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Letter from Charles Robert Darwin to William Erasmus Darwin [24 January 1861]
Down
Thursday | 12o oclock
My dear William
The vomiting continued all yesterday till night, when it stopped & has not returned.1 But she has taken gigantic dose of Calomel which has not acted, so we continue uneasy; but Mr Williams who has been just here, considers her better.2 She eats absolutely nothing.—
I hope that your journey was prosperous & that you will, my dearest old fellow, enjoy yourself.—3 We shall be glad of a note.
Your affect | C. Darwin
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1.3 just] interl
1
After having experienced a period of good health (see letters to W. D. Fox, 9 January [1861], and to J. D. Hooker, 15 January [1861]), Henrietta Emma Darwin had again fallen seriously ill.
2
Edward Augustus Williams, a surgeon in Bromley, Kent, was the Darwins’ local physician. Emma Darwin’s diary records that he visited Down House on 2 January and again on 19 January 1861.
3
The cover of the letter is addressed to William in care of “Mrs Skipworth, Rothwell House Caistor, Lincolnshire”. Lucy Skipworth was the widowed mother of a friend of William’s from Christ’s College, Septimus Patrick Skipworth, whom he may have visited the previous summer (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to W. E. Darwin, [30 July 1860]).