My dear Lyell

As I know you are particular in accuracy even to minutest point, I send one line to say that you speak of Megatherium having been found as far South as 50^o. ¹ I never found it further than 39^o. & I do not think that Sulivan found Megatherium, in southern Patagonia.—²

It appeared to me that there was either misplaced or omitted words in two places but these you would certainly observe in correcting for 2^d Edit;³ I may just mention that one was in 2^d. Vol about the diameter of a great Equatorial telescope;⁴ & the other was in 1^st. vol about oxygen & anthracite which I c^d. not at all understand.—⁵ I cannot give pages for I left my copy at Malvern with the Wedgwoods. I finished it before leaving & a most interesting work it is— I don’t know when I have read a book so interesting: some of your stories are very rich.—

You ought to be made Minister of Public Education; not but what I sh^d. think even that beneath the Author of the Old Principles.— Your Book must, I sh^d. think, do a great deal of good & set people thinking. I quite agree with Athenæum⁶ that you have shown how a man of Science can bring his power’s of observation on Social Subjects.— You have made H. Wedgwood, heart & soul, an American; he wishes the States would annex us, & was all day marvelling how anyone, who could pay his passage-money, was so foolish as to remain here.—

I wish Lady Lyell & yourself a most pleasant summer. | Yours | C. Darwin