To George Newport 24 July [1851]
Down Farnborough | Kent
July 24th.
My dear Sir
Your kindness some two or three years ago in showing me your manner of dissecting1 induces me to believe, that you would be willing to oblige, me, if it be in your power, by lending me one of your old pair scissors sharpened by yourself, & adapted for the finest dissections, in order that I may shame Mess. Weiss & Co2 to endeavour to make me an equally good pair, (but to open with a spring & mounted with one arm long, for I have in vain endeavoured to cut in the wonderful manner I saw you do with one elbow pointed to the sky); for an eminent cutter ought to be able to make as good an article as you: Weiss has made me two pair, but they are very poor articles.
Very shortly after I spent that extremely interesting morning with you,3 my health quite gave way & for many months I did nothing, since then I have been greatly restored, but have found the excitement of London so injurious, that I have seldom come up;4 had it not been for this, I shd. have ventured to have intruded myself on you again.—
I have at last finished my last page of M.S. on the pedunculated Cirripedia for the Ray Soc: will you tell me,whether you are member,5 for if you are not, I hope you will let me send you a copy, when published as if some small part of my volume should interest you, & some half dozen other naturalists in Europe of your class, I shd. be amply repaid for my long continued & often interrupted labours.—
Pray understand that if you have not an old pair of scissors, which you can spare for a week or fortnight, on no account whatever think of sending them: in case you can, they would not be too heavy, (well protected) for the Post.—
I hope you will forgive me for asking this favour, & believe me | My dear Sir | Your’s sincerely | C. Darwin
P.S. I ask in fact for another naturalist, as well as myself, namely John Lubbock,6 the eldest son of Sir John, my neighbour, who has taken a passion for dissecting & whom I have often told of your skill & your scissors,—alas, I fear the skill has more to do with success, than the scissors.—
I hope that your health is good: it was not quite so, when I saw you.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Hutchinson, Horace Gordon. 1914. Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury. 2 vols. London: Macmillan.
Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.
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
Asks to borrow an old pair of GN’s dissecting scissors so that Weiss & Co. can use it as a model.
Health has been poor.
Has finished MS on pedunculated cirripedes for Ray Society [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1 (1851)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1445
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Newport
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Linnean Society of London
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1445,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1445.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5
