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Charles Darwin

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Charles Darwin

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Auction Date:2016 Apr 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “C. Darwin,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 3.5 x 5.25, August 20, 1848. Letter to Dr. Francis Booth, American physician and botanist. In full: “Since I saw you, I have been persuaded at the Brit. Museum to write direct to Dr. Gould at Boston, for I hear he is a very kind man & likes to assist everyone. Dr. Gould has attended to Cirripedia more than any one else & if he grants my request, I consider it superfluous to trouble any one else. Should this channel fail, I will not fail to remember your most kind offer. With my true thanks for all your sympathy & assistance about Chloriform [sic].” In fine condition.

During the period of 1846 to 1854 Darwin spent time studying barnacles (Cirripedia), publishing a monograph entitled Living Cirripedia in 1851. Among those thanked in the preface are the Boston–based scientists Augustus Addison Gould and Louis Agassiz for having sent him ‘some very interesting specimens.’ Darwin’s closing line on “Chloriform” is of even greater significance. James Young Simpson had discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform only a year earlier, and Darwin is known to have been an early adopter. It is believed that his wife Emma received chloroform during the birth of their son Francis on August 16, 1848—just four days prior to this letter—and she is known to have used it for the births of their subsequent children. He would later use chloroform in his experiments. Choice scientific content in this early letter.