To A. W. Howitt [September 1874]1
I have not at present any subject on which I want information from Australia, but I will not forget your obliging offer.2 If the suggestion has not already occurred to you, will you allow me to make one viz.—to keep full & accurate notes of the mental powers, such as the capacity of abstract reasoning etc. etc. of the Australians.3 Also of their quasi-religious beliefs,—their curious marriage laws; & all other such points. With your means of obtaining information, & with your scientific habits of thought, you could certainly write a very valuable memoir or book, in the course of a few years.4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
Howitt, Alfred William. 1904.The native tribes of south-east Australia. London: Macmillan and Co.
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
Thanks Howitt for his offer of information from Australia and suggests that Howitt keep detailed notes for a future publication.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9617F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alfred William Howitt
- Source of text
- M. H. Walker 1971, pp. 221 and 338 n. 25
- Physical description
- ALS
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9617F,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9617F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22
