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To Fanny Kellogg1   13 April 1879

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

April 13th 1879

Dear Madam

I am obliged to you for so kindly communicating the curious case of an habitual gesture, like that which I have described as inherited. I may add that since I wrote, the action has been transmitted to another generation. Your case shall be sent to Mr Galton, who gave me the information.2

Dear Madam | Yours faithfully | & obliged | Charles Darwin

1
This letter was previously published in Correspondence vol. 27, when less of the text was available. The addressee is taken from the sale catalogues; when the letter was sold in 1981 it was accompanied by an original holograph envelope, with the flap missing.
2
In Expression, pp. 33–4 n. 8, CD had quoted Francis Galton on the inheritance of a characteristic arm gesture: the habit, when sleeping, of placing the forearm across the top of the head, whence it would fall onto the bridge of the nose, was exhibited in three generations of a family. In his correspondence, Galton had revealed that the individuals were his father-in-law, George Butler; George Butler’s son, Henry Montagu Butler; and George Butler’s granddaughter, Agnes Isabel Butler (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from Francis Galton, 22 December 1871).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11992,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11992