Ɛpsilon

From Raphael Meldola   30 October 1878

Entomological Society | London | 21 John Street, | Bedford Row, | London W. C.

Oct. 30/78

My dear Sir,

Stimulated by your kind encouragement I have made every exertion to find some means of giving an English translation of Weismann’s “Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie” to the British Biological public & I have at length succeeded in finding a man who offers to do the translating part of the undertaking at a mere nominal cost so that I propose to take the risk & bring out the work.1

My object in troubling you is to solicit your further support in the matter by asking you to do me the honour of writing a few prefatory remarks—a request which I should not have taken the liberty of making did I not know that the author of the book occupied such an elevated position in biological science.2 Such a preface (however short) would moreover greatly add to the popularity of the work in this country & would serve also to induce any publisher with whom I might enter into negociations to look upon the undertaking more favourably than he might otherwise be disposed to do.

There are one or two minor matters connected with this same subject about which I should much like to consult you before actually commencing & I could much better treat of them in a short conversation with you if you would grant me that privilege. I am disengaged on Saturday afternoons & Sundays & if it would put you to no inconvenience I could come down at any time you like to fix. (Orpington Station?)3

Yours respectfully | R. Meldola.

P.S. I should wish it to be understood that this undertaking is to be done purely con amore4 & for the sole purpose of making more widely known the existence of another large body of facts which can be explained only by the Descent Theory.

1
No letter from CD encouraging Meldola to publish a translation of August Weismann’s Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie (Studies in the theory of descent; Weismann 1875a and 1876) has been found. CD had introduced Meldola to Weismann's work and sent some of Weismann’s papers to him; Meldola then proposed the translation (see Correspondence vol. 25, letter to Raphael Meldola, 22 September [1877], and letter from Raphael Meldola, 20 October 1877). Meldola himself was the named translator of the English edition (Weismann 1882). The translation included another of Weismann’s papers as the third part of the work (Weismann 1875b).
2
CD provided a brief prefatory notice to the English translation (Weismann 1882, pp. v–vi).
3
The station nearest to CD’s home, Down House, was at Orpington, on a branch line of the South Eastern Railway.
4
Con amore: with love (Italian; more often used as a tempo instruction in music).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11730,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11730