Dear Sir
I am greatly indebted to you for your pleasant letter & for your great kindness in sending me the photographs, which I have been very glad to see.2 I do not know whether they are quite distinct enough for engraving on wood, but think so; & when a new edition is required will show them to a wood-engraver.3 Any how I will give the case as coming from “a foreign naturalist”. The ears of the embryonic orang strike me as extremely curious: they seem wonderfully different, as far as my memory serves, from those of the adult animal; & I think it will be worth while to give an engraving of them.4 I enclose my own photograph as the only, though very poor, return which I can make for your two photographs.
When next you see Mr. Lankester will you give him my particular thanks for his interesting letter of April 17th., which will be very useful to me, & for his betrayal of you as a case of atavism.5 I am glad to hear from Mr. Lankester of the young chimpanzee in Hamburgh with the points to the ears.6
Pray believe me, | yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7714,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on