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To W. F. Stanley   21 December 1881

Down. | Beckenham Kent &c.

Dec. 21. 1881.

Dear Sir.

Absence from home has prevented me from sooner thanking you sincerely for the present of your work on Fluids, & for your very kind note.1 I have read the indicated passages, & your experiments seem to me to show, as far as I can judge on so difficult a subject and with my little knowledge that the course of Fluids under the stated circumstances would influence the nascent circulating system of an animal.—2

These experiments appear to me extremely curious—

With respect to the latter part of your letter. there can be no greater satisfaction to an old man, than to hear that what he has written has in the least degree influenced the taste for science in a young student.3 With all good wishes— | I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.

Copy

1
See letter from W. F. Stanley, 15 December 1881. Stanley sent his book, Experimental researches into the properties and motions of fluids (Stanley 1881).
2
Stanley suggested that CD read Stanley 1881, pp. 106–7 and 311–17 (letter from W. F. Stanley, 15 December 1881). He speculated that some of the mechanical principles relating to bifurcation and vein formation in liquids might be applicable to organic forms such as algae.
3
Stanley had mentioned that Origin was the first book on any ‘special’ science that he remembered buying (letter from W. F. Stanley, 15 December 1881).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13573,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13573