To Albert Gaudry   27 May [1867]1

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

May 27

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your kind letter, & for the present of your two memoirs. The one in the Bulletin I shd have naturally seen, but perhaps not that one in the Archives.2

I have been very glad to read this latter paper, as all inosculating forms are very interesting to me. I quite agree with what you say on the extreme interest of attempting to affiliate extinct & existing Species.3

With your great knowledge you will no doubt produce some valuable results, & I feel well convinced that in the course of time the most interesting genealogical tables will be constructed. I am aware that there are very few naturalists in France who at all concur with our views & therefore I presume you will meet with much opposition.4

I am at present printing a book “on the variation of animals & plants under domestication”; which will I believe be translated into French, & in this case I will direct the publisher to send you a copy, though I do not suppose it will possess much interest for you.5 I am much obliged for yr kind wish to see me in Paris; I shd much enjoy this but the state of my health renders it impossible.—

With very sincere respect | I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Albert Gaudry, 22 May 1867.
2
Gaudry had sent an offprint from the Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle of his ‘Mémoire sur le reptile (Pleuracanthus Frossardi) découvert par M. Frossard à Muse’ (Gaudry 1867a); see letter from Albert Gaudry, 22 May 1867. The other paper has not been found in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. Gaudry published a note on the fossil reptile in the Bulletin de la Société Geologique de France in 1867 (Gaudry 1867b).
3
See letter from Albert Gaudry, 22 May 1867 and n. 4. Inosculate: ‘to pass into; to join or unite so as to become continuous; to blend’ (OED). See also Correspondence vol. 1, letter to J. S. Henslow, [c. 26 October–] 24 November [1832] and n. 8.
4
On the reception of CD’s theory in France, see Stebbins 1988 and J. Harvey 1997. See also letter from Camille Dareste, 19 May 1867 and n. 8.
5
CD refers to Variation. A translation by Jean Jacques Moulinié appeared in 1868 (Moulinié trans. 1868); Gaudry thanked CD for his copy in a letter to CD of 11 April 1868 (Correspondence vol. 16).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5554,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5554