To B. T. Lowne 3 June 1873
Down,
June 3—1873
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged for the present of your book, which I have read with uncommon interest.1 It strikes me as a remarkable work, & I hope it may get as wide a circulation as it deserves, for it will assuredly do much good.
The first, & philosophical portion has struck me much. You are a bold man to speak in favour of pangenesis, and some of your observations on this subject seem to me excellent: notwithstanding the many sneers to which it has been subjected, I have faith that some such doctrine will finally prevail.2 We differ on some points, as might have been expected. I cannot, for instance digest Paget’s and your view about excretion.3 On some other points on which we differ, I am quite ready to admit that I am probably wrong; & everything which you say well deserves consideration.
You please me greatly by the manner in which you have discussed some of my remarks, as these, as far as I know, have attracted the attention of no one else. I heartily hope that your book may be in every way successful & I remain with sincere thanks | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lowne, Benjamin Thompson. 1873. The philosophy of evolution. London: John Van Voorst.
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.
Paget, James. 1853. Lectures on surgical pathology delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 2 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Comments on BTL’s book [The philosophy of evolution (1873)].
"You are a bold man to speak in favour of pangenesis."
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8934
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Benjamin Thompson Lowne
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 146: 57
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8934,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8934.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21