To J. D. Hooker   26 November [1874]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Nov. 26th

My dear Hooker.

I quite agree with you. It would be tremendous work for a man who had never been overworked. If Huxley tries it, I fear it will be the School-Board case over again. But when a man feels well, he thinks he will always be the same, & I expect that you will not persuade him against it.—2

Remember that I am waiting till I have copy of your Memorial to the Board, & (as I think admirable) the number of letters &c &c, which you have had to write within some given time, independently of ordinary work of Kew, before I endeavour to get Farrer to interest Sir S. N. on the subject.—3

I returned yesterday the American President’s address which was very interesting, though I cd. not understand all.4

I am very glad to hear that you are able to bear up fairly well, & can banish dismal thoughts for a time by hard work.— It will always be a profound gratification to us to remember that you were willing to come here. Love to Harriet.5

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 November 1874.
2
Thomas Henry Huxley had decided to lecture at Edinburgh University in addition to his other work (see enclosure to letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 November 1874). In 1871, Huxley had been elected a member of the recently-established London School Board, but had to resign when he suffered a serious breakdown in health in early 1872 owing to overwork (L. Huxley ed. 1900, 1: 337–9; P. White 2003, pp. 123–9).
3
CD wanted Hooker to outline the excessive amount of work he did as director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in order to put forward a case to the Board of Trade for an assistant to be appointed. CD intended to ask Thomas Henry Farrer, secretary of the Board of Trade, who had married CD’s niece Katherine Euphemia Wedgwood in 1873, to bring Hooker’s case to the attention of Stafford Northcote, the chancellor of the Exchequer. See letter to T. H. Farrer, 29 November [1874].
4
This may be a reference to the address by Stephen Smith, president of the American Public Health Association, on sanitary studies in various American cities and the effects of recent epidemics (‘The Health congress: meeting of the American Association in Philadelphia. Introductory address of the president–papers on infant mortality–hereditary defects upon the health of the people–health of tenement populations, &c.’, New York Times, 11 November 1874, pp. 1–2).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 the] after del ‘tham’
2.2 (as … admirable)] parentheses over commas
2.3 within … time,] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9734,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9734