From Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs [before 13 August 1868]1
Chemical Laboratory, | Iowa State University. | Iowa-C⟨ity⟩
Mr. Charles Darwin
My dear Sir
I sent you in Novbr 67 a french Resumé of my Atomechanics, a work wherein I prove that all elements are formed from one substance, Pantogen. I sent you to day another, Engl. Resumé, for fear that the former has not reached you or been mislaid.2
Some have already put your name together with mine, (Jahrb. Min, 68, II);3 and if my work has not yet made as much stir as yours, it is on the way of doing it; has been assailed as furiously as yours, and some tell me that it has already been preached against. At the same time I have the satisfaction of having the foremost crystallogs of Europe on my side; the younger generation will fight it out on this line.
If the above is sufficient to warrant me a slight share of your sympathy, please drop me a note; of course I do not want you to “pronounce” in “favor of” Pantogen, but merely have a friendly word from a man whom I honor, with whom I think I work in a similar direction.
Very truly yours | Gustavus Hinrichs
If you are present at the Norwich meeting, please see that the copies sent to Dalrymple & Hooker are distrib. in the Sections for Chem, Physics & Mineralogy.4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Hinrichs, Gustavus Detlef. 1867. Programme der Atomechanik oder die Chemie eine Mechanik der Panatome: Programme d’une atomécanique ou la chimie une mécanique des panatomes. Iowa City: the author.
Hinrichs, Gustavus Detlef. 1874. The principles of chemistry and molecular mechanics. Davenport, Iowa: Day, Egbert, & Fidlar. New York: B. Westermann & Co.
Zapffe, C. A. 1969. Gustavus Hinrichs, precursor of Mendeleev. Isis 60 (1969): 461–76.
Summary
Sends work proving all elements formed of one substance: "Pantogen". Feels affinity with CD. His work will cause as great a stir. Has already been preached against. Asks CD for a note as a token of his sympathy.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6311
- From
- Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Iowa State University
- Source of text
- DAR 166: 220
- Physical description
- ALS 1p damaged
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6311,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6311.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16