More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I [263]
God knows, can seldom give any reason for my remarks. Lord, in what a medley the origin of cultivated plants is. I have been reading on strawberries, and I can find hardly two botanists agree what are the wild forms; but I pick out of horticultural books here and there queer cases of variation, inheritance, etc., etc.
What a long letter I have scribbled; but you must forgive me, for it is a great pleasure thus talking to you.
Did you ever hear of "Condy's Ozonised Water"? I have been trying it with, I think, extraordinary advantage--to comfort, at least. A teaspoon, in water, three or four times a day. If you meet any poor dyspeptic devil like me, suggest it.
LETTER 359. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, 26th [March 1863].
I hope and think you are too severe on Lyell's early chapters. Though so condensed, and not well arranged, they seemed to me to convey with uncommon force the antiquity of man, and that was his object. (359/1. "The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man": London, 1863.) It did not occur to me, but I fear there is some truth in your criticism, that nothing is to be trusted until he [Lyell] had observed it.
I am glad to see you stirred up about tropical plants during Glacial period.
Remember that I have many times sworn to you that they coexisted; so, my dear fellow, you must make them coexist. I do not think that greater coolness in a disturbed condition of things would be required than the zone of the Himalaya, in which you describe some tropical and temperate forms commingling (359/2. "During this [the Glacial period], the coldest point, the lowlands under the equator, must have been clothed with a mingled tropical and temperate vegetation, like that described by Hooker as growing luxuriantly at the height of from four to five thousand feet on the lower slopes of the Himalaya, but with perhaps a still greater preponderance of temperate forms" ("Origin of Species," Edition VI., page 338).); and as in the lower part of the Cameroons, and as Seemann describes, in low mountains of Panama. It is, as you say, absurd to suppose that such a genus as Dipterocarpus (359/3. Dipterocarpus, a genus of the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of dicotyledonous plants restricted to the tropics of the Old World.) could have been developed since the Glacial era; but do you feel so sure, as to oppose (359/4. The meaning seems to be: "Do you feel so sure that you can bring in opposition a large body of considerations to show, etc.") a large body of considerations on the other side, that this genus could not have been slowly accustomed to a cooler climate? I see Lindley says it has not been brought to England, and so could not have been tried in the greenhouse. Have you materials to show to what little height it ever ascends the mountains of Java or Sumatra? It makes a mighty difference, the whole area being cooled; and the area perhaps not being in all respects, such as dampness, etc., etc., fitted for such temperate plants as could get in. But, anyhow, I am ready to swear again that Dipterocarpus and any other genus you like to name did survive during a cooler period.
About reversion you express just what I mean. I somehow blundered, and mentally took literally that the child inherited from his grandfather. This view of latency collates a lot of facts--secondary sexual characters in each individual; tendency of latent character to appear temporarily in youth; effect of crossing in educing talent, character, etc. When one thinks of a latent character being handed down, hidden for a thousand or ten thousand generations, and then suddenly appearing, one is quite bewildered at the host of characters written in invisible ink on the germ. I have no evidence of the reversion of all characters in a variety. I quite agree to what you say about genius. I told Lyell that passage made me groan.
What a pity about Falconer! (359/5. This refers to Falconer's claim of priority against Lyell. See "Life and Letters," III., page 14; also Letters 166 and 168.) How singular and how lamentable!
Remember
What a long letter I have scribbled; but you must forgive me, for it is a great pleasure thus talking to you.
Did you ever hear of "Condy's Ozonised Water"? I have been trying it with, I think, extraordinary advantage--to comfort, at least. A teaspoon, in water, three or four times a day. If you meet any poor dyspeptic devil like me, suggest it.
LETTER 359. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, 26th [March 1863].
I hope and think you are too severe on Lyell's early chapters. Though so condensed, and not well arranged, they seemed to me to convey with uncommon force the antiquity of man, and that was his object. (359/1. "The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man": London, 1863.) It did not occur to me, but I fear there is some truth in your criticism, that nothing is to be trusted until he [Lyell] had observed it.
I am glad to see you stirred up about tropical plants during Glacial period.
Remember that I have many times sworn to you that they coexisted; so, my dear fellow, you must make them coexist. I do not think that greater coolness in a disturbed condition of things would be required than the zone of the Himalaya, in which you describe some tropical and temperate forms commingling (359/2. "During this [the Glacial period], the coldest point, the lowlands under the equator, must have been clothed with a mingled tropical and temperate vegetation, like that described by Hooker as growing luxuriantly at the height of from four to five thousand feet on the lower slopes of the Himalaya, but with perhaps a still greater preponderance of temperate forms" ("Origin of Species," Edition VI., page 338).); and as in the lower part of the Cameroons, and as Seemann describes, in low mountains of Panama. It is, as you say, absurd to suppose that such a genus as Dipterocarpus (359/3. Dipterocarpus, a genus of the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of dicotyledonous plants restricted to the tropics of the Old World.) could have been developed since the Glacial era; but do you feel so sure, as to oppose (359/4. The meaning seems to be: "Do you feel so sure that you can bring in opposition a large body of considerations to show, etc.") a large body of considerations on the other side, that this genus could not have been slowly accustomed to a cooler climate? I see Lindley says it has not been brought to England, and so could not have been tried in the greenhouse. Have you materials to show to what little height it ever ascends the mountains of Java or Sumatra? It makes a mighty difference, the whole area being cooled; and the area perhaps not being in all respects, such as dampness, etc., etc., fitted for such temperate plants as could get in. But, anyhow, I am ready to swear again that Dipterocarpus and any other genus you like to name did survive during a cooler period.
About reversion you express just what I mean. I somehow blundered, and mentally took literally that the child inherited from his grandfather. This view of latency collates a lot of facts--secondary sexual characters in each individual; tendency of latent character to appear temporarily in youth; effect of crossing in educing talent, character, etc. When one thinks of a latent character being handed down, hidden for a thousand or ten thousand generations, and then suddenly appearing, one is quite bewildered at the host of characters written in invisible ink on the germ. I have no evidence of the reversion of all characters in a variety. I quite agree to what you say about genius. I told Lyell that passage made me groan.
What a pity about Falconer! (359/5. This refers to Falconer's claim of priority against Lyell. See "Life and Letters," III., page 14; also Letters 166 and 168.) How singular and how lamentable!
Remember