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To George Maw   4 June [1865]

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

June 4

My dear Sir

The monstrosity of a proboscis-like prolongation of the snout occurs much more frequently as stated by Isidore Geoffroy than with any other animal; & therefore I presume is not rare.1 Should you wish to present the specimen to the Coll. of Surgeons you had better write to enquire whether it wd be acceptable, to—W. H. Flower Esq the Curator who occupies Professor Owen’s former place.2 I have attended a little to the belief of the effects of the imagination of the mother on the offspring, & must believe that the coincidence of the visit of the elephant & the birth of the monster was a simple accident.3

If you can find organic remains in the beds under the Drift in N. Wales, you will make a very interesting discovery.4

Pray excuse brevity as I am far from well5 & believe me my dear Sir | yours sincerely. | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
Maw had written about a case of animal monstrosity in his letter of 1 June 1865. CD refers to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1832–7, 3: 353. CD marked the sentence referring to pigs in his copy of the volume and also noted that a trunk was a common aberrant occurrence in pigs. CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 312–14). CD mentioned the frequency of the occurrence of a monstrous proboscis in pigs in Variation 2: 57–8 and cited Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1836.
2
William Henry Flower became curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1861. See also letter from George Maw, 1 June 1865, n. 5.
4
See letter from George Maw, 1 June 1865 and n. 6. In 1842, CD had visited many locations in north Wales and had written on the evidence of ancient glaciers there (‘Ancient glaciers of Caernarvonshire’). In a chapter written for a scientific manual, CD had emphasised the importance of using fossil remains to determine the age of geological deposits (Herschel ed. 1851).
5
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records CD’s health on 4 June 1865 as ‘languid and uncomf all day slight sick.’ See also letter to [Richard Kippist], 4 June [1865] and n. 4.

Bibliography

‘Ancient glaciers of Caernarvonshire’: Notes on the effects produced by the ancient glaciers of Caernarvonshire, and on the boulders transported by floating ice. By Charles Darwin. Philosophical Magazine 3d ser. 21 (1842): 180–8. [Shorter publications, pp. 140–7.]

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore. 1832–7. Histoire générale et particulière des anomalies de l’organisation chez l’homme et les animaux, ouvrage comprenant des recherches sur les charactères, la classification, l’influence physiologique et pathologique, les rapports généraux, les lois et les causes des monstruosites, des variétés et des vices de conformation, ou traité de tératologie. 3 vols. and atlas. Paris: J. B. Baillière.

Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Believes GM’s reported monstrosity is not rare. Does not believe it resulted from the effect of the imagination of the mother on her offspring.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4853
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
George Maw
Sent from
Down
Postmark
JU 6 65
Source of text
Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library (MAW/1/12)
Physical description
LS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4853,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4853.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13

letter

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