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From E. R. Lankester   11 October 1881

[Mr. Lankester had written Oct. 11th, 1881, to thank Mr. Darwin for the present of the Earthworm book.1 He asks whether Darwin knows of “any experiments on the influence of sea-water on earthworms. I have assumed that it is fatal to them. But there is a littoral species (Pontodrilus of Perrier)2 found at Marseilles.” Lankester adds, “It is a great pleasure and source of pride to me to see my drawing of the earthworm’s alimentary canal figuring in your pages.”3]

Footnotes

1
Lankester’s name is on CD’s presentation list for Earthworms (see Appendix IV).
2
The genus Pontodrilus had been erected in 1874 by Edmond Perrier, who renamed Lumbricus littoralis as its type species (Perrier 1874). Perrier later wrote the preface to the French edition of Earthworms (Lévêque trans. 1882, pp. ix–xxviii).
3
Lankester’s diagram of the alimentary canal of Lumbricus appeared in Earthworms, p. 18. It was taken from Lankester’s article ‘The anatomy of the earthworm’, published in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Lankester 1864–5).

Bibliography

Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.

Lankester, Edwin Ray. 1864–5. The anatomy of the earthworm. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science n.s. 4: 258–68; 5: 7–18, 99–116.

Lévêque, M., trans. 1882. Rôle des vers de terre dans la formation de la terre végétale. By Charles Darwin. (Translation of Earthworms.) Preface by Edmond Perrier. Paris: C. Reinwald.

Perrier, Edmond. 1874. Sur un nouveau genre indigène de Lombriciens terrestres (Pontodrilus Marionis E. P.). Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 78: 1582–6.

Summary

Thanks for Earthworms. Very proud to see his drawing in the book.

Does CD know of experiments with sea water on earthworms?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13390F
From
Edwin Ray Lankester
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Source of text
2: 215

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13390F,” accessed on 20 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13390F.xml

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