To W. H. Miller 31 December [1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
Dec. 31.
My dear Miller—
How infinitely kind you have been to do the work so completely.2 But I am in truth almost ashamed to think how much of your valuable time you have given to this work.—
At some future time when I give all my experiments on the combs, I shall give your results in rather fuller detail. Now, I will give on your authority only the general result.—3
From several circumstances (which I did not previously think of) the measurements at the upper thick end of the comb are, I think, most trustworthy; for the Bees might have failed in building from want of wax, & their combs were taken from Hives which naturally perished; or they might have subsequently gnawed away wax from the border-cells which they did not mean to fill with honey & I know they often economise every particle of wax.
I am extremely much pleased that I turn out not so grossly wrong, as I feared, for it has annoyed me more than you would suppose. My having been not grossly wrong has, however, evidently been mere chance.
My original rough measurements were made, I remember, in middle of a great piece of comb;4 & the two or three measurements made the other day & when I wrote to you, giving up the ghost, were made on border.
Again let me thank you most sincerely for your very great kindness, & believe | My dear Miller | Yours very truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Thanks WHM for information about honeycombs. Discusses his own measurements of combs.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2617
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Hallowes Miller
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.189)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2617,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2617.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8