RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. Abstract of Preyer, Der Kampf um das Dasein. CUL-DAR87.144. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 3.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR 87-90 contain material for Darwin's book Descent of man 2d ed. (1874-1877).

Darwin cited this in Descent 2d ed., p. 36, n38: "In my 'Variation of Animals under Domestication' (vol. ii. p. 57), I attributed the not very rare cases of supernumerary mammæ in women to reversion. I was led to this as a probable conclusion, by the additional mammæ being generally placed symmetrically on the breast; and more especially from one case, in which a single efficient mamma occurred in the inguinal region of a woman, the daughter of another woman with supernumerary mammæ. But I now find (see, for instance, Prof. Preyer, 'Der Kampf um das Dasein,' 1869, s. 45) that mammœ erraticœ occur in other situations, as on the back, in the armpit, and on the thigh; the mammæ in this latter instance having given so much milk that the child was thus nourished. The probability that the additional mammæ are due to reversion is thus much weakened; nevertheless, it still seems to me probable, because two pairs are often found symmetrically on the breast; and of this I myself have received information in several cases."

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

File last updated 16 October, 2023