From W. E. Darwin   [7 April 1868]1

Southampton

Tuesday

My dear Father,

We have decided that I shall go to London and talk the difficulty over with Hacon your lawyer, who I believe you consider a sensible safe man; if he wants a barrister’s opinion he could get it without difficulty2

I have seen Langstaff; he has watched carefully the faces of two adults and two babies; in all four he is perfectly certain that the first movement is the contraction of the “depressores”: in the adults as the suffering did not reach crying pitch there was no other contraction visible, but in the two babies (both of which he watched while he was vaccinating them) directly there was a sign of whimpering or beginning of crying, the little Zygomatics contracted, and slightly drew up the corners of the mouth which were depressed & then the mouth assumed an oblong oval which agrees with what Sanford said.3 he is going to watch for platysma & blushing.4

I see there is a review in the popular Science, Intellectual Observer, & G H. Lewes again in the April Fortnightly.5

I will write when I know anything; I am afraid the madness will be a sticker, as he will not stand I fear any clause on such a subject, but we must try him.

Luckily we have the clause in our partnership deeds.

Your affect son | W E Darwin

CD annotations

1.1 We … difficulty 1.3] crossed blue crayon
2.1 adults] ‘women’ interl after pencil
2.3 as … reach] del pencil; ‘both from fear & loss of child’ added above pencil
2.3 pitch … visible, 2.4] del pencil; ‘See 2d letter about adults’6 added and del pencil
3.1 I see … deeds. 5.1] crossed blue crayon
Top of letter: ‘Yawning | Elephant’7 pencil
1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. E. Darwin, 8 April [1868]. In 1868, the Tuesday before 8 April was 7 April.
2
William Mackmurdo Hacon was CD’s solicitor. CD had advised William to seek arbitration from a barrister regarding an agreement with his banking partner, George Atherley. See letters to W. E. Darwin, 21 March [1868] and 25 March [1868].
3
William refers to Charles Langstaff. See letter from W. E. Darwin, 5 March [1868] and n. 4. Sanford, first mentioned in the letter from W. E. Darwin, 5 March [1868], has not been identified.
4
CD described the contraction of the platysma myoides muscle, which extends over the sides of the neck from the lower part of the cheeks to just below the collar bone, in relation to the expression of fear (Expression, pp. 298–303); he discussed blushing in Expression, pp. 310–43. Langstaff was cited in both sections.
5
Reviews of Variation appeared in the April issues of Popular Science Review (Anon. 1868b), and the Intellectual Observer (Anon. 1868a). George Henry Lewes’s long essay, ‘Mr. Darwin’s hypotheses’, appeared in instalments between April and November in the Fortnightly Review (Lewes 1868b). Lewes had written a review of Variation in the Pall Mall Gazette ([Lewes] 1868a).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6100,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6100