To Mary Treat 5 January 1872
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Jan 5. 1872
Dear Madam
Your observations & experiments on the sexes of butterflies are by far the best, as far as known to me, which have ever been made.1 They seem to me so important, that I earnestly hope you will repeat them & record the exact numbers of the larvæ which you tempt to continue feeding & deprive of food, & record the sexes of the mature insect.
Assuredly you ought then to publish the result in some well-known scientific journal.2 I am glad to hear that your observations on Drosera will be published.3
I have attended to this subject during several years, & have almost M.S enough to make a volume; but have never yet found time to publish it.
I am very much obliged for yr courteous letter & remain dear Madam | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Gianquitto, Tina. 2007. ‘Good observers of nature’. American women and the scientific study of the natural world, 1820–1885. Athens, Ga., and London: University of Georgia Press.
Treat, Mary. 1871. Drosera (sundew) as a fly-catcher. American Journal of Science and Arts 3d ser. 2: 463.
Summary
Praises MT’s observations and asks her to repeat experiments on the the relation of sexes of butterflies to the nutrition of the larvae.
Is glad she will publish her observations on Drosera.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8146
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Davis/Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Treat
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Amy Nagashima (private collection)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8146,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8146.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20
