To T. L. Brunton   26 March 1873

16 Montague St.

March 26. 73

Dear Sir

I am greatly obliged to you for your kindness in lending me the Indian gazette, which I return by the Post.1 It was a most fortunate coincidence for me that you called at Dr. Sanderson’s.—2 The paper, though written in too jerky a style for my taste, has interested me greatly & has confirmed in a quite unexpected manner what I imagined was the case—3

With sincere thanks— Pray believe me— | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
Brunton had lent CD an article by William James Moore on tumbling behaviour in some species of pigeon (W. J. Moore 1873; see first letter to Nature, [before 3 April 1873] and n. 7).
3
See first letter to Nature, [before 3 April 1873]. Moore had conducted experiments in which tumbling behaviour was induced in non-tumbling species of pigeon by administering drugs or by inserting a needle into the brain; he concluded that a behaviour caused originally by injury or disease had become heritable (W. J. Moore 1873, pp. 35–6).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8825,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8825