William Bernhard Tegetmeier (1816–1912)
Letter to Charles Darwin
London, [before 25 April 1871]
MS DAR 89:197

The pigeon-fancier and expert on poultry William Bernhard Tegetmeier wrote to Darwin about how he was teased as a student for having beard hair that was darker than his scalp hair. In the 1830s while training at University College Hospital, London, Tegetmeier had served as clinical clerk to the physician and mesmerist John Elliotson. Elliotson was well-known for his pursuit of novelty and publicity and his showmanship included abandoning the physician’s standard dress of knee-breeches and stockings, and wearing a beard. Elliotson shared Tegetmeier’s hairy traits and they were both accused of dyeing their beards. However, Tegetmeier ‘never was given to personal adornments’. Tegetmeier’s observation was a response to reading a passage of Darwin’s Descent of man, for which Tegetmeier had provided information on the courtship of fowls and the proportion of the sexes in greyhounds, poultry and horses.