Ɛpsilon

To E. S. Morse   21 October 1879

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

Oct 21. 1879

My dear Sir

Although you are so kind as to tell me not to write, I must just thank you for the proofs of your paper which has interested me greatly.1 The increase in the number of ridges in the 3 species of Arca seems to me a very note-worthy fact; as does the increase of size in so many yet not in all the species.2 What a constant state of fluctuation the whole organic world seems to be in! It is interesting to hear that everywhere the first Change apparently is in the proportional numbers of the species: I was much struck with this fact in the upraised shells at Coquimbo in Chile, as mentioned in my Geolog. Obs. on S. America.3

Of all the wonders of the world, the progress of Japan, in which you have been aiding, seems to me about the most wonderful.4

Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

1
Morse had sent proof-sheets of his memoir on the shell mounds of Omori in Japan (Morse 1879; see letter from E. S. Morse, 26 August 1879). CD’s offprint is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
2
For Morse’s report on the molluscs found in the shell mounds, see Morse 1879, pp. 23–36. The three species of Arca were A. subcrenata (a synonym of Anadara kagoshimensis), Arca inflata (a synonym of Anadara broughtonii), and Arca granosa (a synonym of Tegillarca granosa).
3
In Morse 1879, pp. 23–5, Morse discussed differences between the numbers and size of specimens of particular species in ancient shell mounds and still living, at Omori and elsewhere. CD had used the proportion of numbers of various species of molluscs at different levels as an indicator of how recently land had been upraised; see South America, pp. 35–57.
4
In his preface, Morse pointed out that his memoir had been printed in Japan on Japanese paper, and that the plates had almost all been drawn and lithographed by Japanese artists; a Japanese version had also been issued. Morse was professor of zoology at the Imperial University in Tokyo from 1877 to 1880 (ANB).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.4 of size] ‘of’ over ‘in’
1.6 Change] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12265,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12265