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Show moreLetter to Robert Stecher answering inquiries about Charles Darwin's health. Transcription: "Dr. Robert M. Stecher Metropolitan general Hospital 3395 Scranton Rd. Cleveland 9 Ohio USA Sender's name and address: N. Barlow Boswells Werdover Boswells, Werdover March 18, 1960 Dear Dr. Stecher, I was delighted to hear from you after all these years, and to know of your further Darwin activities. This will only be an interim letter to answer the immediate questions which do not need further enquiry. I am so glad your interest seems as keen as ever. all these matters, and I wonder whether you have kept abreast of the spate of literature about C.D. on both sides of the Atlantic in these centenary years? - Eisely, Himmelfarb, Gavin de Beer + the rest. I will take the questions in order. Starting with 1); I shall have no objection to your quoting my letter to you of 1948, if, as I hope, you get your discourse of March 3 this year printed. I look forward to reading what you said in your discourse, + hope you "[]" with approval + were a great success. 2); Baldness. I remember no suggestion that my grandmother was bald - I do not think that her cap was to conceal this; but merely the fashion of the day. She did have a very high forehad, as is shown in all photographs of her. 3)Health. I have just received a letter from Dr. Alvarez + his recent study of Darwin's health, + I expect you have also. I still think it rather inconclusive to harp on the inheritance. A "bad genes" from both sides, though I agree that the illness was probably largely psycho-somatic. His childrens' peculiarities did not prevent them from living active full lives - except in the case of Aunt [Effy?], Mrs Litchfield. But in the question of C.D's health, a newer suggestion has cropped up, which I like to think may be true, to remove C.D from these constant speculations of psychic disorder. (See Lancets-1934, i. p.129;1953, ii, p.1351;1054,i,pp.106, 414,467. [][ LXXX,1946,p.74. Biology of Human Affairs, Oct 1954,referring to these matters by Hubble, Good + myself.) The new suggestion comes from Dr. Adler, OBE, FRCP, FRS, Hebrew-University; Israel, who recently visited S. America, + was impressed by the similarity of the symptoms of the chronic Chagas disease caused by the triatomed bug, Triatoma intestans, with C.D's illnesses. The description C.D. gives of allowing the bug of [Meadga?] to bite him, was in march 1835, + therefore unless he had been previously infected, this rules out the Chagas disease accounting for the first serious illness in S. America in 1834. You will find an account of this in Nature Autumn 1959, but I can't lay my hands on the exact reference, Unfortunately one date is given wrongly*. The further questions I am pursuing are A) The origin of the unidentified cartoon; + B) The whereabouts of the certificate of C.D's [] membership to the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, 1870. I will write again if I can gain any information on these points. With all Good Wishes Yours Sincerely Nora Barlow *This will be under Gavin de Beer's name." Airmail letter, signed by sender. Sent from Boswells, Wendover.
The Robert M. Stecher Collection of Charles Darwin Books and Manuscripts
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