Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Haeckel   14 May 1876

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

May 14. 76

My dear Häckel

I have just received your letter, which like so many others from you, is full of kindness towards me.1 The book about the Canary Islands has reached me safely, but I had quite forgotten its existence.2 With respect to Pangenesis, I am sorry that you dissent so strongly from it, as it has lately risen in my estimation; but you are thoroughly right to explain in the clearest & strongest terms, your dissent.3 I shall read your Essay on Perigenesis with very great interest, but I shall not do so just at present, as it will be hard work, and I have not been lately very well, so that I shall soon leave home for some complete rest.4

Believe me | my dear Häckel | Your sincere friend | Charles Darwin

LS

2
See letter from Ernst Haeckel, 9 May 1876 and n. 9. The book was part one of the third volume of Webb and Berthelot 1836–50.
3
Haeckel had sent CD a copy of Die Perigenesis der Plastidule, oder die Wellenzeugung der Lebenstheilchen (Perigenesis of the plastidule, or the wave generation of vital particles; Haeckel 1876a), in which he presented a rival theory of heredity to CD’s own theory, pangenesis (see letter from Ernst Haeckel, 9 May 1876 and nn. 2, 3, and 7).
4
CD and Emma Darwin were going to Hopedene, Surrey, the home of Hensleigh Wedgwood; they were away from 24 May to 10 June 1876 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10506,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10506