Ɛpsilon

From W. W. Keen   18 June 1874

1729 Chestnut St | Philada.

June 18, ’74

Charles Darwin Esq

My dear Sir

Your courteous reply to my former letter leads me to send you a little paper I recently published. The preservative method mentioned you may find very possibly of use.1 The addition of a little Glycerine say 10% or thereabouts I find improves it somewhat. I have some pus & urine now on my table preserved for over 3 months   For urine a very little Carbolic Acid is best if the preservation to be for any length of time otherwise there is a growth of torula.2 For some hitherto unmanageable invertebrates I suspect it may be of great use especially as the Microscopical characters even of glandular epithelium is unaltered.

While writing permit me to ask whether your attention has been called to the bearing of circumcision on your doctrines. It is I presume about the most marked methodical & persistent mutilation of which there is any historical record either in the human species or the lower animals. Yet, practised for not far from 3000 years, so far as I know it has left not a trace of its effect in the male children of the present day. I have not had any special opportunity to observe it but I have good reason to suppose that the prepuce of the Jews of today is of the ordinary size. Indeed the Continuance of the rite itself is a proof that it is at least not a rudimentary organ. So far as it goes it seems to me to be a fair historical argument against your views. I only suggest it & with your habitual fairness—a fairness so unusual in the founder of a new doctrine & so much the more to be admired—I know you will give it due weight3

With the greatest personal & professional respect, I am Sir | Your Obt Svt | W. W. Keen M.D.

1
CD’s letter has not been found, but see the letter from W. W. Keen, 26 September 1873 (Correspondence vol. 21, and next Supplement to the Correspondence). Keen probably sent a copy of his article ‘The anatomical, pathological, and surgical uses of chloral’ (Keen 1874), but CD’s copy has not been found. Keen discussed the use of chloral as a preservative in Keen 1874, p. 387. Chloral is an organic compound that was widely used in the nineteenth century, particularly, in its hydrated form, as a sedative.
2
Carbolic acid (now often known as phenol) is a very weakly acidic organic compound that was widely used in the late nineteenth century as an antiseptic. Torula is a species of yeast (Cyberlindnera jadinii).
3
CD had considered circumcision and other mutilations practised over several centuries in a discussion of inheritance in Variation 2: 23. He expanded the discussion in the second edition to include several cases of apparently inherited effects but admitted that the evidence was not strong (Variation 2d ed. 1: 467–73). The non-heritability of circumcision had been used to challenge CD’s views in a negative review of Origin ([Duns] 1860, p. 72).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9500,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9500