Volume 3

More letters of Charles Darwin : a record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters / edited by Francis Darwin ... and A.C. Seward.

  • Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: More letters of Charles Darwin : a record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters / edited by Francis Darwin ... and A.C. Seward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    82/544 (page 50)
    Letter 17 away by the old into unfavourable districts, and there mostly perish. When one meets with such unexpected statistical returns on the increase and decrease and proportion of deaths and births amongst mankind, and in this well-known country of ours, one ought not to be in the least surprised at one’s ignorance, when, where, and how the endless increase of our robins and sparrows is checked. Thanks for your hints about terms of “ mutation,” etc.; I had some suspicions that it was not quite correct, and yet I do not yet see my way to arrive at any better terms. It will be years before I publish, so that I shall have plenty of time to think of better words. Development would perhaps do, only it is applied to the changes of an individual during - its growth. I am, however, very glad of your remark, and will ponder over it. We are all well, wife and children three, and as flourishing as this horrid, house-confining, tempestuous weather permits. Letter 18 To J. D. Hooker. Down [1845]. I hope you are getting on well with 5/our lectures, and that you have enjoyed some pleasant walks during the late de¬ lightful weather. I write to tell you (as perhaps you might have had fears on the subject) that your books have arrived safely. I am exceedingly obliged to you for them, and will take great care of them ; they will take me some time to read carefully. I send to-day the corrected MS. of the first number of my Journal^ in the Colonial Library, so that if you chance to know of any gross mistake in the first 214 pages (if you have my Journal), I should be obliged to you to tell me. Do not answer this for form’s sake; for you must be very busy. We have just had the Lyells here, and you ought to have a wife to stop your working too much, as Mrs. Lyell peremptorily stops Lyell. ^ In 1842 he had written to his sister : “Talking of money, I reaped the other day all the profit which I shall ever get from my Journal \^Journal of Researches, etcl\ which consisted in paying Mr. Colburn J21 lo.f. for the copies which I presented to different people ; 1,337 copies have been sold. This is a comfortable arrangement, is it not.?” He was proved wrong in his gloomy prophecy, as the second edition was published by Mr. Murray in 1845.