My dear Sir

When at Southampton you said you would give me the address of the artist whom you employ to draw from under the microscope, & whom you pay at 5^s per hour.¹ An early answer would very much oblige me, if you would kindly take the trouble.— The objects which I want chiefly drawn are minute corallines, & minute articulata & mollusca & their various organs;² please say whether you think your artist would do such things well; it is a very different style, hard & precise, from those wonderfully beautiful sections which you exhibited at Southampton.— I hope you will excuse this trouble.— Sh^d. you have any communication with your artist, w^d you mention my name as a probable applicant for his assistance

Pray believe me, my dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin