From H. W. Bates 14 June 1862
King St Leicester
14 June 1862
My Dear Mr Darwin
Adjoined is a sort of answer to Mr Wedgwood’s query & I shall be glad if it prove of any use.1 I am truly sorry to hear of your being again more unwell than usual: but this under the circumstances of the interruption to your work which it causes, is a national concern.
My book “progresses” it is true, but slowly.2 How thoroughly ashamed I am to have bragged to you how quickly I could write it.3 I am at it every day as many hours as I can stand; but what takes me one day to write, takes 5 to alter.
Please do not make use of the facts about generative organs in beetles which I gave you.4 Conversing in London again with those gentlemen I find such a chaos of statements that the facts are not to be depended upon—
Yours sincerely | H W Bates
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1863. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Summary
Sends answer to Wedgwood’s query
and is sorry to hear CD is again unwell.
His book is progressing very slowly.
Asks that CD not make use of any of the facts about generative organs in beetles for he finds "such a chaos of statements" that facts are not to be depended upon.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3604
- From
- Henry Walter Bates
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Leicester
- Source of text
- DAR 160.1: 70
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3604,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3604.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10