From Hugh Falconer   7 May [1862]1

21 Park Crescent N.W. | Portland Place

7th. May

My Dear Darwin,

There is no measure to my regrets— I literally lament having missed seeing you— I am just come home to find, that you had called and I out. This is the second time—that this evil luck has befallen me. Why did you not write and tell you were to be in town?2 I would have had a constable put over me—to stop my going out, for a chat with you is a green spot in the vista of my most agreeable remembrances.

and this time, I wanted so much to have talked to you about the new results, from the Pliocene Fauna of N. America. If Leidy is to be trusted—there were no fewer than 6 genera! & 8 species of Equid⁠⟨⁠æ⁠⟩⁠ besides a Rhinoceros like the Existing Indian species.3 Among the Horses he affirms that there was one which had the milk dentition of Anchitherium—and the permanent teeth of the Horse!! I would willingly believe it if I could—as a fact of great interest to your views.4 Anchi was founded on the Palæotherium aurelianense of Cuvier—from the middle or lower miocenes. You will see it figured in the “ossements fossiles”.5

I address this note at once to your brother—on the chance that you are staying in town today.6 I would go over to see

incomplete

CD annotations

1.1 There … results, 2.1] crossed ink
3.1 I … see 3.2] crossed ink
Top of first page: ‘Falconer’ ink; ‘21’7 brown crayon, circled brown crayon
1
The year is established by the reference to CD’s trip to London (see nn. 2 and 6, below).
2
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records that CD travelled to London on Tuesday 6 May 1862 and returned to Down House on Friday 9 May.
3
Leidy 1858, 26–8. See also Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1858): 11.
4
Falconer refers to Merychippus, described in Leidy 1858, p. 27. See also the letter to Joseph Leidy, 4 March [1861] (Correspondence vol. 9), in which CD expressed delight at Leidy’s statement that he had some interesting facts ‘in support of the doctrine of selection’ that he would report at a suitable opportunity.
5
Cuvier 1812.
6
On his visits to London, CD stayed with his brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, at 6 Queen Anne Street. CD remained in London until Friday 9 May, when he met Falconer, before returning to Down House (see letter to Hugh Falconer, [8 May 1862], and letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 May [1862]).
7
This is the number of CD’s portfolio of notes on palaeontology and extinction.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3538,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3538