To Leonard Jenyns 14 February [1845]
Down Bromley Kent
Feb. 14th.
Dear Jenyns.
I have taken my leisure in thanking you for your last letter, & discussion, to me very interesting, on the increase of species. Since your letter, I have met with a very similar view in Richardson, who states that the young are driven away by the old into unfavourable districts, & then mostly perish.—1 When one meets with such unexpected statistical returns on the increase & decrease & proportions of deaths & births amongst mankind & in this well-known country of ours, one ought not to be in the least surprised at ones ignorance, when, where & how, the endless increase of our robins & sparrows is checked.—
Thanks for your hints about terms of “mutation” &c; I had had some suspicions, that it was not quite correct, & yet I do not yet see my way to arrive at any better terms: it will be years before I publish, so that I shall have plenty of time to think of better words— Development wd. perhaps do, only it is applied to the changes of an individual during its growth. I am, however, very glad of your remark, & will ponder over it.
We are all well, wife & children three, & as flourishing as this horrid, house-confining, temper-souring weather permits.—
With thanks, believe me | Your’s very sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Jenyns, Leonard. 1846. Observations in natural history: with an introduction on habits of observing, as connected with the study of that science. Also a calendar of periodic phenomena in natural history; with remarks on the importance of such registers. London: John Van Voorst.
Richardson, John. 1829–37. Fauna Boreali-Americana; or, the zoology of the northern parts of British America. Assisted by William Swainson and William Kirby. 4 vols. London and Norwich: John Murray; Richard Bentley; J. Fletcher.
Vorzimmer, Peter J. 1977. The Darwin reading notebooks (1838-1860). Journal of the History of Biology 10: 107–53.
Summary
Discusses checks on growth of species population; use of term "mutation" in his species theory. His belief in species mutability.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-828
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Leonard Jenyns/Leonard Blomefield
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 828,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-828.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3