To F. B. Zincke 7 November 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Nov 7th. 1881
Dear Sir
I have heard this morning that a 4th thousand of my Earth-worm book must be printed off.—1 If you do not object, I shd. like to give on your authority the case of the Celt. But I do not understand whether you actually measured the thickness of the upper Dark vegetable mould & of the “Sandy loam”.2 I shd., also, like to hear a little more in detail the nature of this sandy loam & its colour.— If the vegetable mould & the sandy loam were both heated to redness, would they afterwards resemble each other? Were any number of stones or other objects besides the celts found on the surface of the pan? If you consent to allow me to publish the case, I fear that I must trouble you to give me the information soon, as Murray writes that 3500 copies are actually sold, & only 3000 as yet have been printed off.—3
I remain in haste | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin
P. S. | I read some time ago with wonderful interest your account of French peasant-life in Auvergne.—4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Zincke, Foster Barham. 1878. The peasants of the Limagne. Fortnightly Review 30: 646–60, 821–35.
Summary
Would like to cite the case of the celt in a new printing of Earthworms. Asks for details.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13468
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Foster Barham Zincke
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13468,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13468.xml