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Here are a number of personal letters written by Charles Darwin. As far as we can tell here at The DNA Store, all letters are original and as described.
These letters are not for sale and not in our possession. We also do not know who presently owns any of the letters. They are here for your scientific interest only.

 

 

Letter number 28 written by Charles Darwin

 

CHARLES DARWIN ON SEXUALITY AND THE TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY CHARACTERISTICS. The recipient of this letter, pioneering pelvic and abdominal surgeon Lawson Tait (1845-1899), is one of the fathers of gynecology. He corresponded extensively with Darwin from 1870 until the naturalist’s death in 1882. Tait actively promoted Darwinism in the medical community, and Darwin in turn quoted Tait’s 1869 paper “Law of Natural Selection” in The Descent of Man (1871).

In January 1877 Tait sent Darwin an extract from his forthcoming Diseases of Women. In that work Tait observed that “one of the greatest practical results of the discovery by Mr. Darwin of the descent of man from the animals” is that sexual instincts (or “passions”) are among the “most necessary as well as the most prevalent” of all instincts in humans.

In this fascinating letter Darwin reacts to Tait’s writing, stating, “I sh[oul]d be glad to give any criticisms, but I have none to make & agree with what you say — There is, however, one trifling point on which I differ; viz. that I believe the high value of well-bred males is due to their transmitting their good qualities to a far greater number of offspring than can the female.”

This letter, written a few years after The Descent of Man, provides a fascinating glimpse of Darwin’s views on sexuality and the transmission of hereditary characteristics.


Charles Darwin Letter
 


Letter 1 : Letter 2 : Letter 3 : Letter 4 : Letter 5 : Letter 6 : Letter 7 : Letter 8 : Letter 9 : Letter 10 : Letter 11
Letter 12 : Letter 13 : Letter 14 : Letter 15 : Letter 16 : Letter 17 : Letter 18 : Letter 19 : Letter 20
Letter 21 : Letter 22 : Letter 23 : Letter 24 : Letter 25 : Letter 26 : Letter 27 : Letter 28: Letter 29 : Letter 30 : Letter 31
Letter 32 : Letter 33 : Letter 34 : Letter 35 : Letter 36 : Letter 37 :Letter 38 : Letter 39 : Letter 40 : Letter 41 : Letter 42
Letter 43 : Letter 44 : Letter 45 : Letter 46 : Letter 47 : Letter 48 : Letter 49



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