To F. M. Balfour   13 December 1876

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Dec 13. 1876

Dear Balfour,

I shall have real pleasure in proposing you for the Royal Soc. But you must give me your xtian names in full. “Title or designation”—“Profession or Trade”—“usual place of residence”.1

Also a list, written clearly, of all your chief publications. The Soc appends a note asking for copies of all the candidate’s books and publications. to be ultimately returned to him.

It is a most troublesome rule that about members of council not signing certificates, as I should naturally apply in your case to Huxley & Hooker.2 Will you be so good as to get from M. Foster a list of the present members of council.3 Also suggest to me the names of any men not on the council to whom I shall send the certificate. Three members personally known to you & three others who need not necessarily know you personally must sign the certificate. Id est 6 altogether, & I believe there is no advantage in getting more. I suppose I had better send it to Ld Rayleigh though not a naturalist.4

Dear Balfour | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Since the above was written it has occurred to me that it wd be the best plan to send you the certificate to fill up & then there will be less liability to error.— You can return it with the other desired information about the members of Council & whoever you shd. like to sign it.

I was very much interested the other day by reading your idea on the origins of our limbs at 4 points in the lateral fins.—5

C.D.

LS(A)

1
Balfour had asked CD to propose him for membership of the Royal Society of London in his letter of 11 December 1876.
2
Thomas Henry Huxley was a secretary of the Royal Society, and Joseph Dalton Hooker was president (ODNB).
3
Michael Foster was a member of the council of the Royal Society.
4
Balfour’s certificate was signed by twelve people but John William Strutt was not one of them (Royal Society Archives EC/1878/05). Strutt had become third Baron Rayleigh in 1873. Although Strutt was a physicist, CD may have thought he would want to sign because of family connections to Balfour; Strutt married Balfour’s sister in 1871 (ODNB).
5
Balfour had set out his theory in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 11: 132–4 (F. M. Balfour 1876–8). A passage is scored in CD’s copy in the unbound journals collection in the Darwin Archive–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

5.1 Since … C.D. 7.1] in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10716,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10716