Ɛpsilon

To James Paget   3 December 1881

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

Dec. 3d 1881

My dear Paget

I was so much pleased to see your hand-writing, for I feared from what I had read in the newspaper that you were very ill. It was very kind of you under present circumstances to write me so nice & pleasing a note.1 I am coming to London for a few days in 7 or 10 day’s time; but I must defer to another visit doing what I had intended now to do, viz to propose lunching with you.2 I have just had read aloud to me your article on Vivisection, & it has quite delighted me & my wife. I am boiling over with indignation on the subject.— Good Heavens what a contrast in style is Owen’s article compared with yours!— I have not yet read Dr Wilks’ article.—3

Most heartily do I hope that Nice may do you good & I remain | my dear Paget | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
See letter from James Paget, 1 December 1881. A notice in The Times, 2 December 1881, p. 7, reported that Paget was confined to bed with an attack of pneumonia, but noted that he would soon be well enough to travel on vacation.
2
The Darwins visited London from 13 to 20 December 1881 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). Paget was in Nice, France, from 9 December 1881 until 19 January 1882 (S. Paget ed. 1901, p. 314).
3
Paget, Richard Owen, and Samuel Wilks had written essays under the collective title ‘Vivisection: its pains and uses’ for Nineteenth Century (J. Paget et al. 1881). Paget’s essay was impassioned and compared animal suffering in experimental procedures to that inflicted in sport or other areas where it was taken for granted and unregulated. Owen’s essay was more technical, and focused on surgical procedures. For more on CD’s interest in the controversy and his involvement in efforts to regulate vivisection, see Correspondence vol. 23, Appendix VI; for CD’s recent support for physiologists, see the letter to Frithiof Holmgren, [14] April 1881, and the letter to The Times, 21 April [1881].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added, blue ink

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13526,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13526