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Darwin Correspondence Project

To S. P. Woodward   15 May [1856]1

Down

15 May

[Returning thanks for the Supplement to his correspondent’s Manual of the Mollusca,2 eloquently praising the book and Woodward’s labours in the cause of science]

‘What an amount of labour is condensed in your little volume! & how marvellously cheap.— I fully believe & hope that you will reap the only reward worth having, the consciousness that you have done good service to the cause of Science.’

Footnotes

The date as given in Sotheby’s catalogue. It is corroborated by the publication date of part three of Woodward 1851–6 (see n. 2, below).
The third part of Woodward’s Manual of the Mollusca (Woodward 1851–6), entitled ‘Supplement to the rudimentary treatise on recent fossil shells’, was published in May 1856 (Publishers’ Circular, 2 June 1856, p. 227). A copy of the entire work is in the Darwin Library–CUL. The third part, covering the geographical distribution of shells, is heavily annotated.

Bibliography

Woodward, Samuel Pickworth. 1851–6. A manual of the Mollusca; or, a rudimentary treatise of recent and fossil shells. 3 pts. London. [Vols. 6,8,9]

Summary

Thanks for Supplement to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [1851–6]. Praises SPW’s work. "What an amount of labour is condensed in your little volume! … I fully believe & hope that you will reap the only reward worth having, the consciousness that you have done good service to the cause of Science."

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1875
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Samuel Pickworth Woodward
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Sotheby’s (dealers) (21 March 1966)
Physical description
ALS ** 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1875,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1875.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6

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