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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Hermann Müller   30 November 1880

Lippstadt

Nov. 30., 1880.

My dear Sir,

I answer immediately your kind letter in order to moderate your apprehension about my brother Fritz. He has, indeed, suffered some damage by the unprecedented flood (the river Itajahy surpassed its normal level 1423 Meter!) but a moderate one, which will not seriously trouble him in his scientific researches.1 His books have been saved almost completely, likewise his microscope and apparatus, and he has already recommenced his scientific working. Two small but important articles have been lately sent by him to Dr. E. Krause for the Kosmos.2 I do not believe, therefore, that your generous offer would be accepted by my brother, but I will send him your letter in order to let him know how highly you value his work.3

I have continued the lecture of your admirable work until to Chapt. VI. with ever increasing interest.4 It would, indeed, be impossible to find out any matter of more universal bearing in the whole vegetable Kingdom!

As you wish to hear soon about my brother I close this letter, as I am called off by my office until this evening

With the greatest thankfulness | yours very sincerely | H. Müller.

Footnotes

See letter to Hermann Müller, 27 November 1880. Fritz Müller’s homestead was beside the Itajahy river (now called Itajaí Açu), about twenty-five miles inland from the town of Itajahy, in the north-east of Santa Catarina state in Brazil. It was later incorporated within the town of Blumenau.
In his letter to Müller of 27 November 1880, CD offered £50 or £100 to Fritz Müller to cover any losses from the flood.
Müller was reading Movement in plants; see letter from Hermann Müller, 27 November 1880. He later reviewed it in Kosmos (H. Müller 1880e).

Bibliography

Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.

Müller, Hermann. 1880f. Ch. und Fr. Darwins Beobachtungen über das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. [Review of Movement in plants, by Charles Darwin.] Kosmos 8 (1880–1): 258–71.

Summary

Fritz Müller suffered moderate damage in Brazilian flood.

Continued praise for the universal importance for botany of Movement in plants.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12878
From
Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Lippstadt
Source of text
DAR 171: 316
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12878,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12878.xml

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