My dear Hooker

I am very glad that this will reach you at Kew & that M^rs. Hooker will soon be with you.¹ You will then get rest & I do hope some lull in anxiety & fear.² Nothing is so dreadful in this life as fear: it still sickens me when I cannot help remembering some of the many illnesses our children have endured.—³ My Father, who was a sceptical man, was convinced that he had distinctly traced several cases of scarlet-fever to handling letters from convalescents.⁴—

The vases did come from my sister Susan;⁵ she is recovering & was much pleased to hear that you liked them: I have now sent one of your notes to her, in which you speak of them as “enchanting” &c.—⁶

I have had a bad spell, vomiting every day for eleven days & some days many times after every meal.⁷ It is astonishing the degree to which I keep up some strength. D^r. Brinton⁸ was here 2 days ago & says he sees no reason I may not recover my former degree of health.— I sh^d. like to live to do a little more work & often I feel sure I shall & then again I feel that my tether is run out.—

Your Hastings note, my dear old fellow, was a Copley medal to me & more than a Copley medal;⁹ not but what I know well that you overrate what I have been able to do. Now that I am disabled, I feel more than ever what a pleasure observing & making out little difficulties is.—

By the way here is a very little fact which may interest you.— A partridge’s foot, is described in Proc. Zoolog. Soc. with huge ball of earth attached to it, as hard as rock—¹⁰ Bird killed in 1860— Leg has been sent me & I find it diseased & no doubt exudation caused earth to accumulate: now already 32 plants have come up from this ball of earth.—¹¹

Many thanks about Edinburgh R.—¹² Do not send Hochstetter.—¹³

By Jove I must write no more— good Bye, my best of friends. | C. Darwin

Remember me most kindly to Huxley¹⁴ when you see him   What a capital paper the “Reader” has become¹⁵

There is an Italian Edit. of Origin preparing!!!¹⁶ This makes fifth foreign Edit, ie in five foreign countries.¹⁷ Owen will not be right in telling Longmans that Book w^d be utterly forgotten in ten years—¹⁸

Hurrah!