To Louis Agassiz   19 August 1868

Down Bromley | Kent [Freshwater]

Aug 19. 1868

C. Darwin

Dear Sir

I thank you cordially for your very kind letter.1

I certainly thought that you had formed so low an opinion of my scientific work that it might have appeared indelicate in me to have asked for information from you, but it never occurred to me that my letter wd have been shewn to you.2 I have never for a moment doubted your kindness & generosity, & I hope you will not think it presumptuous in me to say that when we met many years ago at the Brit. Assoc. at Southampton I felt for you the warmest admiration.3

Your information on the Amazonian fishes has interested me extremely, & tells me exactly what I wanted to know. I was aware, through notes given me by Dr Günther, that many fishes differed sexually in colour & other characters,4 but I was particularly anxious to learn how far this was the case with those fishes, in which the male, differently from what occurs with most birds, takes the largest share in the care of the ova & young.

Your letter has not only interested me much, but has greatly gratified me in other respects, & I return you my sincere thanks for your kindness.

Pray believe me my dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

3
The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science took place in Southampton in 1846; CD was vice-president of the botany and zoology section, and Agassiz delivered a paper on the fishes of the London clay (Report of the 16th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Southampton in 1846, p. xv; Transactions of the sections, p. 52).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6323,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6323