To G. H. Darwin [6 December 1874]1
Sunday
My dear George.
I think your historical sketch will do very well & has interested me.2 I return it by this post But there are some sentences at p. 1 & 2 which do not run well. ie I had to reread them & then their meaning was obvious p. 3. what do you mean by “acquired” insanity— you use it more than once—3 Do you mean non-congenital insanity; but I never heard of congenital insanity— I daresay you have authority for expression.—
The penultimate sentence of the whole is (to quote a marginal criticism by Etty on one of my books) “too hideous”.—4
I congratulate you on this paper being finished. I have always thought that you undervalue it— For Heaven sake put sentence in in some conspicious place that your results seem to indicate that consanguineous marriage as far as insanity is concerned, cannot be injurious in any very high degree.—5
There is no danger of subjects failing you!!!6 Poor dear mother is very bad,—in bed for 2 days with usual headaches.— Uncles Ras7 wonderful, talking splendidly— I am off to Huxley & am in great force.8
Yours affec | C. Darwin
P.S. I have had the satisfaction of telling Huxley all about the Q. R. & you, of which he had never heard; & he was very indignant & said he wd. look to the article.—9 He looked quite savage & pitched into the hypocrite in right good style.—
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.
[Mivart, St George Jackson.] 1874b. Primitive man: Tylor and Lubbock. [Essay review of the works of John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor.] Quarterly Review 137 (1874): 40–77.
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
Returns historical sketch [of GHD’s "cousin paper"?] with comments. "For Heavens sake put a sentence in some conspicuous place that your results seem to indicate that consanguineous marriage, as far as insanity is concerned, cannot be injurious in any very high degree."
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9746
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Howard Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Bryanston St, 2
- Source of text
- DAR 210.1: 42
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9746,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9746.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22