From Emma Darwin to Julius von Haast   12 December [1863]1

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

Dec 12

Sir

I write by my husband’s desire as he is too unwell to be able to answer your letter himself, to thank you for your kind & interesting letter.2 He was much interested by your account of the marvellous ground parrot & also by the Reports & Facts on naturalisation of animals in New Zealand.3 He has communicated them to Dr Hooker who is also writing on the subject.4

Mr Darwin as he is not able to do so himself begs you will present his thanks for the honour of being elected to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury.5

I am dear Sir | yours truly | Emma Darwin

I am sorry to say that Mr Darwin has been very unwell for some months.

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Julius von Haast, 21 July [– 7? August] 1863.
3
See letter from Julius von Haast, 21 July [– 7? August] and nn. 13, 14, and 17.
4
See letters to J. D. Hooker, 10 [November 1863] and [13 November 1863], and letter from J. D. Hooker to Emma Darwin, 11 November 1863. Joseph Dalton Hooker incorporated Haast’s information into an article published in the Natural History Review (J. D. Hooker 1864).
5
CD was elected an honorary member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, on 7 August 1863 (see letter from the secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, 14 September 1863). Haast initiated the founding of the Institute in 1862 and was the first president (H. F. von Haast 1948, p. 221).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4356,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4356