Down Bromley Kent | Feb. 4th
Dear Tyndall
I am very much obliged to you for your note.2 My only excuse for having troubled Huxley,3 was my very great curiosity to hear something more of your views.–
I am as ignorant of mechanics as a pig as you will have perceived; but Glaciers for years & years have interested me greatly.4
I am so very glad to hear that you are continuing your experiments on ice; & I hope to hear that you will explain about the freezing together of ice under the freezing point.–
I can fancy a man so ignorant of nat. History as to advise Owen5 to compare a skull with a vertebra;6 on exactly same principle, I hope that you will squeeze together pieces of ice quite dry as far as water is concerned, but wetted with something which will not freeze. There is a valuable suggestion for you!!
I wish you all sorts of good fortune in your most interesting investigations; & the Lord have mercy on you, when Forbes answers you7 is my prayer
Most truly yours | C. Darwin
It is most beautiful your having given cleavage to ice.8
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 69
RI MS JT/1/TYP/9/2801
Typed Transcript Only
[1857]: the year is given by the reference to Tyndall’s research on cleavage in glacial ice. Darwin had attended part of Tyndall’s lecture at the RS on 15 January 1857, on ‘Observations on Glaciers’.
your note: letter missing.
having troubled Huxley: in two letters to Huxley, Darwin had discussed Tyndall’s investigations of glacial ice. See Charles Darwin to Thomas Huxley, 17 January [1857], and Charles Darwin to Thomas Huxley, 3 February [1857], in F. Burkhardt, et al. (eds), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 24 vols (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), vol. 6 (1856–1857), pp. 322–3 and 329–30.
Glaciers for years & years have interested me greatly: in his book Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1844), Darwin compared the lamination he observed in volcanic rocks to the zoned structure in glaciers as described by James David Forbes (pp. 70–1).
Owen: Richard Owen (1804–92), British comparative anatomist and paleontologist, superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum and later founder of the Natural History Museum in Kensington, London. He was especially known for his skill at interpreting fossil remains (ODNB).
compare a skull with a vertebra: the idea that the bones of the skull were modified vertebrae. While originating with the German naturalist Lorenz Oken (1779–1851), Owen developed his own views on the origin of the vertebrate skull and used it as support for his theory of homology. Huxley would attack Owen’s view in his Croonian lecture at the RS on 17 June 1858. See N. A. Rupke, Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 108–11, and pp. 134–5.
when Forbes answers you: at this point Forbes did not really know how much under attack he would be. He had not heard the glacier lecture nor seen the actual paper, for which he had to wait some time. A month later, Forbes requested from Tyndall the published paper (see letter 1349).
given cleavage to ice: see letter 1295, n. 3, and 1306, n. 10.
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6: our transcription has been checked against that of the Darwin Correspondence Project. See Charles Darwin to John Tyndall, 4 February [1857], in F. Burkhardt, et al. (eds), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6, p. 330–1.
Please cite as “Tyndall1330,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on