From Woodward Emery 17 September 1875
Mr. Charles Darwin
My dear Sir
This communication is made to inform you of the death of Mr Chauncey Wright of Cambridge, which took place on the twelfth day of September.1 Mr. Wright was found on Sunday morning in his room in a state of profound coma, from which he never rallied, dying within half an hour after medical aid was summoned. The result of the autopsy, conducted under the direction of Dr. Morril Wyman2 seems to point to congestion of the brain as the cause of death—
Mr Wright was last seen on Saturday evening about eleven o’clock in his apartments in his usual state of health, and was discovered about seven on Sunday morning in the condition above described. Lying open on the table beside him was your recent work on insectivorous plants.3 The remains have been taken to and interred in his family tomb at Northampton Mass. The minute examination of the brain is not yet concluded, but the brain is pronounced to be of a high type—4
As an intimate friend of Mr. Wright, occupying the same apartments, it seems to me proper that I should inform you of the foregoing facts—
I have the honor to be, My dear Sir, | Your obedient servant, | Woodward Emery
8 Barristers Hall | 7 Court Sq. | Boston, Mass.
Sept. 17th 1875
Footnotes
Bibliography
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Schiller, Francis. 1979. Paul Broca: founder of French anthropology, explorer of the brain. Berkeley and London: University of California Press.
Solly, Samuel. 1847. The human brain: its structure, physiology and diseases. With a description of the typical forms of brain in the animal kingdom. 2d edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
Summary
Informs CD of Chauncey Wright’s death.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10160
- From
- Woodward Emery
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Boston, Mass.
- Source of text
- DAR 163: 18
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10160,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10160.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23