To James Crichton-Browne   9 April [1871]1

Down,

April 9,

My dear Sir

I have been led into a small speculation on the confusion of mind often or generally accompanying intense blushing.2 I should not think of publishing this, without some able medical man looking it over. It is only 3 folio pages long, and is well copied out.3 It is founded chiefly on what you have told me, so that I should prefer much to get your opinion on it; but I have long hesitated to send it on account of your avocations and state of health; and please observe that I could easily get Paget, Sir H. Holland, or others to read it over.4 So I earnestly beg you to return the enclosed card with “I have not leisure” or with “yes”5

Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to James Crichton-Browne, 12 April 1871.
2
CD discussed confusion of mind in Expression, pp. 323–6, citing information from Crichton-Browne throughout.
4
CD refers to James Paget and Henry Holland; for Crichton-Browne’s health, see the letter from James Crichton-Browne, 16 February 1871 and n. 3.
5
The card has not been found.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7672,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7672