To W. D. Crick 21 February 1882
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Feb. 21st 1882
Dear Sir
Your fact is an interesting one, & I am very much obliged to you for communicating it to me.—1 You speak a little doubtfully about the name of the shell, & it wd be indispensable to have this ascertained with certainty. Do you know any good conchologist in Northampton who cd. name it? If so, I shd. be much obliged if you wd. inform me of the result. Also the length & breadth of the shell & how much of leg (which leg?) of the Dytiscus has been caught.— If you cannot get the shell named, I could take it to the British Museum, when I next go to London; but this probably will not occur for about 6 weeks, & you may object to lend the specimen for so long a time. I am inclined to think that the case cd. be worth communicating to “Nature”.—2
Again thanking you I remain, Dear Sir | yours faithfully Ch. Darwin
P.S. | I suppose that the animal in the shell must have been alive when the Dytiscus was captured; otherwise the adductor muscle of the shell wd. have relaxed & the shell dropped off?
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Dispersal of freshwater bivalves’: On the dispersal of freshwater bivalves. By Charles Darwin. Nature, 6 April 1882, pp. 529–30.
Summary
His Dytiscus fact interesting. Indispensable to know name of shell. Case worth communicating to Nature. [See "On the dispersal of freshwater bivalves", Nature 6 April 1882, pp. 529–30.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13696
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Walter Drawbridge Crick
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The Huntington Library (HM 36222)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13696,” accessed on 26 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13696.xml