Turner, professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, is identified as the recipient of this letter in an annotation on the copy from which this transcription is taken; the copy was sent to Francis Darwin after CD’s death. The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to the Medical Times and Gazette, [before 29 March 1873] (Correspondence vol. 30, Supplement).

James Murie had resigned from his post as prosector to the Zoological Society of London in 1870 ostensibly on the grounds of ill health, having fallen out with colleagues there; CD had subsequently provided a reference in support of Murie’s unsuccessful application for a professorship at the Royal Veterinary College (Correspondence vol. 19, letter from James Murie, 2 March 1871 and n. 6; Correspondence vol. 20, letter to James Murie, 2 April 1872). Murie had responded to queries from CD on a number of occasions, and CD cited him in Descent 1: 151 for information suggesting that the embedded caudal vertebrae of Macacus inornatus were analogous to the coccyx in humans (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter from James Murie, 1 May 1868).