To Francis Darwin 20 September [1876]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Sept. 20th
My dear Frank
I doubt whether Sprengel wd. be worth the labour. I do not see what use a translation could be.— H. Muller’s Befruchtung is now a much more valuable book. Not a page of Sprengel is intelligible without his rough & crowded Plates. He is also wrong in his theory.2
If you wish to practice on Translation, I wd suggest J. von. Fishers paper (which is very curious) on apes which show their hinder ends as a greeting—or his paper on the inheritance of colour in crossed Rodents.—3 I think that you cd make the former one quite decent, & I guess that Dr. Lawson wd. gladly publish a Translation of either in the Pop. Science Review.4 If you thought about it, I cd send the essays & a German Dicty.—
My dear boy you are very wise to exert yourself to the utmost but I pray you to take care of your health & take plenty of exercise. I feel sure that the habit of close mental attention will grow on you, & it is your one chance of forgetting for short times your dreadful loss.5 Your teazle paper wd. be the best of all, if you can do it, which is of course very doubtful.—6
You have worked excellently at my Proof-sheets, but I have gone through (for it is hard work) only about a quarter of them, & as yet have accepted all, though some slightly modified.7
I am glad that you have gone into Wales, & the kindness of Mrs. Ruck & Arthur must do you some good.8 It is delightful to hear of such tender & thoughtful kindness.
My very dear son | Your affectionate Father | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Müller, Hermann. 1873. Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten und die gegenseitigen Anpassungen beider. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntniss des ursächlichen Zusammenhanges in der organischen Natur. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Sprengel, Christian Konrad. 1793. Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen. Berlin: Friedrich Vieweg.
Summary
Suggests German works worth translating.
Is glad FD is keeping busy; he has worked excellently on proof-sheets [of Orchids (1877)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10611
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Francis Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 211: 11
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10611,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10611.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24