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Show moreLetter to Robert Stecher, discussing possible reasons for Charles Darwin's bad health. Transcription: "15/3/1948 Dear Dr. Stecher It was a great pleasure to get your letter + to read the interesting except from Dr. Alvarez's work. How good of you to have it typed, so that I can keep it with other reports I have at my grandfather's ill-health. Very many thanks. The doctors do not yet agree on this topic; Dr. Douglas Hubble (The Lancet Jan. 30th - 1943) considers that Charles' fear of his father, Robert, was an important factor in the neurosis to which he attributes his 40 years of ill-health. Dr. [Buckstone] Browne considers it a simple matter of stomach trouble which could have been cured by dieting! I think Dr. Alvarez's approach the right one; + have always seen in Rom Wedgwood (who, by the way was Emma's uncle, not brother) a neurotic state which together with the Darwin contribution through Dr. Erasmus, could be made to account too much. But without much more work it is impossible to say very definitely, + there are almost always stray uncles + aunts in every family tree to account for oddities! But if it is true that a poor nervous heredity came in on both sides of the family, it is indeed remarkable that with the frequent cousin marriages that took place for three generations, no more cases of nervous instability occurred. It is curious too to consider, that Tom Wedgwood, A brilliant mental endowment well above the average, infused into hopeless inertia, as did C.O's brother, Erasmus. But in C.O himself + two of his sons + one daughter. any nervous trouble that existed seems to have affected the stomach, + not to have impaired the will to work. I hope you will get your collection of caricatures + cartoons together; + what about the baldness? Perhaps you will be visiting England [], in which case I trust you will let us know, as it would be a great pleasure to see you again Yours Sincerely Nora Barlow Dr. Robert M. Stecher City Hospital Cleveland" Letter, signed by sender. Envelope included. Sent from Boswells, Wendover, Aylesbury.
The Robert M. Stecher Collection of Charles Darwin Books and Manuscripts
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Show moreLetter to Robert Stecher, answering questions about Charles Darwin's health. Transcription: "BY AIR MAIL Par Avion Air Letter Aerogramme Dr. Robert M. Stecher Metropolitan general Hospital 3395 Scranton Rd. Cleveland Ohio USA Sender's name and address: N. Barlow Boswells, Wendover An air letter should not contain any enclosure; if it does it will be surcharge or sent by ordinary mail. Boswells, Wendover March 18, 1960 Dear Dr. Stecher, I was delighted to hear from you after all these years, and to know of your further [filter] 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 in 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 of March 3rd this year printed. I look forward to reading what you said in your discourse, + hope your "confessions" met 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 forehead, 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 of "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 Etts, Mrs Litchfield. But in the question of C.D.'s health, a new 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, 1943, i. p.129; 1953, ii, p 1351; 1954, i, pp. 106, 414,467. Horizon LXXX, 1946, p.74. Biology of Human Affairs, Oct 1954, refers to these matters by Hubble, Good + myself.) The new suggestion comes from Dr. Adle, OBE, FRCP, FRS, Hebrew-university, Israel, who recently visited D. America, + was impressed by the similarity of the symptoms of the chronic Chagas disease intestans, with C.D's illnesses. The de- scription CD gives of allowing the bug of [Meadgar?] 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 cartoong; + B) the whereabout of the certificate of CD's hon. 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." Air Letter, signed by sender. Boswells, Wendover.
The Robert M. Stecher Collection of Charles Darwin Books and Manuscripts
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