To E. S. Morse 16 September 1873
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Septr 16th / 73
Dear Sir
I must have the pleasure of thanking you for your kindness in sending me your essay on the Brachiopoda.1 I have just read it with the greatest interest, & you seem to me (though I am not a competent judge) to make out with remarkable clearness an extremely strong case. What a wonderful change it is to an old naturalist to have to look at these “shells” as “worms”. But as you truly say, as far as external appearance is concerned, the case is not more wonderful than that of cirripedes.2 I have, also, been particularly interested by your remarks on the geological record, & on the lower & older forms in each great class not having been probably protected by calcareous valves or a shell.—3
With the most sincere respect for your admirable labours, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Your woodcut of Lingula is most skillfully introduced to compel one to see its likeness to an annelid.—4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Morse, Edward Sylvester. 1873. On the systematic position of the Brachiopoda. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 15: 315–72.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Thanks for ESM’s paper ["On the systematic position of the Brachiopoda", Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 15 (1873): 315–72]. "What a wonderful change … to look at these ""shells"" as ""worms""."
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9058
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Edward Sylvester Morse
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Joseph R. Sakmyster, ADS Autographs (dealer) (no date)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9058,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9058.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21