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To John Crawfurd   25 March [1861]1

Down Bromley Kent

March 25

My dear Mr Crawfurd

You sent me some time ago an essay “On the relation of the Domestic Animals to Civilization.” You give some facts on Fowls to which I wish to refer.2 Now will you be so kind as to tell me when this was published, as it has no name of Author nor title, & I do not know how to refer to it— What is its date? There is one other question which possibly you may be able & have kindness to answer viz is Sir W Jones date of 1200 BC esteemed correct for Institutes of Menu?3

It is a long time since I have troubled you, so forgive me   I most sincerely hope you are well.— Pray believe me | yours sincerely | C Darwin

Copy4

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to John Crawfurd, 7 April 1861.
2
Crawfurd [1860a]. The paper, which surveys the history of the domestication of birds, was read at the 1860 meeting in Oxford of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; only an abstract of the paper appears in the published report (Report of the 30th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Oxford, Transactions of the sections, p. 155). The paper was subsequently privately printed. CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. CD cited Crawfurd [1860a] in Variation 1: 246 n.
3
Jones trans. 1796. CD had obtained this information from Edward Blyth (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from Edward Blyth, [c. 22 March 1856]). See also letter to John Crawfurd, 7 April 1861.
4
The original letter (ALS 3pp) was sold at Sotheby’s on 8 December 1999. The catalogue gave only quotations from the letter, not a facsimile. According to the catalogue, there was a postscript adding that because of Crawfurd’s change of address, the letter had been returned to CD by the Dead Letter Office.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13786,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13786