Bury, J. P. T. 1967. Romilly's Cambridge Diary 1832-42. Selected passages from the diary of the Rev. Joseph Romilly Fellow of Trinity College and Registrary of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge: University Press, p. 110. [Recollection of Darwin only]

RECORD: Bury, J. P. T. 1967. Romilly's Cambridge Diary 1832-42. Selected passages from the diary of the Rev. Joseph Romilly Fellow of Trinity College and Registrary of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge: University Press, p. 110. [Recollection of Darwin only]

[page] 110

Tu. 13.[December 1836] Declined dining with G.P. at his 2^d Lowndian dinner... Drank tea with M^rs Henslow to meet Marchesa &c: here also I met M^r Darwin (g. s. of Bot^c Garden) who is just returned from his travels round the world:² he declares that in 'terra del fuego' whenever a scarcity occurs (wch is every 5 or 6 years) they kill the old women as the most useless living creatures: in conseq. when a famine begins the old women run away into the woods & many of them perish miserably there...

² Charles Darwin, who had returned from the celebrated voyage in the Beagle which led him to develop his theory of evolution. 'The Botanic Garden' was the most admired of the books of verse by his grandfather Erasmus Darwin.

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)