Ɛpsilon

To Henry Denny   1 June [1844]1

Down near Bromley | Kent

June 1st

Dear Sir

You may remember a statement, which I communicated to you about the Sandwich Isld lice not living on Europæans.2 The other day, I met a passage in a foolish Book. “Whites Regular Gradation of Man”, which I thought you might like to know of.— At p. 79 He states that he has heard that the lice on the Negroes, born in N. America & who have never been in a hot country, are blacker & larger than the lice on Europæans & further that the Europæan Lice seem to refuse to live on the Negroes.3

It is singular if both this & my independent statement, are without any foundation.

Believe me | Dear Sir | Your’s very faithfully | C. Darwin

This letter returned by Dead office

I hope you received the specimens safely, which I sent by Post the other day4

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letters to Henry Denny, 20 January [1844] and [27 July – 10 August 1844] (Correspondence vol. 3 and vol. 13 supplement, respectively).
2
See Correspondence vol. 18, supplement, letter to Henry Denny, 5 February [1844] and n. 8.
3
CD read Charles White’s An account of the regular gradation in man, and in different animals and vegetables; and from the former to the latter (C. White 1799) in May or June 1844 (see CD’s reading notebooks, Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 119: 14a).
4
‘This letter … other day’ is written on the back of the folded letter. Denny had asked CD for specimens to help with his report on exotic species of Anoplura (sucking lice; see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to Henry Denny, 20 January [1844] and n. 1, and Denny 1844). The specimens CD sent have not been identified, but since the letter evidently had to be re-sent after being returned to CD from the dead-letter office, they may have been the ones sent with his letter to Denny of [27 July – 10 August 1844] (Correspondence vol. 13, supplement).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 I met] after del ‘in’
1.5 N.] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-754F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-754F