Ɛpsilon

To Armand de Quatrefages   20 November [1855]1

Down Farnborough Kent

Nov. 20th.—

Dear Sir

Your very obliging note to me on a former occasion & your present of your Souvenirs (every word of which I have read with much interest) makes me think that perhaps you would oblige me this once with a little information.2 I am slowly preparing a work on the variation of Species, & a statement by M. Flourens has interested me greatly, namely that the hybrid offspring of Dogs, wolves, & Jackalls are sterile inter se in the 3d. generation. This is stated in his “Longévité Humaine”; but no details of his experiments are given.—3 Now I want to know whether details are published in any other work, or if not, (if you are at all intimate with M. Flourens)4 whether you would inquire for me, whether the sterility of these hybrids in the 3d generation was ascertained in several cases, & whether they were sterile with the pure species, or only sterile one hybrid with another.— One more favour, M. Dureau de la Malle has published a pamphlet “sur les races des Chevaux,” which I have ordered, & am answered that it is not for sale.5 Could you find out for me whether it was published in any Transactions, & if not do you think you could procure me a copy.— I am well aware that it is mere chance whether you can so far oblige me, & could spare the time to take so much trouble.

With many apologies & with much respect, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

I do not know whether you read English fluently, but if you do, I should be proud to send you a Copy of my “Journal of Researches into the Natural History of the countries visited by the Beagle”: parts of which, I think, might interest you; though having no pretension to compete in popularity with your Souvenirs.—6

1
The year is established by the fact that CD recorded having read Quatrefages’s Souvenirs d’un naturaliste (Quatrefages 1854) on 30 October 1855 (Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 128: 14). From October 1855, CD usually addressed his letters ‘Down Bromley Kent’ rather than ‘Down Farnborough Kent’, but he seems to have used ‘Farnborough’ occasionally after that.
2
Quatrefages’s earlier note has not been found. There is an annotated copy of Quatrefages 1854 in the Darwin Library–CUL.
3
There is an annotated copy of Pierre Flourens’s De la longévité humaine et de la quantité de vie sur la globe (On human longevity and the amount of life on the globe; Flourens 1855) in the Darwin Library–CUL. See Flourens 1855, pp. 109, 143–4. CD was working on his ‘Big book’ on species, published posthumously as Natural selection.
4
Quatrefages and Flourens were professors at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle in Paris.
5
Adolphe Jules César Auguste Dureau de la Malle’s pamphlet (Dureau de la Malle 1855) was extracted from the Moniteur universel, 16 March 1855.
6
Quatrefages’s reply has not been found, but CD did send his Journal of researches 2d ed.; see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 4 January [1858?] (corrected to the date of 4 January [1856]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 with] interl
1.4 has] after del comma

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1782F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1782F