June 14, 1917] 



NATURE 



305 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not Iwld himself respotisible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonyvtous communications.] 



A Letter of Ch. Darwin in Argentina. 



On the occasion of the first national meeting of the 

 Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, held to- 

 wards the end of last year in the city of Tucuman, 

 Senor Juan W. Gez presented the archive of Dr. 

 F. J. Muniz, together with a ' biographical narrative. 

 To that archive belongs the subjoined letter from Dar- 

 win which I have transcribed. That letter, as can be 

 seen, has not been included in the " Life and Letters 

 of Ch. Darwin," but a Spanish version of it was pub- 

 lished by the first biographer and editor of the p^ers 

 of Dr. Muniz — Don Domingo F. Sarmiento,^ ex- 

 President of this Republic (1868-74). 



I would first, in a few words, say something con- 

 cerning the man himself, who is probably little known 

 to the English public. Dr. Francisco Javier Mufiiz 

 is considered to be the first Argentine naturalist. He 

 Kas born in San Isidro in the year 1795. In 182 1 he 

 had already graduated in medicine, and was located 

 for four years in Carmen-de-Patagones as a military- 

 doctor, at a time when those regions were still in- 

 habited by Indians. From that period dated his in- 

 clination and fondness for natural sciences. From the 

 year 1825 he resided in the province of Buenos .Aires, 

 where he rendered medical services, eventually coming 

 to be professor, and later dean, of the faculty of medi- 

 cine of the city of Buenos .\ires. .\t the age of seventy 

 years he continued to serve in his professional capacity 

 as military physician, through the long war which 

 Argentina, together with Brazil and Uruguay, 

 waged against the tyrant Lopez, of Paraguay. In 

 1871, when the terrible epidemic of yellow fever 

 scourged the city of Buenos Aires, he wished even at 

 his advanced age to lend his professional services, but 

 himself succumbed a victim to the disease on Octo- 

 ber 8 of the same year, at seventy-six years of age. 

 The city of Buenos Aires has raised a monument to 

 his memorv. 



The scientific works carried out by Muniz treated 

 of medicine and natural sciences, as mav be seen by 

 Darwin's letter. He was the first one in the Argen- 

 tine to devote effort to collecting and studying the 

 remains of the fossil mammals, which have since 

 made famous the Pampa regions. As a physician he 

 knew anatomy well, but his attainments in compara- 

 tive osteology were less solid, because of the lack of 

 works of study, which were exceedingly difficult to 

 obtain at that time in this country. 



Dr. Muniz discovered numerous fossil mammals, 

 and described some of them. Among these was the 

 peat fossil tiger of the Pampas, which he called Felts 

 bonaerensts (see La Gaceta Mercantil. Buenos 

 .Aires, October g, 1845). ^'ot being familiar with the 

 usages of nomenclature, he thought the suggestion of 

 some friends acceptable, and that he should call the 

 fossilMuni-felis, but he onlv used this name once in 

 the title, while in the description he simply calls it 

 tells bonaerensis, this being a Less objectionable de- 

 nomination. Notwithstanding, had the species been 

 reallv new, his name should have continued, but it 

 turned out to be. not a Machaerodus, as Darwin sug- 

 gested, but a Smilodon, distinct from the 5. neogaeus, 



(Buenos'AIr^'I iTst')"'* °^ ^°'' ^'^""^' ^^^'" M"'"''" P- 280 (Spanish)" 



XO. 2485, VOL. 99] 



Lund, and which should bear the name 5. bonaerensis, 

 Muiiiz, Amegh. With reference to the purpose de- 

 clared by Darwin of having Dr. MufiLz's description 

 translated and published (a description which was vtry 

 prolix and detailed), it would seem that this was never 

 carried out. 



The reports on the nata cow (a type of short-faced, 

 wide-nostriled cow), to which Darwin refers, are those 

 which are mentioned in his "Journal of Researches" 

 (p. 146, second edition, 1845); but the series of ques- 

 tions to which Muniz replied, and a copy of which I 

 now find in the above-mentioned archive, contains 

 many other details of interest which Darwin did not 

 utilise, and Sarmiento did not publish save in very 

 fragmentary form. These data have therefore un- 

 doubted interest, now that, as one may say, the 

 peculiar riata cow belongs to historv. 



The collection of fossil bones from the Pampa of 

 which Darwin speaks from references by Owen is 

 probably that which Muniz gave to General Rosas in 

 1842, and Rosas gave to some French f)ersonage who 

 resided in Buenos Aires, who in his turn presented it 

 to the Paris Museum. 



In conclusion, I may say that the projected sale of 

 the rest of his collections, of which Muniz spoke to 

 Darwin, had not, as some might think, any commer- 

 cial end in view. Mufiiz proposed by this sale to 

 obtain some resources for the sole purpose of being 

 thus able to prosecute his explorations in the search 

 for fossils, as appears from copies of letters preserved 

 in his archive. The last specimens of his collection 

 were presented bv him to the Museum of Buenos -Aires. 



Subjoined is the text of Darw^in's letter. 



M. DOELLO-JVRADO. 



Museo Nacional. Buenos Aires, -April, 1917. 



Down, Farnborough, Kent, 



February 26, 1847. 

 Dr. F. J. Muxiz, Buenos -Aires. 

 Respected Sir, 



Your letter of -August 30, with the papers which 

 you were so good as to send me, reached me only 

 a short time since, owing to the protracted illness and 

 absence from London of Mr. Morris, through whom 

 they were sent. I have lately heard from Mr. Morris 

 that you wish to dispose of your fossil remains on 

 some pecuniary arrangement, which I did not fully 

 understand from your own letter to me. I have given 

 Mr* Morris my opinion on this head, so will not here 

 repeat it ; but will only say that I conceive tho only 

 feasible plan would be to send your fossils here to 

 some agent to dispose of them. No society will pur- 

 chase anything of the kind without having them in- 

 spected, and most societies only receive presents. A'our 

 specimen of the Mufii-felis must be a noble one ; I 

 suspect it will turn out to be a Machairodus, of which 

 there are some fragments in the British Museum from 

 the Pampas. I will endeavour to get your paper trans- 

 lated and inserted in some scientific periodical. Your 

 account of the earthquake in the Pampas has surprised 

 me; I never heard of one in any part further east of 

 the Cordillera than at Cordoba. If you will inform 

 me whether you read English I shall be happ^- to send 

 you a copy (if you will point out some channel) of my 

 "Geological Observations on South .America," lately 

 published ; I do not think it worth sending them with- 

 out knowing whether you read English, which I fear 

 is not probable. Your pamphlet on the scarlet fever 

 I will present to the Ro\al College of Surgeons. 



I cannot adequately say how much I admire your 

 continued zeal, situated as you are without means of 

 pursuing your scientific studies and without people to 

 sympathise with you. for the advancement of natural 



