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Darwin Correspondence Project

From William Johnson Raybould to Abraham Dee Bartlett   22 August 1870

6 Gladstone Place | High Park Road | Smethwick | Nr Birmingham

Augt 22 1870,

To the Manager of the | Royal Zoological Gardens | London1

Sir/

I have a Tortoise shell Coloured Cat with 6 claws perfect on each Foot also 2 young ones with the same Number of Toes or claws, one Cream & white, & the other Blk & white, a month old   Are they worth your notice (If so make me an offer for them)2

Kindly say & oblige | Yours very truly | W J Raybould

Footnotes

Bartlett was superintendent of the Zoological Society of London’s gardens in Regent’s Park and had supplied CD with information used in Variation; presumably Bartlett forwarded this letter believing that it might be of interest to CD (see n. 2, below).
CD had discussed supernumerary digits in animals and humans in Variation 2: 12–17.

Bibliography

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Offers a polydactylous cat to the Zoological Gardens. [Offer declined and letter forwarded to CD.]

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7307
From
William Johnson Raybould
To
Abraham Dee Bartlett
Sent from
Smithwick, Birmingham
Source of text
DAR 176: 25
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7307,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7307.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18

letter