An investigation of some of D'Arcy Thompson's correspondence

Heather Dickinson and Barbora Cernokova

Correspondence VI

The final letter (ms49456) of this collection was written by naturalist Marcel Heuertz to D'Arcy on 8th January 1948 (only four months before D'Arcy passed away). He had been studying the skull of Rhinoceroses and in his work had quoted the transformation chapter of On Growth and Form. Heuertz also suggested a reason why Heilmann may have struggled with obtaining transformations between prehuman skulls and modern human skulls. He wrote that this was "perhaps due to the different behaviour of genotypical and adaptive characters, producing disturbances in harmonic evolution". It is fascinating to think that even so many years after their initial correspondence in 1914 and On Growth and Form's release in 1917, D'Arcy and Heilmann's work was still being talked about and open questions still being considered.