From Hugh Falconer [1842–3]1
My interest in the case merely arose, from its being the only ⟨section missing⟩
I have seen lately—a true Ruminant—a species of musk Deer—with the two central metacarpals quite distinct instead of being consolidated into a cannon bone—in fact the foot of an Anoplotherium in a recent ruminant.2
All that I am desirous to know about the ox I can learn the first time we meet—without putting you to the trouble of sending your notes.3
Yours very truly | H Falconer
C. Darwin Esqre
The date range is suggested by the date of publication of the case described in the letter and by the reference to a future meeting between CD and Falconer as their ‘first’. Falconer came to England on sick leave in 1842 and returned to India in 1847.
Falconer discussed the unique anatomical relations of Moschus aquaticus (a synonym of Hyemoschus aquaticus, the water chevrotain) in a joint memoir with Proby Thomas Cautley at the Geological Society of London on 15 November 1843. The distinctness of the metacarpals ‘along their whole length’ was noted as ‘the first announcement of the existence of such an anomaly in any living ruminant’ (Falconer and Cautley 1843, p. 240).
CD’s notes on oxen probably constituted a part of his work on cattle for his species book, eventually published in Variation 1: 79–93.
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13805,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on