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From J. G. F. Riedel   10 March 1877

Tandjang pandan | Belitoong1

10 Mars 1877.

Sir!

I beg you to published in the Nature & other papers the following notice.2

Yours | Riedel

To Charles Darwin Esq

According to the informations received from trustworthy inhabitants of the island, it is not uncommon to meet amongst the aborigenes in the interior of Hainam, Bay of Tangkeen, persons, men & females, with a largely developped rumpbone, os coccyx, having the form of a moveable tail, and a length from two till four centimetres. In the Hainam language they are called Miau-tse.3

The attention of travellers & anthropologists in the eastern parts of the asiatic continent may be fixed on this fact.—

J. G. F. Riedel | Corresp. member of the Anthr. Soc. of Berlin etc.

Footnotes

1
Tanjungpandan, Belitung, Indonesia. Belitung is an island, Tanjungpandan a town.
2
The notice was not published in Nature and has not been found in any other publication.
3
In Descent 1: 16, CD compared some features in the human embryo to related structures in adult mammals and noted that the os coccyx projected ‘like a true tail’; on p. 30 he cited evidence that it corresponded to the true tail in lower animals. Hainan is the island south of China in the South China Sea with the Gulf of Tangkeen (now Tonkin) to the west. The Miautse or Meaou-tsze (now usually referred to as Miao) are one of the original tribes of southern China (EB 9th ed.).

Bibliography

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

EB 9th ed.: The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature. 9th edition. 24 vols. and index. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. 1875–89.

Summary

Asks CD to publish in Nature JGFR’s observation that natives of Hainan have movable tail bones up to 4 cm long.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10887
From
Johan Gerard Friedrich Riedel
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Tandjang Pandam, Belitoong
Source of text
DAR 176: 156
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10887,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10887.xml

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