To the secretary, Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin   16 March 1863

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

March 16th 1863

Honoured Sir!

I beg leave to acknowledge your letter, received this morning, in which you announce to me the distinguished honour conferred on me, by my election as a corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin.—1

With my sincere thanks for this great honour | I beg leave to remain | Sir | Your most obedient servant | Charles Darwin

To the Secretary | Royal Acad. of Sciences

1
CD was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences on 23 February 1863; the diploma sent to CD is reproduced in Appendix III. The letter referred to has not been found; however, it was probably written by either Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg or Johann Franz Encke, who, as the secretaries for the physical-mathematical section of the academy, were the joint signatories of the diploma. The academy comprised two sections: the physical–mathematical and the philosophical–historical; the former encompassed biological as well as physical sciences (Harnack 1900).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4043,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4043