications.
[Letter erroneously dated 1862 by GM.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3236
- From
- George Maw
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Broseley
- Source of text
- DAR 99: 11–12
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp ††, CD note
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3236,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3236.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9