From James Paget   25 July 1879

1, Harewood Place, | Hanover Square, | W.

July 25, 1879.

My dear Darwin

I am very sorry that I cannot send you the promised volume— I saw it at the Library of the College of Surgeons and thought it certain that a copy of it would be in the Library of the Medico Chirurgical Society from which I can take-out books. But it appears that their Biographie Médicale is a very rare book, and the Librarian of the Society has long been trying in vain to get a copy.1

What shall I do? Is there a chance that you or either of your sons will be able to go to the College?2 Flower will in a few minutes get the book to his own room; for the Librarian knows it—3 Or shall I send you an abstract of the biography? My son will think it real happiness to make it for you—4

Sincerely your’s | James Paget.

CD annotations

1.1 I am ... copy 1.5] ‘(vol. [‘3’ del] III. 1821’ ink
2.1 What ... you— 2.4] ‘W. S. Dallas 21. Alma Sqr. N.W’ ink above ‘Dr Ernst Krause Friedenstrasse 10— II. Berlin’5 ink del pencil
Top of letter: ‘Abstract’ blue crayon
1
No letter to James Paget on this subject has been found, but see the letter to James Paget, 14 July 1879. CD was working on a biography of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, to be published with Ernst Krause’s essay on his scientific works (Erasmus Darwin). A biography of Erasmus Darwin was published in Biographie médicale 3: 384–93.
2
The Royal College of Surgeons of England had premises at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. Paget probably refers to George Howard Darwin and Francis Darwin.
3
William Henry Flower was curator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. The librarian was John Chatto.
4
Paget probably refers to his youngest son, Stephen Paget, who was a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital medical school (ODNB).
5
William Sweetland Dallas was translating Ernst Krause’s essay for Erasmus Darwin; it was a revised version of Krause 1879a.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12172,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12172