From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
[8 May 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 24
Summary:
Will try to call tomorrow. What HF tells him about horses makes him eager to come.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 1–5 of 5 items
Will try to call tomorrow. What HF tells him about horses makes him eager to come.
Extreme interest in MS of HF’s paper on the American fossil elephant [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 43–114].
Pleased HF does not believe in immutable species. Significance of proboscidean group verging towards extinction. Comments on natural selection preserving type despite variability. Natural selection solves problem of how every part of each creature has become adapted.
Explains that he returned the MS - part of a paper on fossil and living species of elephant (Falconer 1863) - to Falconer’s house in Park Crescent the previous Thursday.
Comments on HF’s paper on Plagiaulax from the Purbeck beds. Paper "dreadfully severe" on Owen.
"I am worse than ever in bearing any excitement."
Glad HF attacked Australian Mastodon. Never did believe in him.
Mentions Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63].
Has HF met with any cases of what gardeners call "sports" and what CD will call "bud-variations"?