My dear M^rs Dowie

I thank you most warmly for all the trouble you have so kindly taken, & for your two very pleasant letters.² You flatter me (though this is not the proper word) so delightfully about my old friends, the tendrils, that I must send you my book just published about new friends, “Insectivorous Plants”; though there are only bits here & there which readable.—³

I sh^d like very much to go to Bristol & have long wished to attend one more Brit. Assocⁿ., but I cannot stand so much excitement & talk.⁴

Now for business,—nothing can be clearer or fuller than your account; but I am much perplexed what to conclude, as Paget thinks the interest or importance of the case largely depends on the certainty of the removal of the base of the bone. He has known an amputated stump of the humerus to grow a little, but thinks this very different from a quite new bone being reformed.—.⁵ I hope that you will not think I have acted badly, when I say that to give him confidence I told him it was your Father who gave me the information & that Prof. Syme⁶ was the operator. I told him not to mention your Father’s name to anyone & he says he has not done so; but has applied to M^r Annandale⁷ (Syme’s assistant) who applied to his Sister⁸ to know whether Syme had ever mentioned any such case; but he never had to either.

Under these circumstances, & as Pagets excellent judgment w^d be of greatest value to me, I hope I may lay an abstract of your Fathers diary & of the facts which you mention, before him,—again cautioning him not to mention names to anyone.⁹ I feel bound in honour either to strike out whole case & confess to an error, or to substantiate my statement by details & by the judgment of an experienced physiologist & surgeon, like Paget.¹⁰

Now there is one other thing, could you persuade your sister to make a tracing of her hand, the palm being placed quite flat on the paper with the pencil held vertically all the time.¹¹ This would show form of the protuberance & its size. You would of course say that this tracing will be considered as strictly confidential.

Believe me that I feel deeply grateful to you, for to be indirectly accused of perverting the truth is the most painful acusation which can be made against me.

I remain dear M^rs Dowie | Yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

P.S If your sister consents to oblige, perhaps it w^d be best to give two tracings, one with palm flat on paper, & the other with the back of the hand flat on paper.¹²