From Francis Galton   1 February 1872

42 Rutland Gate. SW.

Feb 1/72

My dear Darwin

If you can make it convenient to send, in separate hampers, 1 buck & 1 doe, I should be glad, as then my stock will be large enough to be above risk of accident   As for the others, pray do what you like with them.1 Wd. you send the pair, as before, addressed to

Dr. Charles Carter2

University College

Gower St.

& if you cd. kindly let a postage card be sent to him, to say when they might be expected, they wd. be the more sure, to be immediately attended to

I grieve to say, that I find I must abandon the rats, as a task above my power to bring to a successful issue.3

I am most truly obliged to the care you have taken of the rabbits— I heartily wish for my part, that I could have done more in the way of experiment than I have affected.4

Very sincerely yours | Francis Galton

1
See letter to Francis Galton, 23 January [1872]. Galton sent CD eight young rabbits in April 1871; CD had already sent back some rabbits in December (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from Francis Galton to Francis Darwin, 7 April 1871, and letters from Francis Galton, 21 November 1871 and 2 December 1871).
3
Galton began experiments with rats in or before September 1871 (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from Francis Galton, 13 September 1871).
4
Galton’s experiments with rabbits and rats were performed in order to test CD’s hypothesis of heredity, pangenesis (see Variation 2: 357–404), but his results had been inconclusive. For CD’s response to the results of Galton’s experiments with rabbits, see Correspondence vol. 19, letter to Nature, [before 27 April 1871].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8192,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8192