From Allen Thomson 31 December 1876
68 Palace Gardens Terrace | London. W.
31st. Decr. 1876.
Dear Mr. Darwin
Your letter with Mr. Balfour’s application for admission to the Royal Society was forwarded to me at this place, where Mrs. Thomson and I have been for a few days on a visit to our son and daughter in law.1
I have great pleasure in signing the application which I now return enclosed. I have not known of any person in this country who in my time has so fully mastered the subject of embryonic development, and who in so short a time has made such valuable contributions by his own observations to the knowledge of its details in the Vertebrata as Mr. Balfour: And I look for very important results from the continuation of his researches.2
I have long had a great desire to renew my acquaintance with you, which if I mistake not dates from an early period in Edinburgh as far back as the days of the Old Plinian Society, and I hope that in the Course of next summer when I may be in London I may have the good fortune to meet with you.3
I return to Glasgow tomorrow to resume my College duties after the holidays.4
Believe me sincerely yours | Allen Thomson
Footnotes
Bibliography
Ashworth, J. H. 1935. Charles Darwin as a student in Edinburgh, 1825–1827. [Read 28 October 1935.] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 55 (1934–5): 97–113.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Is happy to sign F. M. Balfour’s application for admission to the Royal Society.
Remembers CD from Edinburgh days.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10740
- From
- Allen Thomson
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Palace Gardens Terrace, 68
- Source of text
- DAR 178: 112
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10740,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10740.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24