To Charles Lyell [8 August 1846]
Shrewsbury
Saturday
My dear Lyell,
I was delighted to receive your letter, which was forwarded here to me. I am very glad to hear about the new Edit of the Principles,1 & I most heartily hope you may live to bring out half-a-dozen more editions. There would not have been such books as d’Orbignys S. American Geology2 published, if there had been seven Editions of the Principles distributed in France. I am rather sorry about the small type; but the first Edit, my old true-love,3 which I never deserted for the later editions, was also in small type.— I much fear I shall not be able to give any assistance to Book III;4 I think I formerly gave my few criticisms, but I will read it over again very soon (though I am slaving to finish my S. American Geolog) & see whether I can give you any references.—
I have been thinking over the subject, & can remember no one book of consequence, as all my materials (which are in an absolute chaos on separate bits of paper) have been picked out of books not directly treating of the subjects you have discussed, & which I hope some day to attempt: thus Hooker’s Antarctic Flora,5 I have found eminently useful & yet I declare I do not know what precise facts I could refer you to. Bronn’s Gesichte6 (which you once borrowed) is the only systematic book I have met with on such subjects; & there are no general views in such parts, as I have read, but an immense accumulation of references, very useful to follow up, but not credible in themselves;—thus he gives hybrids from ducks & fowls just as readily as between fowls & pheasants! you can have it again, if you like.— I have no doubt Forbes essay, which is I suppose now fairly out, will be very good under geographical head.7 Koelreuter’s German Book8 is excellent on Hybrids, but it will cost you a good deal of time to work out any conclusions from his numerous details. With respect to variation, I have found nothing, but minute details scattered over scores of volumes.— But I will look over Book III again: What a quantity of work you have in hand! I almost wish you cd have finished America,9 & thus have allowed yourself rather more time for the old Principles, & I am quite surprised that you cd. possibly have worked your own new matter in within six weeks. Your intention of being in Southampton will much strengthen mine & I shall be very glad to hear some of your American Geolog. news.—10
You have pleased me much by saying that you intend looking through my Volcanic volume: it cost me 18 months!!! work & I have heard of very few who has read it; now I shall feel whatever little (& little it is) there is confirmatory of old work or new will work its effect & not be lost. I wish my S. American volume was out for same end, & I daresay you will be heartily glad it is not, for you must with all your work in hand, grudge time for your own new materials. I shd. have liked to have had your opinion on my facts & short discussion regarding the foliation of the metamorphic schists,11 which I am now correcting;—and another on the absence of recent conchiferous deposits & on the tertiary formations having been deposited during subsidence:12 but I will have mercy on you & say no more on my volume, of which I am inexpressibly weary & thank Heavens have now finally corrected of, & hope to see published this month.
I return home on Tuesday, having been here for a week to see my Father: Emma & the children have been having colds but are otherwise well.— I hope you found Mr & Mrs Lyell tolerably well.— How I shall enjoy having you for a visit to Down & I believe you cd with quiet & fresh air do more work with us than in that horrid place London.—
I must go to work to proof-sheets: my vol will be about 240 pages, dreadfully dull yet much condensed: I think, whenever you have time to look through it, you will think the collection of facts on the elevation of the land & on the formation of terraces pretty good.
Goodbye with many thanks for your letter & my kindest remembrances to Mrs Lyell. | Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Autobiography: The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882. With original omissions restored. Edited with appendix and notes by Nora Barlow. London: Collins. 1958.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Forbes, Edward. 1846. On the connexion between the distribution of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and of the Museum of Economic Geology in London 1: 336–432.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1844–7. Flora Antarctica. 1 vol. and 1 vol. of plates. Pt 1 of The botany of the Antarctic voyage of HM discovery ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. London: Reeve Brothers.
Kölreuter, Joseph Gottlieb. 1761–6. Vorläufige Nachricht von einigen das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffenden Versuchen und Beobachtungen. Leipzig: Gleditschischen Handlung.
Lyell, Charles. 1847. Principles of geology; or, the modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology. 7th ed. London. [Vols. 4,9]
Lyell, Charles. 1849. A second visit to the United States of North America. 2 vols. London. [Vols. 4,7]
Orbigny, Alcide Charles Victor Dessalines d’. 1835–47. Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale (le Brésil, la République orientale de l’Uruguay, la République Argentine, la Patagonie, la République du Chili, la République de Bolivia, la République du Pérou), exécuté pendant les années 1826 … 1833. 6 vols. in 7 and 4 atlases. Paris and Strasbourg: Pitois-Levrault et Cie, P. Bertrand.
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.
South America: Geological observations on South America. Being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1846.
Summary
Comments on forthcoming edition [7th (1847)] of CL’s Principles. Mentions other books relevant to CL’s needs by Hooker, H. G. Bronn, Edward Forbes, and J. G. Kölreuter. Discusses his own books on volcanoes and the geology of S. America.
Mentions expected visit to Down by the Lyells.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-990
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Shrewsbury
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.49)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 990,” accessed on 10 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-990.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3