To J. D. Hooker 25 September [1866]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Sept. 25th
My dear Hooker
My poor sister still lives, but is dying.2 It is a great comfort that she has now ceased suffering & doses nearly all day long. She wishes poor thing earnestly for death, & really death is nothing compared with much suffering. It will soon now all be over.—
Many thanks for two kind notes from you, & for the loan of Sering.3 It will please me much to receive Drosera; not that I am in the least hurry.4 Can you give me another plant Erica Massoni; for I presume it is not to be bought, being described by Loudon as “grotesque”. I see it is said to catch very many insects & even once a Kitty-wren. I want to look at its glands in comparison with those of Drosera.—5
Have you read or heard of Agassiz’s new doctrine that the whole of the valley of Amazons was filled from Cordillera to beyond mouth of river with gigantic glacier! & that all striæ have disappeared owing to Tropical climate!! There never was so monstrous a notion.6 Asa Gray says he started with determination to prove the whole globe covered with ice for purpose of destroying all terrestrial productions & thus destroying “Darwinian views”. He rushed down immediately on his arrival to the Academy, & announced my destruction.—7
Talking of my views, did you see a Review in last Gard. Chronicle on Murray: by Jove if Masters wrote that he is up to snuff, & he will stand much higher than before in my estimation of his powers. It seemed to me very good.— It hits the nail on the head so truly & so hard & yet so gently.—8
Have you seen Frankland’s Lecture on muscular force read before Royal Inn.— he was so kind as to send it me, & I have liked it very much, though here & there there were bits I could not fully understand.—9
I suppose you are, as usual, very very busy. I wonder when you will find time to finish off your Lecture, & when you will publish it.10 All your doings at Nottingham seem to have troubled much the good people at Dundee, who dread such infidel doctrines.11 I hope Wallace’s paper will be published; I have seen not even a moderate abstract of it—12
Farewell | my dear old Friend.— | Yours affectly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Frankland, Edward. 1866. On the source of muscular power. [Read 8 June 1866.] Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 4 (1862–6): 661–85.
Loudon, John Claudius. 1841. An encyclopædia of plants. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
Lurie, Edward. 1960. Louis Agassiz: a life in science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Murray, Andrew. 1866. The geographical distribution of mammals. London: Day and Son.
Russell, Colin Archibald. 1996. Edward Frankland: chemistry, controversy and conspiracy in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seringe, Nicolas Charles. 1830. Pommier monstrueux de St.-Vallery, avec une notice sur la disposition des carpelles de plusieurs fruits. Bulletin Botanique ou Collection de Notices Originales et d’Extraits des Ouvrages Botaniques no. 5, May 1830, pp. 117–25.
Summary
Susan Darwin still lives, but is dying.
Requests an Erica massoni to compare with Drosera.
On L. Agassiz’s "astonishing" view that Amazon Valley was filled with gigantic glacier. Asa Gray says LA is determined to cover the globe with glaciers in order to destroy "Darwinian views".
Excellent review of A. Murray [The geographical distribution of mammals] in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1866): 902].
Frankland’s Royal Institution lecture ["On the source of muscular power" Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 4 (1862–6): 661–85].
Wallace’s paper.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5217
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 300
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5217,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5217.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14