Ɛpsilon

From C. G. Semper   5 October 1878

wuerzburg

5. oct. 1878.

my dear mr. darwin!

you will, i hope, allow me to express once more my gratitude for the splendid present, you made me with the writing machine, which i am using now almost constantly for all my writing work.1 it has, indeed, been rather hard work to get accustomed to it, the more so, be cause the letters are distrributed in such a way, as to render it more difficult to write with it german letters, than english ones. nevertheless, it is great boon to me and i am certain to get used to it in such a way as to make penwriting superfluous.

i have been asked several times already, whether your son will soon return to wuerzburg or not.2 he is held in good remembrance amongst us and he may be sure to find on his return everybody well disposed to receive him most cordially.

please remember me to him and give my best regards to mrs. darwin and believe me | yours | very truly | C. Semper.

TLS

1
CD had given Semper a typewriter; see letter from C. G. Semper, 22 July 1878. Semper suffered from writer’s palsy (see letter from Francis Darwin, [12 July 1878] and n. 8).
2
Francis Darwin was in Germany, where he worked in the laboratory of Julius Sachs at Würzburg, a centre of research in plant physiology, from 3 June until 8 August 1878 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), letter from Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin, [11 August 1878] (DAR 219.1: 114)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11716,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11716