3OO THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [i860. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, April loth [1860]. 



MY DEAR LYELL, Thank you much for your note of the 

 4th ; I am very glad to hear that you are at Torquay. I should 

 have amused myself earlier by writing to you, but I have had 

 Hooker and Huxley staying here, and they have fully occupied 

 my time, as a little of anything is a full dose for me. . . . 

 There has been a plethora of reviews, and I am really quite 

 sick of myself. There is a very long review by Carpenter in 

 the 'Medical and Chirurg. Review,' very good and well balanced, 

 but not brilliant. He discusses Hooker's books at as great 

 length as mine, and makes excellent extracts ; but I could not 

 get Hooker to feel the least interest in being praised. 



Carpenter speaks of you in thoroughly proper terms. There 

 is a brilliant review by Huxley, * with capital hits, but I do 

 not know that he much advances the subject. I think I have 

 convinced him that he has hardly allowed weight enough to 

 the case of varieties of plants being in some degrees sterile. 



To diverge from reviews : Asa Gray sends me from Wyman 

 (who will write), a good case of all the pigs being black in the 

 Everglades of Virginia. On asking about the cause, it seems 

 (I have got capital analogous cases) that when the black pigs 

 eat a certain nut their bones become red, and they suffer to a 

 certain extent, but that the white pigs lose their hoofs and 

 perish, " and we aid by selection, for we kill most of the young 

 white pigs." This was said by men who could hardly read. 

 By the way, it is a great blow to me that you cannot admit 

 the potency of natural selection. The more I think of it, the 

 less I doubt its power for great and small changes. I have 



just read the ' Edinburgh,' \ which without doubt is by . 



It is extremely malignant, clever, and I fear will be very 

 damaging. He is atrociously severe on Huxley's lecture, 



* ' Westminster Review,' April 1860. 

 t ' Edinburgh Review,' April 1860. 



