From Charles Lyell1   27 September 1860

27th. Septr. 1860

– I am haunted with a kind of misgiving, which bye & bye I shall be able to express more clearly—that the multiple origin of the dog will furnish an argument for the multiple origin of a Mammal, or of Man. Do try to consider it that way, for I incline to go far with Hooker (& with you?) in believing that whatever is true in domestication is essentially possible in Nature also, & I am not sure that you confine the multiple origin of the dog to Man’s selection.

incomplete copy

1
The text of the letter is taken from a copy in Lyell’s scientific journal. It is also printed in Wilson ed. 1970, p. 496.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2930A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2930A