Ɛpsilon

To George Maw   8 November 1880

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

Nov. 8th 1880

My dear Sir

Your case is curious & altogether new to me.1 You will remember Linnæus’ specific character of Canis familiaris “Cauda (sinistrorsum recurrata”.2 The flexure in your dead animals must, I suppose, depend on the greater strength of the muscles on the left side, & this seems very odd. My son, George of Trin: Coll: Cambridge many years ago tested a lot of boys blindfolded to see which way they would turn; he, also, if I can trust my memory, tested the strength of their two legs by making them hop.—3 If you are really interested in the result, I would write to him to learn whether he wd. find his notes.

I am very much obliged for the present of a specimen of your monograph on Crocus, which will probably arrive tomorrow.4

Pray believe me | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

2
The description of Canis familiaris appears in Systema naturæ by Carolus Linnaeus: ‘cauda (sinistrorsum) recurvata’ (‘recurved tail turned towards the left’; Linnaeus 1758–9, 1: 38). Canis familiaris is a synonym of Canis lupus familiaris, the domestic dog.
3
George Howard Darwin’s experiments were designed to study directional instinct; his notes have not been found (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter to G. H. Darwin, 27 May [1874]).
4
The specimen of Maw’s Monograph of the genus Crocus (Maw 1886) has not been found.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.3 the greater] ‘the’ interl
2.1 a specimen of] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12805,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12805