To J. D. Hooker   [12 December 1875]1

2. Bryanston St

Sunday 11th

My dear Hooker

I have not felt so angry for years, & could hardly get to sleep after receiving your letter last night.2 I will urge Frank (now in N. Wales) to get admitted on Jan 25th. & we will come & vote together.— I shall feel it a duty to come up, & will attend, if my head will possibly allow me.3 I hope & think that the voting is before the papers are read aloud.— I will call on Allman4 one of these first mornings, as I want much to hear who the malcontents are. It seems to me the most disgraceful act which any scientific Socy. has done in my time.— I wish that I knew what the malcontents have to say for themselves.— I will speak to Romanes to get admitted so as to vote.—5 I wish that I had got a list of members to see whether there is anyone whom I could interest. What a waste of time & good feelings these blackguards cause.

Ever affecty. yours | C. Darwin

I am off in an hour’s time to Huxley & will hear what he says.—6

I have come back from Huxley but he does not know who the Malcontents are.

1
The year and month are established by the allusion to the blackballing of Edwin Ray Lankester at the Linnean Society (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 2 December 1875). The day is established by the reference to a visit to Thomas Henry Huxley, which took place on Sunday 12 December 1875 (see n. 6, below). CD dated the letter Sunday 11 in error.
2
Hooker’s letter has not been found; he evidently wrote to give more detail about the blackballing of Lankester at the 2 December 1875 meeting of the Linnean Society (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 2 December 1875).
3
CD decided to second a new proposal for Lankester to be elected a fellow of the Linnean Society (see letter to ?, [after 11 December 1875]); Lankester was proposed at the next meeting of the society on 16 December, but the election did not take place until the meeting of 3 February 1876, when Lankester was duly elected (Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1875–6): iii). Francis Darwin, having been elected a fellow on 2 December 1875 (Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1875–6): ii), still had to be formally admitted to the society (see letter from Francis Darwin, [after 2 December 1875] and n. 2).
5
George John Romanes had been elected a fellow of the Linnean Society on 2 December 1875 (Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1875–6): ii). He had to be formally admitted by the president at a meeting of the society before he was eligible to vote.
6
CD and Emma Darwin visited Thomas Henry Huxley on Sunday 12 December 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 St] before del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10295,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10295