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To Hermann Welcker   30 January 1880

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Jan 30th 1880

Dear Sir

I thank you sincerely for your very courteous letter of the 18th, received only yesterday, & for your kind present of a whole series of Essays.1 Many of the points which you have discussed are very interesting & bear directly on the descent-theory.— I am particularly glad that you have investigated the ‘ligamentum teres’ for its absence in the anthropoid apes has long appeared to me a most perplexing circumstance.2 Broca has advanced, & perhaps justly, this case as one in which natural selection could not have come into play.3 I hope before long to read your essays. I am also much interested by what you say about the feet of the Chinese; but we should remember that people always wish to exaggerate any character which they already possess to an unusual degree.4

If on further reflexion you still wish to dedicate your forthcoming book to me, I shall certainly esteem it a very great honour.5

With all good wishes I remain, Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

2
Welcker 1876 discussed the position and developmental stages of the ligamentum teres femoris (foveal ligament) in different mammals (see letter from Hermann Welcker, 18 January 1880 and n. 3). CD had been alerted to the absence of the ligament in orang-utans and a few other mammals (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter from Edward Blyth, [1–8 October 1855], and Correspondence vol. 13, supplement, letter from W. C. L. Martin, [1859–61]).
3
Paul Broca; see Broca 1870, p. 556.
4
Welcker had sent CD two papers on Chinese foot-binding and its possible hereditary effects (Welcker 1870 and Welcker 1872a; see letter from Hermann Welcker, 18 January 1880 and n. 10).
5
Welcker’s projected book on the spine was never published; see letter from Hermann Welcker, 18 January 1880 and n. 13.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Kent.] before bracketed and del ‘Railway Station | Orpington S.E.R.’
1.5 to me] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12442G,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12442G