From St George Jackson Mivart   6 April 1868

7 North Bank | N.W.

April 6th 1868

My dear Sir.

The paper you left with me I handed to one of my colleagues—1 I was much surprised to see the paragraph in last week’s British Medical Journal & hasten to assure you it was inserted without my consent or approval being asked—2 Nevertheless I trust it may be the means of obtaining you information & the gentlemen who administer chloroform at St Mary’s have been specially requested to observe the matter in which you are interested.3

Believe me | My dear Sir | Your’s very truly | St Geo Mivart.

C. Darwin Esq.

1
CD evidently met Mivart during his stay in London from 3 March to 1 April 1868 (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 16, Appendix II)). The note he gave Mivart has not been found, but CD’s question was published in the British Medical Journal (see n. 2, below).
2
The following notice appeared on 4 April 1868 in the British Medical Journal 1 (1868): 332: Mr. Darwin has asked the surgeons of St. Mary’s Hospital to assist him in the solution of the following questions. No doubt other surgeons will also kindly give the results of their experience and observation on the subject. “When a person screams very violently, and is not suffering conscious pain—as under chloroform—in certain brain-injuries, mania, etc., does the platysma myoides contract strongly, drawing the sides of the cheeks downwards, and causing the neck to be transversely wrinkled?”
3
Mivart was lecturer in comparative anatomy at St Mary’s Hospital medical school in London (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6098,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6098