Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘Thomas Bell’, to E.W.Cooke, the painter, hoping to have the pleasure of a visit “immediately, as next week we should not be able to receive you”, mentioning that Richmond and his daughter had called. 3 pp. 7 x 4 inches, fine, light traces of former mounting. Selborne, 19 September [probably 1860s or later]. Uncommon. Thomas Hornsey Bell (1792-1880), zoologist, dental surgeon and writer, was at the heart of the scientific establishment and when Charles Darwin returned to London from the Beagle expedition on 2 December 1836, Bell was quick to take on the task of describing the reptile specimens.[1] He was also entrusted with the specimens of Crustacea collected on the voyage. He was the authority in this field; his book British Stalke-eyed Crustacea is a masterwork. He played a significant part in the inception of Darwin’s theory of natural selection in March 1837 when he confirmed that the giant Galápagos tortoises were native to the islands, not brought in by buccaneers for food as Darwin had thought.