From Anton Dohrn 28 February 1871
Jena.
28.2.1871.
My dear Sir!
My sincerest thanks for the great kindness, with which you have remembered, how ardently I take interest in the Development of your great theory. I know, you dislike anything like compliments,—therefore I suppress, what I really felt, when I got the two Volumes into my hands.1 I will study them to the best of my faculties,—and I hope I may learn, how one becomes a great benefactor of science not o⟨nly⟩ by intellectual but also by moral faculties. This union I will always remember, whenever I pronounce or think your name. But here I’ll stop, else you would cast aside my letter.
I am glad, that I can tell you the best about my progresses in Embryology of Insects. The Parallelism to the Embryology of Vertebrates becomes greater and greater; I have tried with the best success to prepare sections of the eggs, and this method, which has not yet been applied to so small objects, furnishes me a deeper insight into the Problems of histological Development of Arthropods than my predecessors enjoyed.
I have also succeeded to get the embryos of Limulus, and I hope I may have succeeded in treating the morphological questions of the Pterygotus, Trilobits etc.2 There is nothing like Isopod like structure. It is difficult to bring them into any distinct relation to the Crustacea. It looks rather like a rudiment of a lost order, whose chief representatives were the Trilobits. But it is necessary to examine living eggs and embryos. The Americans will not do for this sort of work.3
I hope your health is well and you will let us have in time the new work, you speak of in your Preface.4
Remember me kindly to Mrs. Darwin and to the members of your family, to whom I am so much indebted for the beautiful hours spent in your house.5
Ever yours truly devoted | Anton Dohrn
The Zoological Station has happily overcome a good deal of difficulties and is slowly advancing!6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Heuss, Theodor. 1991. Anton Dohrn: a life for science. Translated from the German by Liselotte Dieckmann. Berlin and New York: Springer Verlag.
Kuhn, Alfred. 1950. Anton Dohrn und die Zoologie seiner Zeit. Pubblicazioni della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli, Supplemento 1950. Naples: Edizione della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli.
Packard, Alpheus Spring, Jr. 1870. On the embryology of Limulus polyphemus. [Read August 1870 before the American Association for the Advancement of Science.] Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science n.s. 11 (1871): 263–7.
Summary
Thanks CD for Variation.
From his work on insect embryology he sees a great parallelism between insect and vertebrate embryology.
The zoological station is slowly advancing.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7520
- From
- Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Jena
- Source of text
- DAR 162: 206
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7520,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7520.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19