From G. H. Darwin to Henry Rayner 28 January 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Jan 28. 74
Dear Sir,
I write to thank you most cordially for the readiness you have shown in helping me in my inquiry, & in these thanks my father desires me to join his name.—1
Do I understand you right in supposing that all cases in which there was any reasonable doubt as to the correctness of the answers given to the question about consanguineity of parents, are excluded from the 314 cases you give me?2
From the returns sent me by Dr. Crichton Brown of Wakefield I should expect amongst the lower classes that there wd be a considerable number of persons ignorant of their parentage.3 If however, as I understand you, all such doubtful cases are excluded the percentage is remarkably low. I should much like to investigate the case of Whitstaple, but I do not know how I cd do so, & besides it wd. be somewhat a different class of enquiry from that which I have undertaken.4 Your hint however on phthisis & scrofula is valuable & I shall try to act on it5
Believe me | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | G H Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Darwin, George Howard. 1875a. Marriages between first cousins in England and their effects. [Read 16 March 1875.] Journal of the Statistical Society of London 38: 153–84.
Summary
Gives his and CD’s thanks for information on consanguinity among parents of asylum inmates.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9257F
- From
- George Howard Darwin
- To
- Henry Rayner
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bernard Quaritch (dealers) (2003, 2007)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9257F,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9257F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22