To J. D. Hooker   20 January [1857]1

Down Bromley Kent

Jan. 20th

My dear Hooker

Very many thanks for your note.— with the opinions of yourself, Sir William & Bentham against Dr. D. I shall do nothing more.2 I have written to him to say that under present circumstances &c I strongly advise him not to apply to Royal Soc.y for aid, & that will be the end of the affair I hope.— It is a thousand pities that the man is what you say.—

I was quite knocked up on Thursday at R. Socy. but all that I heard was most interesting. I have become so curious on subject, that I have written to Huxley to beg for a little light on two points.—3 I really think that they will beat Forbes.— I shd. like to have talked over subject with you.—

Ever yours | C. Darwin

I have written to Sharpey & marking letter “Private” have told him what you say of Dr. D. & told him that I shall not stir in matter.4

P.S. I find Fish will greedily eat seeds of aquatic grasses, & that millet seed put into Fish & given to Stork & then voided will germinate.5

So this is the nursery rhyme of this is the stick that beat the pig &c &c—6

Dr. D. say Cameroons is accessible.—

1
Dated by the relationship to the letters to J. D. Hooker, 17 January [1857], and to T. H. Huxley, 17 January [1857].
4
William Sharpey was a secretary of the Royal Society. The letter has not been found.
5
Recorded in CD’s Experimental book, p. 19 (DAR 157a).
6
CD refers to the children’s story ‘The old woman and the pig’. For CD’s earlier experiments to investigate fish as a means of distributing plant seeds, see Correspondence vol. 5, letters to W. D. Fox, 7 May [1855], and to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1855].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

5.1 greedily] interl
5.1 millet] above del ‘some’
5.2 will] over ‘with’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2042,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2042