To Francis Darwin 8 July 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
July 8th 1881
My dear Frank
I have had 2 of the most tremendous days scribble I ever had in my life, & this was chiefly owing to my not having had any printed papers or only a few books forwarded to me.1 Amongst the printed papers was a Cable from Grt. N. R.2 to you; I was much afraid that it might have been forfeited, but I forwarded it at once to the U. Bank3 & today I have got for you the Bankers receipt, with a penalty of 4d.! Amongst the books was Pfeffers “Stoffwecksels &c”.4
Tell me if you hear anything about it. Maxime Cornu has sent me & to you a whole pile of his papers & some of them appear to be on interesting subjects. It was such a pile I have thanked him for myself & from you.5 Do you know anything about Cornu?— I see that we have been much honoured in Bot. Zeitung by two articles on the “Power of movement”. That by Haberlandt was very flattering & nicely done, as I thought.6
Our book seems to be a success.— I have got only 2d Revises of latter half of Worm Book now to finish, & that is nothing.7 But I am rather disgusted with it, & critics may truly say ‘much cry & little work’. I am very glad it is all on my own shoulders.— I began this morning preparing fresh leaves for drops of water to be exposed to sun-light; for no effect whatever was produced in my study in the Spring.8 I have just been greatly stimulated to pursue the work (about which I had become very doubtful) by reading a few days ago a letter from Fritz Müller, who said he had purposely gone out to observe the leaves of many plants, which he knew moved when shaken, & he gives me a list of a whole lot, all with their leaves greatly raised or depressed.9 Some years ago I told him my notion about the movements of Mimosa & Cassia & Desmodium &c, & he says he is now strongly inclined to believe that in all the cases observed by him, the leaves during rain place themselves so as to shoot off the drops.10 So anyhow the subject is worth pursuing, as I have nothing else special to do. As usual, F— Müller tells me many other curious facts.
We shall be heartily glad to see you home again.11
On Augt 3d we must be in London for my luncheon at Paget’s to meet the Prince of Wales.—12
Your affect. Father | C. Darwin
I am reading a book which interests me to an unusual degree. “The Creed of Science” by W. Graham.13 Who & what he is I know not. He gives the view of the Universe, which a scientific man would as he thinks, take.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Carus, Julius Victor, trans. 1881. Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. By Charles Darwin. (German translation of Movement in plants. Vol. 13 of Charles Darwin’s gesammelte Werke.) Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung (E. Koch).
Cornu, Maxime. 1879b. Note sur un type nouveau de tiges anomales. [Read 17 March 1879.] Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 88: 548–50.
Cornu, Maxime and Mer, Émile. 1878. Recherches sur l’absorption des matières colorantes par les racines. In Comptes rendus sténographiques du Congrès international de botanique et d’horticulture tenu à Paris du 16 au 24 août 1878. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Graham, William. 1881. The creed of science: religious, moral, and social. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Pfeffer, Wilhelm. 1881. Pflanzenphysiologie. Ein Handbuch des Stoffwechsels und Kraftwechsels in der Pflanze. 2 vols. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Summary
Comments on the response to Movement in plants, which seems to have been successful.
Is going over revises of Earthworms.
Is investigating further his notion that leaves align themselves in the rain so as to shoot off drops of water.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13237
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Francis Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 211: 85
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13237,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13237.xml