From Asa Gray 7 March 1872
Botanic Garden, | Cambridge, Mass.
March 7, 1872
Dear Darwin
Mr. Packard, one of our best entomologists a most excellent & modest man, has asked to be introduced to you that he may pay his respects.1
I shy or refuse such applications generally—saying you can rarely see visitors, or callers.
But Packard is “fish to your net”—has his head crammed with facts bearing on derivation—is a disciple of the Hyatt-Cope school, that you may have heard of,—people who have got hold of what they call a law—tho’ I do not see that they contribute any vera causa at all.2
Packard has a bad palate, so can’t be a hard talker. But he speaks quite intelligibly, and is very sensible
If you will turn the world of science upside down, you must expect that people will wish to see you.
I am just getting rid of a troublesome state of throat, that has bothered me much, and is always liable to return.
Mrs. Gray,3 about as usual for health, joins in kind regards to you and yours. | Sincerely yours | A. Gray
The very sad news comes to-day that Mrs. Charles Norton4 died at Dresden—8 days after child-birth!
Footnotes
Bibliography
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
A. S. Packard would like to visit CD to pay his respects.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8237
- From
- Asa Gray
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass.
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 179
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8237,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8237.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20