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To Armand de Quatrefages1   4 January [1856]2

Down Bromley Kent

Jany 4th.—

Dear Sir

I beg to thank you sincerely for your very kind note.— The information, which you hope to obtain from M. Flourens will be of the greatest value to me: should he forget, perhaps you will be so kind as to remind him.—3 I have done myself the pleasure of sending you my Journal through Mess. Williams & Norgate.—4 My work on variation will not be published for some years; as I have much to observe, & am keeping for this purpose all the varieties of Pigeons, Poultry, Ducks &c.—

With very cordial thanks & with much respect, I beg to remain | Yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The recipient is identified by the likelihood that CD would have sought an acquaintance to act as intermediary between himself and Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (see n. 3, below). CD had sent Quatrefages de Bréau a presentation copy of Living Cirripedia (1854) (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to T. H. Huxley, 2 September [1854], n. 4). Both Quatrefages de Bréau and Flourens were professors at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle in Paris.
2
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 20 November [1855] (Correspondence vol. 30, Supplement).
3
A work by Flourens, which included a discussion of the ‘Fixité des formes de la vie ou des espèces’ (Flourens 1855, pp. 130–57), was cited by CD in an chapter on hybridism in his ‘Big book’ on species (Natural selection, pp. 431, 432, 456). There is an annotated copy of Flourens 1855 in the Darwin Library–CUL. CD completed this chapter on 29 December 1856 (Correspondence vol. 6, Appendix II).
4
CD relied upon the booksellers Williams and Norgate to distribute copies of his works abroad. He refers to Journal of researches 2d ed.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2036,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2036