Ɛpsilon

From T. G. Bonney to W. E. Darwin   [before 2 February 1882]1

British Association for the Advancement of Science, | 22, Albemarle Street, | London, W.

188

To turn to quite another matter   May I ask you a question which I hope you will not think impertinent— An American publication called “Science” states that your Father on being shown by a certain Dr Hahn a series of microscopic slides of what the latter believes to be organic structures in meteorites &c (they are nothing of the kind only mineral simulations, not unfamiliar to microscopic petrologists,) exclaimed “Almighty God what a wonderful discovery   Wonderful” After a pause of silent reflection he added “Now reaches life down”—2 I don’t believe the story—but should like to be able to apply to it in print the epithet “apocryphal” in a review of a kindred subject which I am writing.3 Do you think I may do so?

T G Bonney

Incomplete

CD annotations

1.5 microscopic] underl pencil
1.5 microscopic … Wonderful” 1.6] scored pencil
1
The date and recipient are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. E. Darwin, 2 February [1882].
2
Otto Hahn. The account, ‘Mr. Darwin on Dr. Hahn’s discovery of fossil organisms in meteorites’, was published in Science, 27 August 1881, p. 410: ‘No sooner had Mr. Darwin peered through the microscope ... when he started up from his seat and exclaimed: “Almighty God! what a wonderful discovery! Wonderful! ... Now reaches life down!’’’ See letter from T. G. Bonney, 5 February 1882 and n. 2.
3
A refutation of Hahn’s story appeared in the March 1882 issue of Philosophical Magazine (5th ser. 13: 218 n.) in an unsigned review of An old chapter of the geological record with a new interpretation (King and Rowney 1881). It quoted the article in Science and concluded: ‘A story so circumstantial one would think must needs be true; but we have the best authority for characterizing it as simply fabulous.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13591,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13591