Ɛpsilon

To J. de C. Sowerby   [12 or 19 August 1850]

Down Farnborough | Kent

Monday

My dear Sir

I am sorry to trouble you, but I have received some specimens, which I dare not name without seeing the scutum of Pollicipes rigidus;1 will you please send it me as soon as you can, enclosed in a tin or wooden little Box by Post; on no account, please put it in paste-board box; I will return stamps for posting.—when the specimen itself is returned.

I have been disappointed in not having received anything from you.— Please remember how time slips by.— I am plagued to return specimens & only the other day I was asked by Mr Bowerbank on part of Pal. Soc. what progress I was making & I could only answer by stating that everything depended on you.— All this is very disagreeable to me & I do earnestly hope that you will endeavour to make more progress:2 I know not what to say to those gentlemen, whose specimens I borrowed for only a few weeks.—

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
In order to determine whether a specimen received from William Harris was a new species, CD needed to examine Pollicipes rigidus (a synonym of P. elegans), which it closely resembled (see Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 43).
2
J. de C. Sowerby’s slow progress was no doubt the reason for CD’s employing George Brettingham Sowerby Jr to do the drawings for Fossil Cirripedia (1854).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 Post] before omitted point
1.4 paste-board] after del ‘wooden’
1.4 when the specimen itself is returned. 1.5] added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1346,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1346