Ɛpsilon

To C. S. Tomes   16 February [1874]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Feb. 16th

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for communicating me the facts on inheritance, which is a subject which always interests me much.2

I may add that I heard about a year ago from Alex. Brandt of St Peterburg of another case in Russia of a hairy man with a hairy son, having deficient teeth.3

Your paper about the enamel on the teeth of the armadillo is most remarkable; & I presume that it will lead you to look at these animals as degraded forms.4

I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established from the reference to CD’s hearing ‘about a year ago’ of a case in Russia of a hairy man with a hairy son. CD annotated the letter from W. W. Keen, 26 September 1873, ‘Russia⁠⟨⁠n⁠⟩⁠ Hairy Boy   a sort of mane running down neck’.
3
Alexander von Brandt’s letter has not been found, but see n. 1, above.
4
In C. S. Tomes 1874, Tomes had written that in the armadillo Tatusia peba (now Dasypus novemcinctus, the nine-banded armadillo), which had no vestige of enamel on its teeth, the first histological structure recognisable in the tooth germ was a well-developed enamel germ, identical with that in other mammalian foetuses of the same age.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 may] over illeg
2.2 in Russia] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8216F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8216F