Ɛpsilon

From L. H. Jeitteles   3 November 1872

Salzburg (Austrian Empire),

3. November 1872.

Sir!

A long space of time has elapsed, since I had the last time the honor to send you a scientific paper. Sorrowful years, years full of adversity have passed over me after my publication in 1867 at St. Pölten on Myoxus dryas and other little mammalia of Austria.1 Notwithstanding I have not quite lost the joy of investigating zoological objects, and particularly the prehistoric antiquities of Olmütz in Moravia, discovered by me in 1864, formed incessantly the theme of my studies. In 1869 and 1870 I have been with all the found objects during more than eight months in the Switzerland, of which six months were passed at Basel in the nearness of Prof. Rütimeyer, and in 1871 I published the first part of a little preliminary labour on Olmütz in the “Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien”, the second half of which I have the honor to present you now. Of the first part, containing a short description of the implements of stone and bone, the pottery etc, I have got only a very little number of copies; I do not know, whether I have taken occasion to send you a copy or not.2

I may hope, that the second prevailingly zoological half, although not at all free from errors and great imperfections, as I feel it the best myself, will notwithstanding not be quite unworthy of a fugitive revision by yourself. The dates on the cock, the daim, the rabbit and perhaps also on the horse are, as I think, partially new.3 And as for the dog, I believe that the descendence of the Canis palustris of the stone-time from the little Shacal, the Sacalius of Ham. Smith, of Africa, the total difference of the dog of the bronze-age from the dog of the earlier period (named by me Canis matris optimæ in honor to my dear mother buried at Olmütz) and the great affinity of this dog of the bronze-period with the Canis latrans Say of North-America are not ill prooved.4 Other discussions are, it is true, more hypothetical and request still more materials of comparative objects.

Begging a kind reception of this labour and an indulgent judgment, I have the honor to be | your | most obedient | L. H. Jeitteles.

Pfarrgasse 229.

1
There is an annotated copy of Jeitteles 1867 in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL, as well as two earlier papers by him. Myoxus dryas (now Dryomys nitedula) is the forest dormouse.
2
There is an annotated copy of the second part of Jeitteles 1871–2 in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. Ludwig Rütimeyer was professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Basel. The town of Olmütz, in Moravia (an Austrian crown land between 1849 and 1918), is now Olomouc, in the Czech Republic (Columbia gazetteer of the world).
3
CD cited Jeitteles’s discoveries of remains of fowl associated with extinct animals and prehistoric remains in Variation 2d ed. 1: 258 and n. 33. Daim: fallow deer, Cervus dama.
4
Canis palustris: i.e. Canis familiaris palustris. Shacal: i.e. Schakal (German); jackal. Charles Hamilton Smith, in his Natural history of dogs (C. H. Smith 1839–40, 1: 206–21), discussed jackals under the genus name Sacalius; other authorities considered them a member of the genus Canis, as do present-day authorities. Canis matris optimae: literally, dog of the best mother (Latin). CD referred to Jeitteles’s discussion of dogs in Variation 2d ed. 1: 15 n. 1. Canis latrans: coyote.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8594,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8594