My dear Friend

I thank you warmly for your affectionate & most kind letter.¹ If we may not call each other friends, I do not know who have a right; though from my unfortunate health & from our mutual distance, we have seen little of each other since those happy days in Cambridge & at Osmaston & elsewhere.—² I am very sorry to hear about your daughter.³ It is the greatest misery possible. We have had much & now have some anxiety about my son-in-law Litchfield, who was so ill in Switzerland & who had a relapse & last night had another accession of pain.⁴ I dread organic mischief following from so much & such repeated inflammations. George is in Algiers & is enjoying himself there, but his health is not at all better.⁵ I grudge his want of health especially, as he has indomitable energy & a constant craving to work.

Frank & I are hard at work on physiological points with respect to plants, & I find it adds greatly to my interest in being able to discuss all subjects with him.—⁶ William is extremely happy with his wife.⁷

Farewell my dear old Friend | Yours affectionately | Charles Darwin