From:
Emma Gisborne; Emma Nixon
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 Dec 1879
Source of text:
DAR 99: 189–90
Summary:
Thanks for Erasmus Darwin.
Violetta Darwin is near death.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Thanks for Erasmus Darwin.
Violetta Darwin is near death.
Gives his opinion on vivisection. CD detests cruelty but believes that physiology "is one of the most important sciences" and that it cannot progress without experiments on living animals.
At CD’s request he has read Malcolm Guthrie’s book [On Mr Spencer’s formula of evolution (1879)], which is a critique of First principles. He finds it a helpful clarification of Spencer’s views; however, it is as pseudo-scientific as the book it criticises.