Sir

Your letter in Nature of July 21 induces me to send you the following particulars as, perhaps, not without interest.¹

The right side of my forehead is appreciably more prominent than the left, so much so that I am obliged to have my hats specially made for me. This distortion of my head was caused, as I have always been informed, during a very severe illness which I had when about a year old in the course of which the nurse carried me about a great deal and rather carelessly; the pressure of her arm against the head causing the distortion. No other member of the family, except the one presently to be mentioned has, as far as I am aware, a similar configuration of the head.

Having always been under the impression that such malformations, accidentally caused, are not transmitted I was not a little astonished to find that my eldest son, now about four years old, had, at birth, an exactly similar shape of head the right side of the forehead being more prominent than the left and this peculiarity still exists.

Two other boys, twins, born subsequently are free from this malformation.²

Although a scientific chemist and not a naturalist I have read many of your works and papers with the greatest interest and admiration and should be greatly pleased if the foregoing is of any interest to you.

Yours very respectfully | A. Dupré

Charles Darwin Esq^r. F.R.S. | &c &c &c