My dear Hooker

What a King of good men you are to write me so long a letter so brimfull of most interesting matter.¹ Thank you heartily for your sympathy (which my wife read) about poor Etty, who keeps in same state; but the Doctors do not despair; I almost do.—

Thank you much for remarks about sudden changes: I have not been cautious enough; but I formerly worked the subject, & in animal kingdom could get go² sufficient evidence nor could I get any in Aug. Geoffroy, or Moquin-Tandon which satisfied me.³ I have already put a sentence or two in the new Edition, & I will now make them still more cautious.—⁴ I had thought of the cases of plants which habitually bear two kinds of flowers, but I had no means of conjecturing how they were acquired.⁵ I entirely agree in what you say about convergence, & have already put few sentences on this subject.—⁶ I am thus adding little discussions on almost every point which has been handled by Reviewers. I will of course send you a copy, & I shall publish table of additions, so anyone who cares can easily see the more important additions.—

Thanks for Harvey’s letter:⁷ I will keep it, as hereafter it may be very useful, unless I hear you want it back again. What truly wonderful, most uncomfortably wonderful, facts you tell me on Distribution. I am glad you attended to manner in which plants appeared & disappeared; it seems to me in many ways important. Many thanks about Apocynum & Meyen.—⁸ The latter I want about some strange movements in cells of Drosera, which Meyen alone seems to have observed. It is very curious but Trècul disbelieves that Drosera really clasps flies!⁹ I sh^d. very much wish to talk over Drosera with you. I did chloroform it & the leaves which were already expanded did not recover 30ʺ of exposure for 3 days.—

I used expression weight, for the bit of Hair which caused movement & weighed ^1/78,000 of a grain; but I do not believe it is weight, & what it is I cannot, after many experiments, conjecture. The movement in this case does not depend on chemical nature of substance. Latterly I have tried experiments on single glands, & a microscopical atom of raw meat causes such rapid movement that I could see it move, like hand of clock. In this case it is nature of object. It is wonderful, the rapidity of the absorption; in 10 [DITTO] weak solution of C. of Ammia changes not colour, do not lower ditto but state of contents within the glands. In 2^‘ 30^’ juice of meat has been absorbed by gland & passed from cell to cell all down the pedicel (or hair) of the gland, & caused the sap to pass from the cells on the upper side of the pedicel to the lower side & this causes the curvature of the pedicel. I shall work away next summer, when Drosera opens again for I am much interested in subject.— After the glandular Hairs have curved, the oddest changes take place, viz a segregation of the homogeneous pink fluid, & never-ceasing slow movements in the thicker matter. By Jove I sometimes think Drosera is a disguised animal! You know that I always so like telling you what I do, that you must forgive me scribbling on my beloved Drosera.— Farewell.— I am so very glad that you are going to reform your ways. I am sure that you would have injured your health seriously. There is poor Dana has done actually nothing, cannot even write a letter, for a year, & it is hoped that in another year he may quite recover.—¹⁰

After this homily good night My dear friend.—   Good Heavens I ought not to thank you, but scold you, for writing me so long & interesting a letter

Farewell | C. Darwin

I believe I shall have to go soon for some Water-cure, I cannot sleep & my heart is almost always palpitating.—

P.S. I have been looking at Harvey’s case again: it is really very pretty, as case of compensation & analogous variation. When you write urge him, as an honest man, to publish it with figures— During your absence I had immense correspondence with him.¹¹ He is not nearly so savage as he was. If he works in this way he will be a convert to us. Many of his objections were very ingenious, but several of them, I think, not well founded.—   He sent me his foolish pamphet marked “with repentance”. Was this not nice of him.?—¹²

If you have any suggestion on first half of Origin, please let me hear soon, as I must go to press immediately. Poor wretch you will soon remember that I did write a Book on Species.—

P.S. I have just heard from Murray that I must get on with proofs as quickly as I can¹³