I read the letter below on the Charles Darwin correspondence project website. It highlights a common vice of the human condition: disloyalty. While professing friendship in private, St George Jackson Mivart, a Catholic zoologist, lambasted Darwin's Book the Descent of Man in his reviews— the scoundrel! He also went a step further and accused "Darwin’s son, George, of supporting prostitution" thus implying "Darwin’s own theories as immoral." When Darwin had quite enough of Mivart's duplicity he wrote:
To St G. J. Mivart 12 January 1875
Jan 12th 1875Sir
Your article in the Q. R. for July 1874 contains a wholly false & malicious accusation against my son, Mr G. Darwin. You had a fair opportunity in the following number of retracting your infamous & explicit accusation, & you did not make even this small reparation.— Your article also includes deliberate misrepresentations of what I have published.
Therefore I refuse to hold for the future any communication with
Sir | Your obedt. servt. | Ch. Darwin
To | St. G. Mivart Esq
Cambridge University Library (DAR 97: C36).
Originally published by darwinproject with permission of the Darwin family and the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.
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