To George Rolleston 24 August [1876]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S. E. R.
Aug 24
My dear Sir
I write one line, though you kindly tell me not to do so, to thank you for your notes & essays.2 I am pleased to hear about the appendages in S. verrucosus, as possibly reversion may account for the odd manner in which these appendages appear in the domestic races. Considering how much structure they exhibit, their sudden appearance has caused me some perplexity.3
I shd. have been not only pleased, but delighted, at what you say about S. verrucosus had it not been that apparently similar appendages occasionally appear on the necks of goats; & the idea of reversion to a common progenitor of goats & pigs stumps me. I wish I had given a fuller account instead of only mentioning these goat-appendages in the 2d. Edit. of my Var. under Dom. Vol I. p. 106.— Drawings were sent me with the account, & I have no doubt that the account was authentic.—4
I am extremely glad that you have taken up the parentage of some of our domestic animals.
Pray believe me | Yours sincerely & obliged | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks GR for his notes and essays [see 10581].
Similar appendages to those GR mentions [see 10581] appear on the necks of goats, but the idea of reversion to a common progenitor of goats and pigs "stumps" CD.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10582F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Rolleston
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- George family (private collection) [but the images are from a facsimile DAR 185: 124]
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10582F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10582F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24