The Report of a Doubtful Creature
by Ian Creasey
As so much of Charles Darwin's correspondence has already been published, it is a
rare event to discover a previously unknown letter from him, especially one
concerning his seminal work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. By kind
permission of the letter's owner and the esteemed editor of this magazine, I am
pleased to be able to reprint the letter here, and I will restrict myself to the
minimum of prefatory remarks necessary to give context to this intriguing
document.
The first edition of the Origin of Species, as it is now more commonly called, was
published in November 1859. Darwin finished correcting the proofs of the book
on 1 October, and on the following day he set out for the Yorkshire town of Ilkley,
where he spent two months undertaking the "water cure" that was so popular
during the Victorian era.
It appears to have done him little good, for in his extant correspondence we find
him writing, "I have had a series of calamities: first a fall culminating in a sprained
ankle, and then a badly swollen leg and face, followed by itching rash and a
frightful succession of boils -- a dozen at once. I cannot now walk a step, owing
to a hideous boil on my knee. We have been here six weeks, and I feel worse than
when I came."
The newly discovered letter dates from soon after Darwin's arrival in Ilkley, prior
to the aforementioned sequence of calamities -- which might almost be viewed as
a Biblical judgement upon him: after his Fall, a Plague of Boils. The addressee,
William Darwin Fox, was Darwin's second cousin and a lifelong friend; they
studied theology together at Christ's College, Cambridge, and in 1859 Fox was
Rector of Delamere, in Cheshire. Darwin himself originally intended to become a
clergyman.
In the transcription below, the letter's spelling and punctuation have been
regularised for reading convenience. Some text has been inferred where Darwin
employs abbreviations, or where his handwriting approaches illegibility.
As to the provenance and authenticity of the letter, I am personally acquainted with
the letter's owner, who wishes to remain anonymous. I trust her absolutely as a
scholar and a lady; therefore I take the veracity of the letter on faith. However, I
am informed that scientists are currently analysing the manuscript, and their
conclusions will be announced soon. In the event of any doubts arising, readers
may judge for themselves what to believe.
