From J. J. Weir   5 April 1868

6 Haddo Villas | Blackheath S E

5 April 1868

My Dear Sir

Dont laugh   I am about to write a letter which if such an one had been written to me a few years ago I should have deemed the writer very weak minded.—

Many years before my marriage I was visiting at Mrs. Weir’s Fathers in Sussex   I cut a deep gash in my knee with a knife, Mrs. Weir (then Miss Jenner) knew of the accident, the wound healed but of course left a cicatrix, my son Percy born years afterwards has very plainly in precisely the same spot a similar mark and was born with it.—1

A friend of mine was struck by the boom of his yacht & had his cheek laid open & to this day the scar is visible, he had a Daughter born 8 years afterwards with a similar mark on the cheek.—2

A friend of my Mothers was thrown out of a chaise & had her cheek very much injured, when my Mother was enceinte with me, she very much regarded this mark, indeed could not take her eyes off it, now I have a similar mark on the cheek & I can plainly feel with my fingers that the muscle of the cheek on the side marked is divided!—3

I have often speculated on my Brother4 & myself having such an intense love of Nature.

My Father5 was very

incomplete

CD annotations

2.3 my son … it.— 2.5] scored blue crayon
3.2 he had … cheek.— 3.3] scored blue crayon; ‘same side’ added blue crayon
4.1 A friend … very 4.2] crossed pencil
Top of letter: ‘over Prof. Rollestons case of man eye injured by crust of bread—rendered blind & all sons short-sighted on same side.—’6 pencil
1
Weir refers to Mary Ann Weir and Percy Jenner Weir. Weir’s father-in-law was Philip Jenner.
2
In the second edition of Variation 1: 469–70, CD mistakenly cited George Rolleston as the source of information about the two sons born with scars in identical positions to their fathers’ scars, on the knee and cheek, respectively. Rolleston later denied that he was the source of this information (letter from George Rolleston, 26 December 1876 (Calendar no. 10734)).
3
Weir’s mother was Elizabeth Jenner (ODNB s.v. Weir, Harrison William); her friend has not been identified.
6
George Rolleston may have informed CD about this case at the Royal College of Surgeons in March 1868 (see letter from George Rolleston, 30 September 1868).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6093,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6093