Sir!

I have done myself the honour of sending you by post a paper on the Echinoidea, which I beg you to accept as a feeble token of my profound veneration.² It is written in french, as yet the best way of making any books / things readable³ known to Naturalists in general.

It seemed to me that there existed not a little in our knowledge confusion of the different parts of the exoseleton of the Echinodermata,⁴ and that it might be of some use to examine more closely into their structure and modes of combination. In so doing to the best of my powers, I was lead to look upon some among / of them from points of view different from the generally accepted, to trace certain relations of homology, not remarked / recognised before. It was however very soon obvious that, whatever I may have succeeded to bring to / into new light, it is very little if compared to what remains to be done before it may be allowed to speculate on the origin of the different types, which seems to be lost in the darkness of pre-cambrian times. On this question I have therefore not entered. I should be very glad if I were permitted to believe that you would bestow some moments of your precious time on looking to my memoir, which, some bad french excepted, will I hope be at least more easy reading than the english translation which appeared two years ago in the Annals and Magazine⁵

I remain |Dear Sir | Yours most truly