DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed ('Charles Darwin') to Baron Antonio Mendola (in Favara, Sicily), Down, 8 January 1879, thanking him for a specimen, and going on 'Your statements are so remarkable that I can assure you that no naturalist, without repeated & most careful observations with all the many chances of error avoided, would think them worthy of any consideration'; Darwin is too busy to undertake the investigation himself, 'and therefore will not trouble you to send the horn', two pages, 8vo, on a bifolium; envelope. Provenance: by descent from the recipient.

DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed ('Charles Darwin') to Baron Antonio Mendola (in Favara, Sicily), Down, 8 January 1879, thanking him for a specimen, and going on 'Your statements are so remarkable that I can assure you that no naturalist, without repeated & most careful observations with all the many chances of error avoided, would think them worthy of any consideration'; Darwin is too busy to undertake the investigation himself, 'and therefore will not trouble you to send the horn', two pages, 8vo, on a bifolium; envelope. Provenance: by descent from the recipient.

Not listed by the Darwin Correspondence Project, who do however note (letter 12375) Mendola's letter to Darwin of 29 December 1879, reporting that a calf's horn buried in a field had produced roots, and that mules' hairs incubated in water come alive.