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Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. V. Carus   22 February [1868]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Feb. 22d

My dear Sir

I send by this post sheets of second Edit, with all the passages marked (except the errata already printed) & will you be so good as to give any that are important in list of Errata.—2

You will be able in Vol. 11. to insert most of the corrections. Kindly attend to addition at p. 396 Vol I & give it as a footnote to Vol. 2 at place indicated at Vol I p. 396.—3

There has been one very favourable Review of my Book in England & one most contemptuous one, (written I believe by Prof. Owen) in the Athenæum.4 I am sure I do not know what the Book is worth, but I do know I did my best.

These corrections will not cost you much trouble.

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely obliged | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the reference to the German edition of Variation (Carus trans. 1868).
Carus had translated Variation into German. The first volume was printed in December 1867 (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter from Eduard Koch, 11 December 1867); the second volume appeared in July and contained several pages of corrections and additions (Carus trans. 1868, 2: 565–7; letter from Friedrich Hildebrand, 3 July 1868). These corrections and additions incorporated changes made in the second printing of Variation.
CD had added information to the second printing of Variation on Friedrich Hildebrand’s efforts to produce a potato hybrid through grafting (Variation 1: 396). This information was taken from Hildebrand’s letter of 2 January 1868. The addition was given in Carus trans. 1868, 2: 566.
CD refers to [Lewes] 1868a and [Robertson] 1868a, the latter of which CD mistakenly attributed to Richard Owen.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Sends sheets of second issue [of Variation] with errata and changes to be made.

Refers to a favourable review,

and a contemptuous one in Athenæum written, he thinks, by Richard Owen [see 5931].

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5915,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5915.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16

letter