Ɛpsilon

To Melchior Neumayr   15 January 1879

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Jan 15. 1879

Private

My dear Sir,

I hope that you will excuse me begging a favour of you. L. Würtenberger published a paper in ‘Ausland’ 1873 on the development & succession of Jurassic ammonites, & being the first which I had read on the subject, it struck me greatly1   He has now written that he is so poor that he cannot complete his work without aid; though the Carlsruhe Society would undertake the illustrations of the book if it were completed; & he asks me whether any scientific Society in England would give him assistance, but this I feel sure cannot be obtained.2 Now will you have the kindness to tell me in confidence, whether you know that he is a trustworthy man & whether you think well of his work; for in this case I would aid him myself to a certain extent. I trust that you will forgive me for thus troubling you, & I should be very much obliged by an early answer.

I remain, my dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
There is an annotated copy of Leopold Würtenberger’s paper, ‘Neuer Beitrag zum geologischen Beweise der Darwin’schen Theorie’ (New contribution to the geological evidence for Darwinian theory; Würtenberger 1873) in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
2
See letter from Leopold Würtenberger, 10 January 1879. The Naturwissenschaftliche Verein zu Carlsruhe (Natural History Society of Carlsruhe) had offered to pay for the illustrations to Würtenberger’s work. Carlsruhe, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is now known as Karlsruhe. On CD’s correspondence with Neumayr, see Svojtka et al. 2009.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11829,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11829