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Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, W. B. Carpenter, and Michael Foster   [7 April 1874]1

Circular to Sir J. Lubbock Bart M.P.2 P. L. Slater Esq FRS Z. Soc. H. Sqr3 Sir C. Lyell Bart4 73 Harley St Dr. Carpenter F.R.S.— 56 R. P. Road N.W.5 Dr Michael Foster FRS Gt Shelford Cambridge

Will you be so kind as to read the enclosed statement, & if you approve of it sign your name in ink.6 You will observe that your signature does not in the least pledge you to any subscription.—If you do not like to sign, please strike out your name in a pencil mark; & in any case be so good as to forward it (together with this circular) to the next name at the head of this circular.

Time is of much importance & some will be thus saved. Dr. Michael Foster after receiving a certain number of signatures, will get the statement printed, & will circulate it. I may add that several further subscriptions have already been promised.

Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter, the letter from Michael Foster, 7 April [1874], and the letter to John Lubbock, 8 April [1874].
Philip Lutley Sclater was secretary of the Zoological Society, located at 11 Hanover Square, London W. (DSB, Post Office London directory, 1875).
William Benjamin Carpenter lived at 56 Regent’s Park Road, London (Post Office London directory 1875).
The enclosure, an appeal for the Zoological Station at Naples, has not been found; see, however, the letter from Michael Foster, 7 April [1874].

Bibliography

DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.

Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.

Summary

Circular requesting recipients to sign an enclosed [missing] statement [relating to appeal for Naples Zoological Station] if they approve of it.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9384
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury; Philip Lutley Sclater; Charles Lyell, 1st baronet; William Benjamin Carpenter; Michael Foster
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 97: C52–3
Physical description
ADraftS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9384,” accessed on 5 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9384.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

letter