From Thomas Francis Jamieson   28 January 1863

Ellon

28. Jan 63

My Dear Sir,

I am much gratified by your Commendation of my Glen Roy paper, and am still more glad to think that you found nothing in it to give you offence, which would have vexed me much.1

—If it is printed I hope it may induce some others to visit the district which is remarkably rich in geological points of interest & is not nearly exhausted yet—2 I wish it was nearer to me

I may mention that I have got the lectureship for which I was applying.3

—In reading over some of Liebig’s writings lately the following idea occurred to me as a possible mode of influencing to some degree change in species—4

Suppose a country to be covered with a certain kind of vegetation—say forests of certain species of trees—&c. and let these flourish for so many ages— It seems not improbable that they will exhaust in course of time certain ingredients of the soil that are necessary for their growth, & will then give away to others that are differently constituted & can still find plenty of the sort of mineral food they require.5

—In this way the features of the vegetation may change—

Then take the animals—say sloths for example feeding upon the leaves of these forests—having to live upon trees of a different nature & containing different proportions or kinds of ingredients, & having different fashions of growth— they will be influenced in turn—& thus the herbivora will change— And then the Carnivora that prey upon them will have to suit themselves to their victims, & alter their habits, & their digestive organs accordingly— The Omnivora will change most slowly of all, having a wider range of food.

—In this way first the vegetation changes, then the herbivora, next the Carnivora & last of all the Omnivora.

I don’t suppose the speculation is of any value, only it may amuse you for an idle moment   I think there is no doubt but that species have as a rule arisen in some way out of previous forms.

I am | My Dear Sir | Yours very truly | Thos. F. Jamieson

Charles Darwin Esq

1
Jamieson’s paper on the so-called ‘parallel roads’ of Glen Roy, a series of terraces running parallel to one another along the sides of the glen in Lochaber, Scotland (Jamieson 1863), was read at the Geological Society of London on 21 January 1863. Since CD had published a major study on the subject in 1839 (‘Parallel roads of Glen Roy’), it was referred to him before being published (see Correspondence vol. 10, letter from A. C. Ramsay, 13 December 1862). CD’s referee report is no longer extant.
2
Jamieson 1863 appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London later in the year.
3
In 1862, CD wrote a testimonial in support of Jamieson’s application to become the Fordyce lecturer in agriculture at the University of Aberdeen (see Correspondence vol. 10, letter to T. F. Jamieson, 21 November 1862).
4
Justus von Liebig, professor of chemistry at the University of Munich, was then the leading experimental chemist in Europe. His treatise on chemistry, agriculture, and physiology, published in Britain as Organic chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology (Playfair trans. 1840), brought together a vast amount of knowledge and practice in a coherent form, making it ‘one of the most important books in the history of agriculture’ (DSB). Jamieson may refer to a seventh, expanded edition that appeared in 1862 (Liebig 1862). See also Liebig 1840–4.
5
For a discussion of Liebig’s ideas on soil exhaustion and the reception of Liebig 1862, see Finlay 1991.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3952,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3952