From H. B. Dobell 12 May 1863
29 Duncan Terr
May 12 1863.
Dear Mr Darwin
I have delayed writing that I might send you a copy of the “Table”.1 Allow me now to thank you very much for your kind & valuable suggestions for the improvement of the table—all of which you will find embodied in the enclosed form.2
I have this day had a letter from the country informing me of the birth of a child with two thumbs on one hand, & I am going to ask that one may be amputated & the result watched. I have just obtained the particulars of a case of a man with two thumbs on one hand (never amputated) who had 8 children neither of whom has any defect in the digits.3
I have just been informed that one child of the married cousins with deformed hands, is showing signs of disposition in the hands to assume the family deformity— I have not seen it yet but will report progress to you when I have.4
With many thanks | Believe me very truly, | Horace Dobell
Ch. Darwin Esq.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Dobell, Horace. 1862. A contribution to the natural history of hereditary transmission. [Read 25 November 1862.] Medico-Chirurgical Transactions 46: 25–8.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Sends copy of the table, which now embodies CD’s suggestions [see 4117].
Gives instances of persons born with two thumbs and comments on hereditary factor.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4158A
- From
- Horace Benge Dobell
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Duncan Terrace, 29
- Source of text
- Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL (bound with G 395, Dobell 1862)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4158A,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4158A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11