Written from 2 Hesketh Crescent [later 2 Meadfoot House], Torquay. Manuscript
He has read the article [Maw’s review of Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’] carefully and thanks Maw again for its fair and kind spirit; he would like to discuss some points but is not well, and has come to Torquay to rest; Maw has misunderstood him in very few points; he puts forward his points well and very originally; he hopes to mitigate Maw’s objections, but is not yet sure how; he does not agree on some of the points that Maw suggests are difficulties, and many of the best younger geologists such as Ramsay [Andrew Crombie Ramsay], Geikie [Archibald Geikie] and Jukes [Joseph Beete Jukes] [who supported Darwin’s views] agree on the imperfection of the geological record; Maw expects more than can be told from present geological knowledge about the entry of marsupials in Australia and whether they evolved separately to those in Europe; Maw puts very well the case of mammary glands [as an example of an organ that could not have developed gradually] and he had recently decided to look further into this; he reminds Maw that natural selection will only act where there is a place better filled by selected and accumulated variations. Written from 2 Hesketh Crescent [later 2 Meadfoot House], Torquay. Manuscript
He has read the article [Maw’s review of Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’] carefully and thanks Maw again for its fair and kind spirit; he would like to discuss some points but is not well, and has come to Torquay to rest; Maw has misunderstood him in very few points; he puts forward his points well and very originally; he hopes to mitigate Maw’s objections, but is not yet sure how; he does not agree on some of the points that Maw suggests are difficulties, and many of the best younger geologists such as Ramsay [Andrew Crombie Ramsay], Geikie [Archibald Geikie] and Jukes [Joseph Beete Jukes] [who supported Darwin’s views] agree on the imperfection of the geological record; Maw expects more than can be told from present geological knowledge about the entry of marsupials in Australia and whether they evolved separately to those in Europe; Maw puts very well the case of mammary glands [as an example of an organ that could not have developed gradually] and he had recently decided to look further into this; he reminds Maw that natural selection will only act where there is a place better filled by selected and accumulated variations
Level
Item
Extent
6 page letter (2 sheets)
Is part of
George Maw archive
Repository
Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library
Copyright
The Darwin Family
Credit Line
The Darwin Family / RHS Lindley Collections
Usage terms
Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)