From John Lubbock   20 December 1864

Chiselhurst

20 Dec 64

My dear Mr. Darwin

You will of course have seen in the Presidents Address the manner in which he alludes to the “Origin of Species”.1

I am much vexed about it, but would like to know your feeling on the subject if it would not bore you to write.2

Believe me always | Yours affec | John Lubbock

C Darwin Esq

1
Lubbock refers to Edward Sabine’s address, delivered at the meeting of the Royal Society of London on 30 November 1864. The address described the basis on which CD had been awarded the Copley Medal, and included some controversial remarks on Origin. Edited versions of the address appeared in the Reader, 3 December 1864, pp. 708–9, and the Athenæum, 3 December 1864, p. 748. See letter from Hugh Falconer, 2 December 1864 and n. 3. For a discussion of the controversy surrounding Sabine’s address, see Correspondence vol. 12, Appendix IV.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4719,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4719