Ɛpsilon

To Henri Milne-Edwards   2 March [1849]1

Down Farnborough Kent

March 2d

My Dear [Sir]

My health [has] been so bad all this winter that I [have been] advised to go [to] Malvern [for one] or two months & consequently [cannot come to] Paris this spring.—2 I am however not in the least less anxious to accept your truly generous offer of assistance in [identific]ations.3 The delay in my coming will [at least be] advantageous in one respect, f[or I fin]d the [species are] most difficult to [distinguish] by only [external] characters & [therefore] the more perfectly I [know the class the more] I will profit by my visit to the Jardin des [Plantes].4 I suppose from [[illeg] delayed that I shall not come [for six] or seven months. I have already lost four to five months [of my time [illeg] donate] some [new] [genus] or species to the Museum.—5

[As you thought] it most useful to [do, depositing] one species of each genus. You would confer a great favour on me if you could send me a single specimen of the Alepas parasite of which a large group is figured in the Voyages of the Astrolabe & of the Coquille.6 If you care to thus far oblige me, you might send it (to avoid custom-house opening it) by some friend in a very little bottle, directed to me either at “7 Park St. Grosvenor Sqr”7 or to the “Geological Soc: Somerset House.” Pray do not waste your time in answering this letter. By working every day on which I could, I have made some progress & I hope that my work may meet hereafter with your approval, which I should prize more than that of any man’s in Europe.—

With my thanks | I remain, with much respect | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter, the letter to Henri Milne-Edwards, 1 September [1848], and the letter to William Thompson, [1 March 1849] (Correspondence vol. 4).
2
CD went to Malvern for the water cure from 10 March to 30 June 1849 (see Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix I).
3
The letter containing Milne-Edwards’s offer has not been found; however, see Correspondence vol. 4, letter to Henri Milne-Edwards, 1 September [1848]. CD was working on his monograph on cirripedes (Lepadidae; Living Cirripedia (1851)). Milne-Edwards was in charge of the collection of Crustacea at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and had written a monograph on Crustacea (Milne-Edwards 1834–40).
4
CD did not visit the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
5
For cirripede species newly described by CD, see Living Cirripedia (1854), pp. 611–40.
6
CD refers to Alepas parasita, to Quoy and Gaimard 1830[–4] (Voyage de découvertes de l’Astrolabe: Zoologie), and to Duperrey, 1825–30 (Voyage autour du monde … sur la corvette … La Coquille). See also Correspondence vol. 4, letter to Henri Milne-Edwards, 1 September [1848]. For CD’s diagnosis of A. parasita, see Living Cirripedia (1851), pp. 163–5.
7
Seven Park Street was the house of CD’s brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin (see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to J. D. Forbes, 13 [November 1844]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.00 parasite of] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1232F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1232F