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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Raphael Meldola   8 August 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Aug. 8th 1881

My dear Sir

Pray forgive me for troubling you.— I have forgotten who published the translation of Weismann’s book.1 My copy of the first Part has been mislaid & I cannot find it, high or low, but it cannot be lost. The publisher has never sent me Part II & I want to write to him to ask him to do so. & to enquire whether I paid for Part II, as it is my usual habit to pay for all parts in advance to save loss of time.—2

I am glad to see how extremely flourishing your Essex Club appears to be3

My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

Several persons have spoken to me with interest about Weismann’s book—

Footnotes

1
Meldola had translated August Weismann’s Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie (Weismann 1875–6); the translation was published in three parts by the London firm of Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington (Weismann 1880–2).
2
Part 1 of Weismann 1880–2 was published in 1880; part 2 was published in 1881. The work was paid for by subscription (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter from Raphael Meldola, 6 February 1879). CD’s Classed account book (Down House MS) records a payment of £1 10s. on 7 May 1880 to ‘Sampson Low for Weisman’; no further payments are recorded. CD’s copy of all three parts of Weismann 1880–2 are in the Darwin Library–Down.
3
Meldola was president of the Epping Forest and County of Essex Naturalists’ Field Club, which was founded in 1880; CD was an honorary member (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from William Cole, 14 February 1880).

Bibliography

Weismann, August. 1875–6. Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie. 2 vols. I. Ueber den Saison-Dimorphismus der Schmetterlinge; II. Ueber die letzten Ursachen der Transmutationen. 1. Die Entstehung der Zeichnung bei den Schmetterlings-Raupen, 2. Ueber den phyletischen Parallelismus bei metamorphischen Arten, 3. Ueber die Umwandlung des mexikanischen Axolotl in ein Amblystoma, 4. Ueber die mechanische Auffassung der Natur. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.

Weismann, August. 1880–2. Studies in the theory of descent. Translated by Raphael Meldola. 3 parts. Part I (1880): On the seasonal dimorphism of butterflies. Part II (1881): The origin of the markings of caterpillars. On phyletic parallelism in metamorphic species. Part III (1882): The transformation of the Mexican axolotl into amblystoma. On the mechanical conception of nature. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.

Summary

Requests name of the publishers of RM’s translation of Weismann’s Studien.

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13280,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13280.xml

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