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From Allen Thomson   31 December 1876

68 Palace Gardens Terrace | London. W.

31st. Decr. 1876.

Dear Mr. Darwin

Your letter with Mr. Balfour’s application for admission to the Royal Society was forwarded to me at this place, where Mrs. Thomson and I have been for a few days on a visit to our son and daughter in law.1

I have great pleasure in signing the application which I now return enclosed. I have not known of any person in this country who in my time has so fully mastered the subject of embryonic development, and who in so short a time has made such valuable contributions by his own observations to the knowledge of its details in the Vertebrata as Mr. Balfour: And I look for very important results from the continuation of his researches.2

I have long had a great desire to renew my acquaintance with you, which if I mistake not dates from an early period in Edinburgh as far back as the days of the Old Plinian Society, and I hope that in the Course of next summer when I may be in London I may have the good fortune to meet with you.3

I return to Glasgow tomorrow to resume my College duties after the holidays.4

Believe me sincerely yours | Allen Thomson

1
CD proposed Francis Maitland Balfour for fellowship of the Royal Society of London; see letter to F. M. Balfour, 13 December 1876. Thomson’s wife was Nina Jane Thomson; his son and daughter-in-law were John Millar Thomson and Louisa Thomson.
2
For details of Balfour’s publications, see the letter from F. M. Balfour [14] Dec [1876] and n. 2.
3
As an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, CD had been a member of the Plinian Natural History Society from November 1826 to April 1827. Thomson had also been a member. (Ashworth 1935, pp. 102–3.)
4
Thomson was professor of anatomy at the University of Glasgow (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10740,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10740