To Henry Denny   21 July [1847]

Down. Farnborough. Kent

July 21st.

Dear Sir

I much regret that we had not the pleasure of seeing each other at Oxford. I did not happen to hear that you were there otherwise I would have exerted myself to have found you out; but I did not attend the sections regularly & the state of my health at all times compels me to live a very quiet life. There were others at Oxford whom to my regret, I missed seeing besides yourself—

Pray by all means keep any duplicates of my parasitic insects for your own collection. Where there are not duplicates in my own collection; if you positively know that the B. Museum has the same species, pray keep my specimens— I consider that I did not promise duplicates to the Museum.1

Mr. Lyell procured at my request for you some pediculi, from the Negros in N America;2 perhaps they have already been forwarded to you but in the Autumn when Mr Lyell returns, I will make enquiries.3

Pray believe me, | dear Sir. | Yours very faithfully. | C. Darwin. To. A. Denny4 Esqre.

1
Six of CD’s lice specimens are in the British Museum (K. G. V. Smith 1987, p. 71).
2
Charles Lyell visited the United States for a second time from September 1845 until June 1846 (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 83). CD had asked Lyell to collect the lice specimens for Denny in October 1845 (Correspondence vol. 3, letter to Charles Lyell, 8 October [1845]).
3
Lyell was staying at the family seat, Kinnordy House, Scotland, during July and August.
4
The copyist misread CD’s handwriting: ‘A.’ is a mistake for ‘H.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1103,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1103