From J. I. Rogers 12 October 1876
119, Cannon Street, | London, | E.C
12th October/76.
Dear Sir,
My brother George Rogers of 5 Fancy Lane, Calcutta, asks me to send you the following which he thinks may interest you:—
“One of my Palanquin bearers1 has his hands divided like a cow’s foot. The middle fingers and metacarpal bones (that is the bone at the back of the hand) are entirely wanting & the hands are as I say divided right down the centre as far as the wrist bone. The man was of course born that way & the skin is perfect. There appears to be a small lump which may be a rudimentary middle finger inside the forefinger, but I should have thought that the rudimentary fin⟨gers⟩ (if any there be) would be found attached to the wrist bone. The man will be burned when he dies so there will be no chance of securing the hands for a museum but in the meantime I could get any examination made that Mr Darwin would like.”2
My brother’s commission must be my excuse for trespassing on your time, | And believe me to be, | Dear Sir, yours obdtly | J Innes Rogers
C. Darwin Esq F.RS. | Beckenham.
Footnotes
Bibliography
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Olson, Carl. 2007. The many colors of Hinduism: a thematic-historical introduction. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Rutgers University Press.
Summary
His brother, George, reports from Calcutta a case of a man whose hands are divided like a cow’s foot.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10640
- From
- John Innes Rogers
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Cannon St, 119
- Source of text
- DAR 176: 195
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10640,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10640.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24
