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To Louis Bertillon   18 December 1871

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Dec 18. 1871

Dear Sir

I beg leave to thank you sincerely for having sent me yr essay & for the kind words in relation to my works in your letter to Dr Beddoe.1 I have read yr essay with the greatest interest. Your discussion on the nature of the hypotheses, which may be legitimately used in science appears to me the most philosophical which I have ever read. It puts in a clear manner thoughts which had vaguely passed thro’ my head.2 With respect to the second part of your essay, I venture to differ from you on several points; but on so intricate a subject I suppose no two persons wd altogether agree. I should not dare to trust so much as you do in Agassiz’ conclusions, although they are favorable to our general view.3

I am particularly glad that you have published yr essay, as I believe there are but few in France who admit the doctrine of evolution; & this is a strange fact, considering that France has produced Buffon, Lamarck & the two Geoffroys.4

With my best thanks & sincere respect, I remain | dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
CD had corresponded with the anthropologist John Beddoe in 1869 (see Correspondence vol. 17). There is an offprint of Bertillon’s paper ‘Valeur de l’hypothèse du transformisme’ (Value of the transformist hypothesis; Bertillon 1870) in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL; the offprint is dated 1871 and the title is Valeur philosophique de l’hypothèse du transformisme.
2
Bertillon distinguished different sorts of scientific hypotheses, and likened the theory of evolution to theories of the genesis of the cosmos or the development of language, insofar as eyewitness proof of historical origins was not to be expected; he also argued that such general theories could not be expected to explain every individual phenomenon that fell within their scope. (Bertillon 1870, pp. 489–99.)
3
Bertillon reflected on Louis Agassiz’s support for the idea of a God who was alternately creator and destroyer of species in multiple locations over time. Agassiz concluded that the development of an embryo corresponded to the historical progressive development of species, while maintaining that each species was a separate creation (Bertillon 1870, pp. 512–15).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6508F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6508F