To Albert Gaudry 27 May [1867]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
May 27
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your kind letter, & for the present of your two memoirs. The one in the Bulletin I shd have naturally seen, but perhaps not that one in the Archives.2
I have been very glad to read this latter paper, as all inosculating forms are very interesting to me. I quite agree with what you say on the extreme interest of attempting to affiliate extinct & existing Species.3
With your great knowledge you will no doubt produce some valuable results, & I feel well convinced that in the course of time the most interesting genealogical tables will be constructed. I am aware that there are very few naturalists in France who at all concur with our views & therefore I presume you will meet with much opposition.4
I am at present printing a book “on the variation of animals & plants under domestication”; which will I believe be translated into French, & in this case I will direct the publisher to send you a copy, though I do not suppose it will possess much interest for you.5 I am much obliged for yr kind wish to see me in Paris; I shd much enjoy this but the state of my health renders it impossible.—
With very sincere respect | I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Stebbins, Robert E. 1988. France. In The comparative reception of Darwinism, edited by Thomas F. Glick. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Summary
Is much obliged for AG’s two memoirs ["Mémoire sur le reptile découvert par M. Frossard", Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 3 (1867): 21–40; Bull. Soc. Géol. France 2d ser. 24 (1867): 397–400].
All "inosculating forms" are very interesting to CD.
Agrees with AG on the importance of attempts to affiliate extinct and existing species.
Will send French edition of Variation when published.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5554
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Albert-Jean (Albert) Gaudry
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Milan (Library: Fondo Gaudry b. 7, fasc. 28, doc. 2)
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5554,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5554.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15
