To J. V. Carus 8 December 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
December 8 1881
My dear Sir
Very many thanks for the corrections.—1 What wonderful lynx-like eyes you have for stupid errata! About “humus” two English Ladies complained that they did not know what the word meant, so I altered it; & I now wish that I had not done so. As I do not use the word in a chemical sense, it is merely an equivalent of vegetable mould.—2
In Haste, | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Murray is now selling the 5th Thousandth.!3
Footnotes
Bibliography
Carus, Julius Victor, trans. 1882. Die Bildung der Ackererde durch die Thätigkeit der Würmer mit Beobachtungen über deren Lebensweise. By Charles Darwin. (German translation of Earthworms.) Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung (E. Koch).
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Summary
Thanks JVC for his corrections of "stupid errata" [in Earthworms]. Explains, in answer to JVC’s query, that he has used the word "humus" as the equivalent of vegetable mould.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13537
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Julius Victor Carus
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 197–198)
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13537,” accessed on 8 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13537.xml
