Ɛpsilon

To Octavius Pickard-Cambridge   26 August [1878]

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

Aug 26

My dear Sir.

Fritz Müller (whose name no doubt you know) resides in S. Brazil— He is, I believe, about the most acute observer in the world, & I have always found him most kind & obliging.— His address is “Blumenau St. Catharina Brazil” (Postage 6d stamps)

If you write, I hope that you will not object to quote from me, that I sent the specimens to you “as knowing far more about Spiders than any other man in Britain”. He might be surprised at my at once sending them away.—1

Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

Endorsement: ‘Rec’d 26 Aug /78’

1
No letter from Müller mentioning spiders has been found, but the letter from Fritz Müller, 21 July 1878, is incomplete and the spiders may have been mentioned in a now missing section. In a letter to his brother Hermann dated 28 July 1878, Müller mentioned his observations on spiders that constructed small dwellings from the leaves of a species of Zollernia and sent specimens of the leaves (Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 383). Müller may have sent some of the spiders to CD for identification.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11676,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11676