To Armand de Quatrefages   21 July [1870]¹

The year is established by the relationship between this letter, the letter from Armand de Quatrefages, 18 July 1870, and the letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 20 July [1870] (Correspondence vol. 18).

CD’s copy of Charles Darwin et ses précurseurs français (Quatrefages 1870), with the pages uncut, is in the Darwin Library–CUL. The book was a reprinting of a collection of articles that Quatrefages had sent in 1869 (Correspondence vol. 17, letter from Armand de Quatrefages, 29 March 1869); CD’s annotated offprint of the articles (Quatrefages 1868–9) is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.

In his letter of 18 July 1870 (Correspondence vol. 18), Quatrefages asked CD whether he had published ‘the volume on the Geology of South America that was supposed to be part of the Expedition of the Beagle’. Coral reefs, Volcanic islands and South America had appeared in one volume as Geology of the ‘Beagle’ in 1851. CD had received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1859. The council’s resolution stated (Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 15 (1859): ii):In conclusion, the Council have to state that they have awarded the Wollaston Medal to Charles Darwin, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., for his numerous contributions to Geological Science, more especially his observations on the Geology of South America, on the Phænomena of Volcanic Islands, on the structure and distribution of Coral-reefs, and his Monographs on recent and fossil Cirripedia.