Ɛpsilon

From Armand de Quatrefages1   8 July 1873

Paris

8 Juillet 73

Cher Monsieur et Confrere

J’ai encore été battu hier a votre occasion et dans une triple élection.2 J’en suis désolé. Mais je n’ai pu vaincre les préventions que votre dernier ouvrage a renforcées. Je le regrette bien vivement.

Du moins il m’est permis de dire que j’ai combattu jusqu’au dernier moment.

Receverez avec l’expression de mes regrets celle de mon dévouement | De Quatrefages

1
For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
2
CD was nominated in three elections (to replace Louis Agassiz, François Jules Pictet de la Rive, or Félix-Archimède Pouchet) for correspondent to the anatomy and zoology section of the Académie des sciences in Paris. He lost to Johannes Japetus Smith Steenstrup by thirty-eight votes to six, to James Dwight Dana by thirty-five votes to ten, and to William Benjamin Carpenter by thirty-five votes to twelve, with Thomas Henry Huxley gaining one vote as a third candidate in the third election (Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 77 (1873): 33). CD had also been nominated in 1870 and 1872 (see Correspondence vols. 18 and 20). He was elected to the botanical section of the Académie des sciences in 1878 (see Stebbins 1988, pp. 147–9).

From Armand de Quatrefages1   8 July 1873

Paris

8 July 73

Dear Sir and Colleague

I have been beaten again on your behalf and in a three-way election.2 I am upset about it. But I could not overcome the prejudices that your last work reinforced. I am deeply sorry.

At least I can say that I fought up to the last moment.

Accept the expression of my regrets along with that of my devotion | De Quatrefages

1
For a transcription of this letter in its original French, see p. 282.
2
CD was nominated in three elections (to replace Louis Agassiz, François Jules Pictet de la Rive, or Félix-Archimède Pouchet) for correspondent to the anatomy and zoology section of the Académie des sciences in Paris. He lost to Johannes Japetus Smith Steenstrup by thirty-eight votes to six, to James Dwight Dana by thirty-five votes to ten, and to William Benjamin Carpenter by thirty-five votes to twelve, with Thomas Henry Huxley gaining one vote as a third candidate in the third election (Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 77 (1873): 33). CD had also been nominated in 1870 and 1872 (see Correspondence vols. 18 and 20). He was elected to the botanical section of the Académie des sciences in 1878 (see Stebbins 1988, pp. 147–9).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11041,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11041