Monday, August 25, 2014

My Year of Darwin 8/25/2014:

 Charles Darwin


"My dear Susan, As you say you want my hydropathical diary, I will give it to you - though tomorrow it is to change to a certain extent. - 1/4 before 7, get up, & am scrubbed with rough towel in cold water for 2 or 3 minutes, which after the first few days, made & makes me very like a lobster - I have a washerman, a very nice person, & he scrubs behind, whilst I scrub in front." Charles Darwin,letter to sister Susan Darwin, 19 March 1849

I was going to go through the Origin then another book but I realized that i would miss some letters and, consequently, some insights into Darwin's thinking. So back to some letters. 

Darwin was ill. Perhaps from Chagas disease - though not diagnosed. And Darwin was a man of his time and took the "water cure."  Though not treating the disease it did make him feel better at least temporarily. 



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