Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Huxley   9 October [1871]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Oct 9th

My dear Huxley

Will you have kindness to tell me where you have published any notice of the affinities of the (Eocene?) Cetacean Zeuglodon to Seals.— I want to put in new Edit. of Origin a single sentence, showing that in some slight degree Zeuglodon is an intermediate form, & I do not know how far I may venture.2 To save me hunting up your Bird paper, be, also, so very kind, as to mark “yes” on enclosed sentence if it is correct.—3

Forgive me | Ever yours | C. Darwin

Ever since I wrote to you last, I have had 2 letters & seen some printed notices, showing how profound an impression Mivart’s book has made.—4 Believe how I rejoice in your splendid, (as Hooker expresses it) “essay—critique—exposition—discussion—enquiry— you may read for one & all these aims.”—5

1
The year is established by the reference to the sixth edition of Origin, which was published in February 1872 (Freeman 1977).
2
CD added the following sentence to Origin 6th ed., p. 302: ‘The cetaceans or whales are widely different from all other mammals, but the tertiary Zeuglodon and Squalodon, which have been placed by some naturalists in an order by themselves, are considered by Professor Huxley to be undoubtedly cetaceans, “and to constitute connecting links with the aquatic carnivora.’” The extinct Eocene cetacean genus Zeuglodon is now known as Basilosaurus; Squalodon is from the early Oligocene to middle Miocene.
3
The enclosure has not been found, but see the letter from T. H. Huxley, 10 October 1871. CD’s copy of Huxley’s paper on the classification of birds (T. H. Huxley 1867) in his unbound journals (Darwin Library–CUL) is lightly annotated.
4
CD last wrote to Huxley on 5 October 1871. The letters CD received have not been identified. CD refers to St George Jackson Mivart’s Genesis of species (Mivart 1871a).
5
CD refers to Joseph Dalton Hooker and to Huxley’s review of Mivart 1871a (T. H. Huxley 1871b); see letter from J. D. Hooker, [2 October 1871].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.5 Bird] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7995,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7995