To Camilla Pattrick [after 6 November 1881]1
[Down.]
It is of much importance to me to know what Pfeffer means in relation to Wiesners book who has just published a book vivisecting me in the most courteous manner.2
Wiesner looks at Light causing a plant to bend towards it as a direct effect, as much as the lengthening of a bar of iron by heat. I maintain that the light acts as a stimulus & merely tells the plant which way to bend.—3
I thought that Pfeffer was on Wiesner’s side, & I am sure that he was so formerly.— I have written this, because I thought that it would help Mr Patrick4 & yourself in understanding Pfeffers notoriously difficult (to Germans) style
C. D.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.
Wiesner, Julius. 1881. Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. Eine kritische Studie über das gleichnamige Werk von Charles Darwin nebst neuen Untersuchungen. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.
Summary
Asks her to translate a letter by W. F. P. Pfeffer. Mentions views of Julius von Wiesner.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13447
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Camilla Frederike Antonie (Camilla) Ludwig/Camilla Frederike Antonie (Camilla) Pattrick
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.602)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13447,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13447.xml