Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Huxley   22 June 1881

Glenrhydding House | Patterdale, Penrith

June 22d 1881

My dear Huxley

I have just had a letter from P. Rothenburg of Glasgow about Häckel’s (I suppose the above R. is a personal friend of H.) wishing to go on a scientific expedition for 6 months to Ceylon,—having been refused a small grant by the Berlin Government,—& having applied to Lubbock to know whether our R. Socy. would aid him.—1 I have heard nothing about all this. But Rothenburg urges me to assist, & the sole thing which I could think of was to inform you, though you will probably have heard of it before.— It has been an old conviction of mine (quite independently of Hackel’s case) that the Government Grant could not be better spent than in occasionally aiding a scientific man visiting some distant country.— I once spoke to this effect to Hooker, who demurred, but he did not alter my conviction.2

I have a bothering lot of letters to answer, so no more.—

Ever yours | C. Darwin

I will tell to Rothenburg that I have written to you.—3

1
The letter from Paul Rottenburg has not been found. In the introduction to his book, A visit to Ceylon (Haeckel 1883b, p. 11), Ernst Haeckel thanked Rottenburg for his support. John Lubbock was a fellow of the Royal Society of London and an MP. See also letter from Ernst Haeckel, 21 June 1881, which CD had evidently not yet received.
2
When Joseph Dalton Hooker was president of the Royal Society, he had announced a new government grant of £4000 a year for five years; personal allowances or grants could be awarded subject to the approval of the president of the Council (see Hooker 1876, pp. 342–3). Hooker had later confided to CD, ‘Between ourselves I think there will be a wretched outcome of the Govt. Fund’ (Correspondence vol. 26, letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 December 1878).
3
The letter to Rottenburg has not been found.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Penrith] above del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’
1.2 a scientific] ‘a’ interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13215,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13215