18641869] COPLEY MEDAL 257 



postscript 1 about poor M. Brulle 2 and his young pupils. Letter 181 



About a week ago I had a nearly similar account from 

 Germany, and at the same time I heard of some splendid 

 converts in such men as Leuckart, 3 Gegenbauer, 4 etc. You 

 may say what you like about yourself, but I look at a man 

 who treats natural history in the same spirit with which you 

 do, exactly as good, for what I believe to be the truth, as 

 a convert. 



To Hugh Falconer. Letter l82 



Down, Nov. 8th [1864]. 



Your remark on the relation of the award of the medal 

 and the present outburst of bigotry had not occurred to me. 

 It seems very true, and makes me the more gratified to 

 receive it. General Sabine 5 wrote to me and asked me to 

 attend at the anniversary, but I told him it was really 

 impossible. I have never been able to conjecture the cause ; 

 but I find that on my good days, when I can write for a 

 couple of hours, that anything which stirs me up like talking 

 for half or even a quarter of an hour, generally quite prostrates 

 me, sometimes even for a long time afterwards. I believe 

 attending the anniversary would possibly make me seriously 

 ill. I should enjoy attending and shaking you and a few of 

 my other friends by the hand, but it would be folly even if I 

 did not break down at the time. I told Sabine that I did 

 not know who had proposed and seconded me for the 



1 The following is the postcript in .a letter from Falconer to Darwin 

 Nov. 3rd [1864]: "I returned last night from Spain via France. On 

 Monday I was at Dijon, where, while in the Museum, M. Brulle, Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology, asked me what was my frank opinion of Charles 

 Darwin's doctrine ? He told me in despair that he could not get his 

 pupils to listen to anything from him except a la Darwin ! He, poor 

 man, could not comprehend it, and was still unconvinced, but that all 

 young Frenchmen would hear or believe nothing else." 



2 Gaspard-Auguste Brulle (1809-73) held a post in the Natural 

 History Museum, Paris, from 1833 to 1839 ; on leaving Paris he occupied 

 the chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Dijon. ("' Note sur la 

 Vie et les Travaux Entomologiques d'Auguste Brulle," by E. Desmarest, 

 Aiin. Soc. Entom., Vol. II., p. 513.) 



3 Rudolf Leuckart (1822-98), Professor of Zoology at Leipzig. 



4 Karl Gegenbauer, Professor of Anatomy at Heidelberg. 



6 Sir E. Sabine (1788-1883), President of the Royal Society 1861-71, 

 (See Life and Letters ; III., p. 28.) 



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