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experience, make a useful microscope for the kind of dissection of
the invertebrates which a person would be likely to attempt on board a
vessel. But pray again believe that I feel the absurdity of this letter,
and I write merely from the chance of yourself, possessing great skill
and having worked with good instruments, [not being] possibly fully
aware what an astonishing difference the kind of microscope makes for
those who have not been trained in skill for dissection under water.
When next I come to town (I was prevented last time by illness) I must
call on you, and report, for my own satisfaction, a really (I think)
curious point I have made out in my beloved barnacles. You cannot tell
how much I enjoyed my talk with you here.
Ever, my dear Owen, Yours sincerely, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--If I do not hear, I shall understand that my letter is
superfluous. Smith and Beck were so pleased with the simple microscope
they made for me, that they have made another as a model. If you are
consulted by any young naturalists, do recommend them to look at this.
I really feel quite a personal gratitude to this form of microscope, and
quite a hatred to my old one.
LETTER 26. TO J.S. HENSLOW. Down [April 1st, 1848.]
Thank you for your note and giving me a chance of seeing you in town;
but it was out of my power to take advantage of it, for I had previously
arranged to go up to London on Monday. I should have much enjoyed
seeing you. Thanks also for your address (26/1. An introductory lecture
delivered in March 1848 at the first meeting of a Society "for giving
instructions to the working classes in Ipswich in various branches of
science, and more especially in natural history" ("Memoir of the Rev.
J.S. Henslow," by Leonard Jenyns, page 150.), which I like very much.
The anecdote about Whewell and the tides I had utterly forgotten; I
believe it is near enough to the truth. I rather demur to one sentence
of yours--viz., "However delightful any scientific pursuit may be, yet,
if it should be wholly unapplied, it is of no more use than building
castles in the air." Would not your hearers infer from this that the
practical use of each scientific discovery ought to be immediate and
obvious to make it worthy of admiration? What a beautiful instance
chloroform is of a discovery made from purely scientific researches,
afterwards coming almost by chance into practical use! For myself I
would, however, take higher ground, for I believe there exists, and I
feel within me, an instinct for truth, or knowledge or discovery, of
something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue, and that our
having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches
without any practical results ever ensuing from them. You will wonder
what makes me run on so, but I have been working very hard for the last
eighteen months on the anatomy, etc., of the Cirripedia (on which I
shall publish a monograph), and some of my friends laugh at me, and I
fear the study of the Cirripedia will ever remain "wholly unapplied,"
and yet I feel that such study is better than castle-building.
LETTER 27. TO J.D. HOOKER, at Dr. Falconer's, Botanic Garden, Calcutta.
Down, May 10th, 1848.
I was indeed delighted to see your handwriting; but I felt almost sorry
when I beheld how long a letter you had written. I know that you are
indomitable in work, but remember how precious your time is, and do not
waste it on your friends, however much pleasure you may give them. Such
a letter would have cost me half-a-day's work. How capitally you seem
going on! I do envy you the sight of all the glorious vegetation. I am
much pleased and surprised that you have been able to observe so much in
the animal world. No doubt you keep a journal, and an excellent one it
will be, I am sure, when published. All these animal facts will tell
capitally in it. I can quite comprehend the difficulty you mention about
not knowing what is known zoologically in India; but facts observed, as
you will observe them, are none the worse for reiterating. Did you see
Mr. Blyth in Calcutta? He would be a capital man to tell you what is
known about Indian Zoology, at least in the Vertebrata. He is a very
clever, odd, wild fellow, who will never do what he could do, from not
sticking to any one subject. By the way, if you should see him at any
time, try not to forget to remember me very kindly to him; I liked all I
saw of him. Your letter was the very one to charm me, with all its facts
for my Species-book, and truly obliged I am for so kind a remembrance
of me. Do not forget to make enquiries about the origin, even if only
traditionally known, of any varieties of domestic quadrupeds, birds,
silkworms, etc. Are there domestic bees? if so hives ought to be brought
home. Of all the facts you mention, that of the wild [illegible], when
breeding with the domestic, producing offspring somewhat sterile, is the
most surprising: surely they must be different species. Most zoologists
would absolutely disbelieve such a statement, and consider the result as
a proof that they were distinct species. I do not go so far as that,
but the case seems highly improbable. Blyth has studied the Indian
Ruminantia. I have been much struck about what you say of lowland plants
ascending mountains, but the alpine not descending. How I do hope you
will get up some mountains in Borneo; how curious the result will be!
By the way, I never heard from you what affinity the Maldive flora has,
which is cruel, as you tempted me by making me guess. I sometimes groan
over your Indian journey, when I think over all your locked up riches.
When shall I see a memoir on Insular floras, and on the Pacific? What
a grand subject Alpine floras of the world (27/1. Mr. William Botting
Hemsley, F.R.S., of the Royal Gardens, Kew, is now engaged on a
monograph of the high-level Alpine plants of the world.) would be,
as far as known; and then you have never given a coup d'oeil on the
similarity and dissimilarity of Arctic and Antarctic floras. Well, thank
heavens, when you do come back you will be nolens volens a fixture. I am
particularly glad you have been at the Coal; I have often since you went
gone on maundering on the subject, and I shall never rest easy in Down
churchyard without the problem be solved by some one before I die.
Talking of dying makes me tell you that my confounded stomach is much
the same; indeed, of late has been rather worse, but for the last year,
I think, I have been able to do more work. I have done nothing besides
the barnacles, except, indeed, a little theoretical paper on erratic
boulders (27/2. "On the Transportal of Erratic Boulders from a Lower to
a Higher Level" ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume IV., pages 315-23.
1848). In this paper Darwin favours the view that the transport of
boulders was effected by coast-ice. An earlier paper entitled "Notes on
the Effects produced by the ancient Glaciers of Caernarvonshire, and on
the Boulders transported by floating Ice" ("Phil. Mag." 1842, pag |