Ɛpsilon

To Smith, Elder & Co.   13 November [1845]

Down near Bromley. | Kent

Nov 13

Dear Sir.

I leave entirely to your better judgment the size of the advertisement, & the extent which you may think it worth while to advertise; I am doubtful of its doing much more good than making early subscribers complete their copies.—1 I have made & suggested a few alterations in the advertisement The line about “a general sketch of the Zoology &c &c” must be omitted.2

Would it not be worth while to introduce the names Owen, Waterhouse Gould Jenyns & Bell of the contributors after each part, they are good & known names,?

If you require space to do this, you might omit the sentence in italics, about the Lord Commissioner & the following sentence, & make a general Heading to the whole advertisement in large type, of “With the Approval &c &c &c.”

As the advertisement now stands, it is not evident, that the Geological Observations were written by me; my name had better be introduced, where I have marked it.

The title of the Coral-Volume had better, I think, be a little fuller, as I have introduced it.3

I am very much obliged to you for having sent me the advertisement to look at & | Believe me | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
The letter refers to an advertisement by the publishers of the Zoology and the geology of the voyage of the Beagle that was printed on p. 520 of the second issue of Journal of researches 2d ed., which appeared in December 1845, see Freeman 1977, pp. 35–6.
2
An 1844 advertisement, which appeared in Volcanic islands, described the Zoology as including ‘a general Sketch of the Zoology of the Southern Part of South America’. This part of the original plan was abandoned because the Treasury grant expired.
3
All CD’s suggested revisions were carried out: the contributors’ names were added to each part of Zoology, CD’s name was added after ‘GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS’, and the title of Coral reefs was filled out.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 much] over illeg
1.5 omitted.] followed by line drawn across page in MS
2.1 Owen … Bell 2.2] interl
3.2 Heading] ‘g’ over ‘gs’
3.2 to … advertisement 3.3] interl
3.3 &c.”] followed by line drawn across page in MS
4.2 introduced,] before del ‘either,’
4.3 marked it.] before del ‘or after the III Part, showing that all these Parts are by me—’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1023,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1023