To Ernst Haeckel 3 July 1868
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
July 3 1868
My dear Häckel
Many thanks for your kind letter of June 22.1
I am astonished at the amount of work which you are doing; but take care of yourself, & remember how easily the brain is injured & how long a time it takes to regain its strength, as I have known in several instances. Thank you much for the present of your two small works. I am particularly glad to receive that on Man, tho’ probably less important under a scientific point of view than the other; for I intend to publish in about a year’s time a short essay on the descent of Man, & this will include a long & full discussion on Sexual Selection. Hence I shall read with much interest your essay on Man, tho’ it will take me some time as I get on so slowly with German.2
Your great work on General Morphology is getting better known in England, & I often see it alluded to. It has lately been reviewed, but not altogether favorably, by Mr Bentham in his Annual address to the Linnean Soc.3
I am very much obliged for your information about the Hare–rabbits.4 I cannot express sufficient astonishment at hearing that the hybrids are fertile inter se. If I did not know that you yourself had examined these animals I shd not have thought the statement that they were hybrids was worth a moment’s consideration. I suppose they are strictly intermediate in character, & I suppose you have attended to such points as the period at which the newly born animals open their eyelids,—the tendency to make burrows,—the number of the mammæ,—the colour & flavour of the flesh when cooked &c. After the discredit which has been thrown upon the French statements I hope you will be very careful, for I must confess I cannot help being sceptical, & therefore I ought not to be honoured by my name being attached to these animals, which if they really are hybrids are by far the most wonderful ever produced.5
I do not in the least doubt the veracity of Dr. Conrad,6 but I have known such cases, as a servant, either out of spite, or thinking to please his master, introduce for a short time a male to a female which would not breed. Might not this have occurred with Dr Conrad? Did he witness the copulation? Forgive my extreme scepticism.—
My health has been worse lately & if I can travel, I shall soon go to the sea for 5 or 6 weeks.—7 With most kind & cordial feelings towards you, | believe me, yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bentham, George. 1868. Anniversary address. [Read 25 May 1868.] Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1867–8): lvii–c.
Broca, Paul. 1858–9. Mémoire sur l’hybridité en général, sur la distinction des espèces amimales et sur les métis obtenus par le croisement du lièvre et du lapin. Journal de la Physiologie de l’Homme et des Animaux 1: 432–71, 684–729; 2: 218–58, 345–96.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Haeckel, Ernst. 1866. Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von Charles Darwin reformirte Descendenz-Theorie. 2 vols. Berlin: Georg Reimer.
Pigeaux, Dr. 1867. On the actual state of our information relative to the ‘Leporide’, or hybrid between hare and rabbit. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3d ser. 20: 75–7.
Summary
Thanks for two small works.
Will read essay on man [Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts] with much interest.
Generelle Morphologie reviewed by G. Bentham ["Anniversary Address", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1867–8): lviii–c].
Extremely sceptical of hare–rabbit hybrid.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6265
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1:1–52/18)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6265,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6265.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16