To Adolf Reuter 2 June 1869
Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.
June 2. 1869
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your very kind letter.1 I am sure that an observer who shews such zeal & love for science as you do, & who has had such wide experience, must have collected very valuable facts & conclusions.
The observations which you are so good as to offer me would no doubt be of much value; but I am bound to tell you that from having so many other subjects to attend to, & from my health being weak, I have unwillingly resolved no longer to pursue the subject of variation under domestication, except to correct any errors which I may have published.2
Secondly, I am a very poor German scholar, & if your notes were written in German I shd have great difficulty in understanding them; & although you write so well in English, it wd probably cause you some trouble to write in this language.
Under these circumstances I wd suggest that you shd publish your observations in some German periodical & inform me or kindly send me a copy. Your observations wd thus be of use to every one, & I might not be able to use them for years.
With my sincere thanks for your sympathy & interest in my works I remain | Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
Thanks AR for his offer to send his observation notes, but since CD will not pursue the subject of variation under domestication, and his German is poor, he urges him to publish them in some periodical.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6772
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Adolf Reuter
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 222–223)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6772,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6772.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17