"I shall not be in London on Monday, but I have written to my Brother to ask him to aid you"
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
"I shall not be in London on Monday, but I have written to my Brother to ask him to aid you"
Thanks WB for his note, states that it will be taken care of on the publication of CD’s book [Variation].
Mentions loss of many months owing to illness.
Thanks WB for favour to CD’s son.
Will supply CD with information "as far as my knowledge extends".
Suggests CD visit him.
Will send portion of copied manuscript [of Variation 2: 8–10] for WB to examine. Asks about inherited abnormalities of the eye.
Thanks WB for his paper ["Address in surgery", Br. Med. J. (1866): 186–97, read at British Medical Association annual meeting, 9 Aug 1866].
Is pleased CD approved of his effort ["Address in surgery", see 5219] in which he alluded to CD’s views.
Plans to write a book on expression. Questions WB on orbicular muscle in screaming infant and function of muscle contractions in looking at a distant object.
Supposes that infants’ eyes bulge and become engorged with blood during fits of sneezing or screaming, but doubts Charles Bell’s experiment of opening and observing eyes turn from pale to red [Anatomy and philosophy of expression (1844)].
Discusses the action of the eye when looking at distant objects.
Thanks for reply to queries. Spectroscope an instance of unimagined glorious prospects of science.
Thanks CD for the gift of his new work [Variation].
Clarifies his earlier query on Bell’s observations. Seeks confirmation of Bell’s statement that the conjunctiva of a child whose eyes are opened forcibly during a screaming fit become engorged with blood. CD has noted a relationship between contraction of the orbicular muscle and secretion of tears; can WB explain why they appear related?
Asks for precise reference in Charles Bell to subject of CD’s question. Agrees to assist CD’s investigation. Asks about Bell’s observations on eyes engorged with blood. Has noticed that eyes of children with excessive photophobia tend to be pale when forced open.
Gives Charles Bell’s explanation of the contraction of the orbicularis during screaming and seeks confirmation of his view because the action is "the key-stone of a whole class of expressions". Curious to learn WB’s conclusion in regard to the relation between contraction of the orbicularis and secretion of tears. Notes that voluntary contraction of the orbicularis causes no tears.
Asks whether he may come with F. C. Donders to visit CD.