RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1946. [Unrecorded letter to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, February 1860]. Parke Bernet. Rare first editions, historical americana autograph letters and manuscripts library sets of standard authors French literature, incunabula important Currier & Ives lithographs fore-edge paintings, colored plates. Collected by The Late Hon. W. W. Cohen.
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2023. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Freeman Bibliographical Database, enter its Identifier here.
The great French naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-1861) wrote to Darwin after the appearance of Origin of species to say that he too believed that species changed and said he was sending a pamphlet to show this. Darwin wrote to thank him on 12 January 1860. Darwin wrote to Charles Lyell on 14 January [1860]: "Isidore writes to me that he himself is a firm maintainer of such views: he says he has sent me a publication of his to show this, but it has not arrived." Correspondence vol. 8, p. 35. Darwin wrote to Saint-Hilaire on 28 January [1860] to say that the pamphlet had still not arrived and was probably lost. The previously unrecorded letter quoted below was written when Darwin received the pamphlet which is now in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection and is lightly annotated.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore. 1851. Cours de zoologie (mammifères et oiseaux), fait au Muséum d'histoire naturelle, en 1850. Revue et Magasin de apologie Pure et Appliqué 2d ser. 3; 12-20.
Darwin was writing a historical sketch listing earlier naturalists to expres evolutionary views which was published as the 'historical preface' added to the revised American edition of Origin, the German translation of 1860, and to the third English edition (1861) and revised in subsequent editions. There he wrote of Saint-Hilaire, his father and this pamphlet: "M. Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, in his Lectures delivered in 1850 (of which a Résumé appeared in the Revue et Mag. de Zoolog., Jan. 1851), briefly gives his reasons for believing that specific characters 'sont fixes, pour chaque espèce, tant qu'elle se perpétue au milieu des mêmes circonstances, ils se modifient, si les circonstances ambiantes viennent à changer.' 'En résumé, l'observation des animaux sauvages démontre déjà la variabilité limitée des espèces. Les expériences sur les animaux sauvages devenus domestiques, et sur les animaux domestiques redevenus sauvages, la démontrent plus clairement encore. Ces mêmes expériences prouvent, de plus, que les differences produites peuvent être de valeur générique.'"
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128 DARWIN, CHARLES
A. L. s.
. . . WILL EXACTLY SERVE FOR MY LITTLE HISTORICAL SKETCH. 2 pp., 8vo, about 125 words. Down Bromley, Kent, Feb. 4, n. y. To an unnamed correspondent. With portrait, and typewritten transcript. Bound in a royal 4to full green levant morocco volume, gilt back, gilt sides; doublures and fly-leaves of green watered silk, gilt edges. (Newman)
I thank you most sincerely for your kind present of the pamphlets on the Soc. d'Acclimat, and more especially for the Resume of your views on the change of species. This will exactly serve for my little Historical Sketch . . .
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 4 July, 2024