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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Leonard Jenyns   [9 May 1842]

12 Upper Gower

Monday Morning

Dear Jenyns

I am sorry about the mistake of the Fish-numbers—1 I have been to Smith & Elder & they apologise for their mistake & will send them off immediately— I hope you will not have to write again— I have sent off per Waggon, (Carr Paid) the fish-skins & all the bottles carefully packed up, directed to Mr Crouch Phil. Soc. Cambridge.—2

You must feel lightened of no inconsiderable load, having finished the Fish— I was looking at the last number yesterday— what a mass of matter there is in it!— The conviction I feel that your Part is real good work, I assure you, is a very great satisfaction to me often-times, when I doubt whether I ought to have applied to the Government for money. I wish I could get Bell to complete his Part,3 the Publishers will then try & push the sale at home & abroad.—

Farewell. | Yours most truly | C. Darwin.

I leave London in about a week or 10 days—my wife & children have already left.—

I have just finished correcting the last Page of Index of my small volume on Coral Reefs,4 wh. rejoices the inward cores of my heart

Footnotes

The fourth and final number of Fish had been published in April.
John Crouch, curator of the Library of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (A. R. Hall 1969, p. 24). The specimens are now in the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology.
Reptiles, the final part of Zoology, was not completed until the following year (1843).
CD’s Account Book (Down House MS) entry for 3 May 1842 reads: ‘Hall for making index 9s’. He completed the proofs of Coral reefs on 6 May and left for Maer on 18 May (‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II).

Bibliography

Coral reefs: The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Being the first part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1842.

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Fish: Pt IV of The zoology of the voyage of HMS Beagle. By Leonard Jenyns. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. London. 1840–2. [Vols. 2,3,4,9]

Hall, Alfred Rupert. 1969. The Cambridge Philosophical Society: a history, 1819–1969. Cambridge: Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Summary

Is sending fish skins and bottles off to Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Fish numbers [of Zoology], now finished, give CD satisfaction when he doubts whether he ought to have applied for Government money.

Wishes Thomas Bell would finish his part [Reptiles].

CD has just corrected last page of index of Coral reefs.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-629
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Leonard Jenyns/Leonard Blomefield
Sent from
London, Upper Gower St, 12
Source of text
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 629,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-629.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2

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