Ɛpsilon

To A. A. Gould   9 September [1854]

Down Farnborough Kent

Sept. 9th.—

Dear Sir

At last I have finished my work on cirripedes, & have packed up the specimens you were so very kind as to lend me.1 They have been extremely useful to me. As you are a member of the Ray Soc.y, & as I am indebted to many naturalists, who are not members, & to whom I wish to send copies, I have not sent you one, believing that you would excuse me.—

I have directed Mrs. Williams, & Norgate, through whom I send next week the Box, to pay the carriage, & this being the case, I have thought that you would forgive me sending in the same box the specimens which Prof. Agassiz was so kind as to send me,2 & a copy of my work for him.— When you next see Prof. Agassiz, will you be so good as to give him my cordial thanks & my kind & respectful remembrances.—

Once again allow me to thank you for the confidence you have placed in me in so long allowing the specimens to remain in my possession.— They are, I believe, all returned safely, excepting one very curious var. (of which fortunately you have a duplicate) of Tetraclita porosa,3 which was stolen together with some other specimens (not belonging to you) out of a parcel.—

I mentioned on a former occasion how freely I had ventured to dissect the specimen of Ibla Cumingii from Tavoy.4

Pray believe me, my dear Sir, with sincere respect. | Your’s truly obliged | Charles Darwin

1
Gould was one of the first foreign specialists to whom CD wrote when he decided to prepare a monograph on the Cirripedia (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter to A. A. Gould, 3 September [1848]).
2
Gould had put CD in touch with Louis Agassiz (Correspondence vol. 4, letter to Louis Agassiz, 22 October 1848) and also with James Dwight Dana (ibid., letter to J. D. Dana, 12 August [1849]).
3
Gould’s specimens of Tetraclita porosa (the volcano barnacle) were described by CD as ‘Var. (7) patellaris’ (Living Cirripedia (1854): 330, 333).
4
A district in lower Burma. CD’s dissections of Ibla cumingii convinced him that this species, unlike the majority of cirripedes, exhibited true females and minute epizoic males. CD thanked Gould for providing specimens in Living Cirripedia (1851): 189 n.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 lend] ‘l’ over ‘s’
2.1 next week] interl
2.3 which] interl
3.1 allow] ‘a’ over ‘t’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1591,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1591