Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Huxley   5 December [1873]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Dec. 5th

My dear Huxley.

I am very sorry about Dohrn’s troubles, but there is clearly nothing to be done for him at present.— I hardly understand his motives about his Father.2 I have written to Cambridge to tell the men there nothing can be done.3

I am delighted to hear that Hooker’s election went off so well; but my mouth waters from longing to know how the fiend, Owen, distinguished himself4

It is good news that you have written about the Brain; but I shall not be ready for some weeks for your M.S., as my new Edit. of the Descent has turned out an awful job.—5 It took me ten days merely to glance over letters & reviews with criticism & new facts. It is a devil of a job.

I cannot say much for my health, & begin to fear that diet will do only a little for me. The great benefit at first was, I believe, merely due to a change, & changes of all kinds are at first highly beneficial to me.—

Yours most truly | Ch Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from T. H. Huxley, 3 December 1873.
2
See letter from T. H. Huxley, 3 December 1873. CD refers to Anton Dohrn and Carl August Dohrn. Anton Dohrn was trying to raise money for the zoological station at Naples; his father had already contributed a substantial amount for the construction of the station (Groeben 1982, pp. 90–1).
3
CD’s letter has not been found, but he may have written to Francis Maitland Balfour (see letter from F. M. Balfour, 11 November 1873).
4
See letter from T. H. Huxley, 3 December 1873 and n. 2. Joseph Dalton Hooker had been elected president of the Royal Society of London. CD also refers to Richard Owen.
5
Huxley’s letter of 3 December 1873 is incomplete; the section discussing Huxley’s writing on the brain is missing, but CD probably refers to a note on resemblances and differences in the structure of the brain in apes and humans that Huxley wrote as a supplement to the second edition of Descent (see Descent 2d ed., pp. v; 199–206). CD began working on the new edition on 20 November 1873 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 went] after del ‘whe’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9173,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9173