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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Eduard Schulte1   18 November 1879

Fürstenwalde, | Prov. Brandenburg.

d. 18. Nov. | 1879.

Eduardus Schulte Carolo Darwin

Viro Ornatissimo et Doctissimo

S.P.D˘.2

Epistulam, quam ad te dedi, tam comiter accepisti, ut iterum ad te scribere audeam.3 Ego sum assectator doctrinae tuae, sed mihi dubium est, quomodo vita papilionum cum hac doctrina conveniat. Papiliones sunt in doctrinae tuae arce, quae undique optime munita est, quasi locus infirmus, ubi adversarii facilius irrumpere porrunt. Transfiguratio enim, quam alia insectorum genera patiuntur, cum transfiguratione papilionum comparari non debet: illa enim genera pugnam de vita etiam transfigurata continuant, sive aggrediendo, sive se defendendo, sive opere diurno famem propulsando, instructă mirā armorum et instrumentorum varietate. Papilionum autem magna pars cibo se prorsus abstinet, nullus papilio quod sciam potest pungere vel mordere vel ferire vel veneno aspergere vel capillis incommodare (erucae quaedam veneno vel capillis nocent) vel aliquo modo aggredi.4 Papiliones uni ex omnibus in hac terra animalibus a rebus terrestribus paene remoti sunt. Hoc unum eorum interest, ut stirpem suam propagent, et totā vitā papilionis omnino nihil natura efficit vel assequitur, nisi propagationem. Apud plantas eodem tempore, quo planta alitur, ge⁠⟨⁠n⁠⟩⁠italia exsistunt, quum speciem floris induunt: apud papiliones et vesci et propagare non eodem tempore sunt neque in eodem animali, nam eruca est animal vescens, papilio est animal propagans, vel rectius dicas papilionem esse volucre genitale vel potius genitale sui juris. Voluntas propagandi hic non minus valuit quam voluntas exsistendi, neque ulla necessitate, ut in ceteris animalibus, sed libera quadam et generosa actione naturae papilionibus figura sua data videtur esse et vestimentum, quod et morti et nuptiis aptum et idem est, nam papilio mas post initum moritur (qui hibernat, initu se abstinuit), femina post partum ovorum. Tu, Vir Ornatissime, in arce doctrinae tuae imperator es et primus miles: si forte moenia arcis circumis, praescribas nobis militibus tuis, quomodo impediamus, ne per ordines papilionum adversarii arcem invadant.

Cura et valeas.

CD annotations

Top of first page: ‘Schulte’ blue crayon

Footnotes

For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
SPD: salutem plurimam dicit (Latin), ‘bids the best possible health’, or ‘greets’.
In Descent 1: 386, CD described male butterflies as ‘pugnacious’ and remarked on the injuries they suffered in battle for females. He discussed the feeding behaviour of moths and butterflies in Orchids 2d ed., pp. 20–5, 38–41.

Translation

From Eduard Schulte1   18 November 1879

Fürstenwalde, | Prov. Brandenburg.

18. Nov. 1879.

Eduard Schulte

to the very distinguished and learned Charles Darwin

greetings

You received the letter that I sent you in such a courteous manner that I venture to write to you again.2 I am a supporter of your theory, but I wonder in what way the life of butterflies is consistent with this theory. In the fortress of your theory, which is very well defended on every side, butterflies are as it were a weak point, where enemies could break in quite easily. For the transformation that other types of insect display ought not to be compared with the transformation of butterflies: for those other types carry on with the struggle for survival even when they have been transformed, by making attacks, or defending themselves, or by warding off hunger through daily toil, furnished with an amazing variety of armour and tools. However, most butterflies certainly abstain from food, no butterfly as far as I know can sting or bite or kill or infect with poison or injure with hairs (certain caterpillars can harm with poison and hairs) or attack in any way.3 Butterflies alone of all the creatures on this earth have been almost completely removed from earthly concerns. This is their sole concern, to increase their race, and nature accomplishes and achieves absolutely nothing by the whole life of the butterfly except reproduction. Among plants, at the same time as a plant is nourished, reproductive organs emerge as they put on the outward appearance of the flower: among butterflies, feeding and reproducing do not take place either at the same time or in the same creature, for the caterpillar is the feeding creature, the butterfly the reproducing creature; or you may more correctly say that the butterfly is a winged reproductive organ or rather a reproductive organ in its own right. The desire to reproduce has been no less strong in this case than the desire to live, and not by any necessity, as in other animals, but by some free and generous act of nature, butterflies seem to have been given their form and dress, which is apt and identical for both death and marriage. For the male butterfly dies after mating (an over-wintering butterfly holds back from mating), the female dies after laying eggs. You, most distinguished gentleman, are the general in the fortress of your theory and its foremost soldier: if perhaps you tour round the walls of your citadel, you may instruct us, your soldiers, how we may hold fast, lest enemies overrun the citadel through the ranks of butterflies.

Take care that you may keep well.

Footnotes

For a transcription of this letter in its original Latin, see p. 498.
In Descent 1: 386, CD described male butterflies as ‘pugnacious’ and remarked on the injuries they suffered in battle for females. He discussed the feeding behaviour of moths and butterflies in Orchids 2d ed., pp. 20–5, 38–41.

Summary

Supports CD’s theory but doubts that butterfly life-cycle is consistent with it. Metamorphosis of butterflies is not comparable to that of other insects.

Comments on butterfly fertilisation of flowers.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12329
From
Eduard Schulte
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Fürstenwalde
Source of text
DAR 177: 66
Physical description
ALS 3pp (Latin)

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12329,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12329.xml

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