To Lawson Tait   27 November [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Nov. 27th

My dear Sir

I have looked through the whole of your paper,2 but have not read it very carefully, as I have been unwell & confined to bed, & now a pile of proof is waiting for correction.3 Your paper seems to me, as far as I can judge, a very important contribution to science; & I hope that your chemical observations which must have been extremely difficult will be hereafter confirmed. It seems a great anomaly that two substances with an acid shd be requisite for digestion.4

I will despatch your paper registered tomorrow to the R. Soc.

My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

You speak of the several “Varieties” of Nepenthes; are they not commonly ranked as species?

You alluded to some abstract:5 this I have not received & you had better send it direct to R. Soc.—if meant for the Proceeding, or for reading aloud.—

photocopy

1
The year is established by the reference to Tait’s paper (see n. 2, below).
2
CD had agreed to send Tait’s paper on the tropical pitcher-plant, Nepenthes, to the Royal Society of London for possible publication (see letter from Lawson Tait, 25 November [1875]).
3
CD was correcting proofs for Variation 2d ed. Printing had been delayed by floods affecting William Clowes & Sons (letter from H. E. Darwin to Leonard Darwin, 21 November [1875] (DAR 258: 1648)).
4
On the two substances, see the letters from Lawson Tait, 6 November [1875] and 16 November [1875] (second letter).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10280,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10280