Volume II Part 38 (1/2)
My dear Dr. Ogle,
You will think me a horrid bore, but I beg you, IN RELATION TO A NEW POINT FOR OBSERVATION, to imagine as well as you can that you suddenly come across some dreadful object, and act with a sudden little start, a SHUDDER OF HORROR; please do this once or twice, and observe yourself as well as you can, and AFTERWARDS read the rest of this note, which I have consequently pinned down. I find, to my surprise, whenever I act thus my platysma contracts. Does yours? (N.B.--See what a man will do for science; I began this note with a horrid fib, namely, that I want you to attend to a new point. (The point was doubtless described as a new one, to avoid the possibility of Dr. Ogle's attention being directed to the platysma, a muscle which had been the subject of discussion in other letters.)) I will try and get some persons thus to act who are so lucky as not to know that they even possess this muscle, so troublesome for any one making out about expression. Is a shudder akin to the rigor or s.h.i.+vering before fever? If so, perhaps the platysma could be observed in such cases. Paget told me that he had attended much to s.h.i.+vering, and had written in MS. on the subject, and been much perplexed about it. He mentioned that pa.s.sing a catheter often causes s.h.i.+vering. Perhaps I will write to him about the platysma. He is always most kind in aiding me in all ways, but he is so overworked that it hurts my conscience to trouble him, for I have a conscience, little as you have reason to think so.
Help me if you can, and forgive me. Your murderer case has come in splendidly as the acme of prostration from fear.
Yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO DR. OGLE. Down, April 29 [1871].
My dear Dr. Ogle,
I am truly obliged for all the great trouble which you have so kindly taken. I am sure you have no cause to say that you are sorry you can give me no definite information, for you have given me far more than I ever expected to get. The action of the platysma is not very important for me, but I believe that you will fully understand (for I have always fancied that our minds were very similar) the intolerable desire I had not to be utterly baffled. Now I know that it sometimes contracts from fear and from shuddering, but not apparently from a prolonged state of fear such as the insane suffer...
[Mr. Mivart's 'Genesis of Species,'--a contribution to the literature of Evolution, which excited much attention--was published in 1871, before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man.' To this book the following letter (June 21, 1871) from the late Chauncey Wright to my father refers. (Chauncey Wright was born at Northampton, Ma.s.sachusetts, September 20, 1830, and came of a family settled in that town since 1654. He became in 1852 a computer in the Nautical Almanac office at Cambridge, Ma.s.s., and lived a quiet uneventful life, supported by the small stipend of his office, and by what he earned from his occasional articles, as well as by a little teaching. He thought and read much on metaphysical subjects, but on the whole with an outcome (as far as the world was concerned) not commensurate to the power of his mind. He seems to have been a man of strong individuality, and to have made a lasting impression on his friends. He died in September, 1875.)]:
”I send... revised proofs of an article which will be published in the July number of the 'North American Review,' sending it in the hope that it will interest or even be of greater value to you. Mr. Mivart's book ['Genesis of Species'] of which this article is substantially a review, seems to me a very good background from which to present the considerations which I have endeavoured to set forth in the article, in defence and ill.u.s.tration of the theory of Natural Selection. My special purpose has been to contribute to the theory by placing it in its proper relations to philosophical enquiries in general.” ('Letters of Chauncey Wright,' by J.B. Thayer. Privately printed, 1878, page 230.)
With regard to the proofs received from Mr. Wright, my father wrote to Mr. Wallace:]
Down, July 9 [1871].
My dear Wallace,
I send by this post a review by Chauncey Wright, as I much want your opinion of it as soon as you can send it. I consider you an incomparably better critic than I am. The article, though not very clearly written, and poor in parts from want of knowledge, seems to me admirable.
Mivart's book is producing a great effect against Natural Selection, and more especially against me. Therefore if you think the article even somewhat good I will write and get permission to publish it as a s.h.i.+lling pamphlet, together with the MS. additions (enclosed), for which there was not room at the end of the review...
I am now at work at a new and cheap edition of the 'Origin,' and shall answer several points in Mivart's book, and introduce a new chapter for this purpose; but I treat the subject so much more concretely, and I dare say less philosophically, than Wright, that we shall not interfere with each other. You will think me a bigot when I say, after studying Mivart, I was never before in my life so convinced of the GENERAL (i.e.
not in detail) truth of the views in the 'Origin.' I grieve to see the omission of the words by Mivart, detected by Wright. ('North American Review,' volume 113, pages 83, 84. Chauncey Wright points out that the words omitted are ”essential to the point on which he [Mr. Mivart] cites Mr. Darwin's authority.” It should be mentioned that the pa.s.sage from which words are omitted is not given within inverted commas by Mr.
Mivart.) I complained to Mivart that in two cases he quotes only the commencement of sentences by me, and thus modifies my meaning; but I never supposed he would have omitted words. There are other cases of what I consider unfair treatment. I conclude with sorrow that though he means to be honourable he is so bigoted that he cannot act fairly...
CHARLES DARWIN TO CHAUNCEY WRIGHT. Down, July 14, 1871.
My dear Sir,
I have hardly ever in my life read an article which has given me so much satisfaction as the review which you have been so kind as to send me.
I agree to almost everything which you say. Your memory must be wonderfully accurate, for you know my works as well as I do myself, and your power of grasping other men's thoughts is something quite surprising; and this, as far as my experience goes, is a very rare quality. As I read on I perceived how you have acquired this power, viz.
by thoroughly a.n.a.lyzing each word.
... Now I am going to beg a favour. Will you provisionally give me permission to reprint your article as a s.h.i.+lling pamphlet? I ask only provisionally, as I have not yet had time to reflect on the subject. It would cost me, I fancy, with advertis.e.m.e.nts, some 20 or 30 pounds; but the worst is that, as I hear, pamphlets never will sell. And this makes me doubtful. Should you think it too much trouble to send me a t.i.tle FOR THE CHANCE? The t.i.tle ought, I think, to have Mr. Mivart's name on it.
... If you grant permission and send a t.i.tle, you will kindly understand that I will first make further enquiries whether there is any chance of a pamphlet being read.
Pray believe me yours very sincerely obliged, CH. DARWIN.
[The pamphlet was published in the autumn, and on October 23 my father wrote to Mr. Wright:--
”It pleases me much that you are satisfied with the appearance of your pamphlet. I am sure it will do our cause good service; and this same opinion Huxley has expressed to me. ('Letters of Chauncey Wright,' page 235.”]