My dear Darwin

Hope¹ is yet on the continent but I do not know his address, if however you send a note addressed to him under cover to me I will see that it is sent off through his man M^r Sibley who manages all these matters—

Your question about the Viverridæ puzzles me much—² number is certainly an element of some importance with me—especially in endeavouring to form an idea of the value of a character— I think were there only one species of Viverridæ known I should in all probability regard him as an aberrant form of some other group & should not select him as a type of the Carnivora—but I cannot for the life of me conceive what I should do for a type— I should be much in the same predicament with the Carnivora as I am with the Edentata— I cannot form any very distinct idea of the type of that group—

I will perhaps write again about this matter— I am at this moment so very ‘queer’ (with a cold) that I can hardly think— I am very sorry to hear you are sticking to your old bad practice of being unwell—

Believe me | Ever faithfully yours | Geo R Waterhouse Tuesday in E