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From Raphael Meldola   11 December 1879

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

Dec. 11/79

My dear Mr. Darwin,

Herewith I send you a subscription form for my Eng. ed. of Weismann’s “Studies”.

It is much against my own inclination that I send you this circular but when I last saw you you so strongly insisted upon considering yourself a subscriber that I comply with your wish.1 It would give me much greater pleasure if you would allow me to present you with a copy.

Whether the work is going to be a ‘commercial’ success or not I have not the least idea— I have sent out nearly 300 circulars to the Members of the different Scientific Societies.

Part I (Seasonal Dimorphism) is far more complete than the German ed. as the author has added a great deal & I have appended a résumé of Mr. W. H. Edwards’ important experiments on this subject.2

You will be sorry to hear (if you do not know it already) that Mr. Wallace has not been appointed to the Superintendentship of Epping Forest.3

Yours very truly, | R. Meldola.

1
Meldola’s translation of August Weismann’s Studies in the theory of descent (Weismann 1880–2) was published in parts beginning in 1880. It included a prefatory notice by CD. See also letter to Raphael Meldola, 7 February 1879 and n. 2. The last known meeting between CD and Meldola took place before 25 November 1878 (Correspondence vol. 26, letter from Raphael Meldola, 25 November 1878).
2
For William Henry Edwards’s experiments on seasonal dimorphism in butterflies, see Weismann 1880–2, 1: 126–58. The German edition was Weismann 1875–6.
3
The 1878 Epping Forest Act appointed the City of London Corporation as conservators of Epping Forest, an area of woodland to the north of London covering about 6,000 acres. The aim of the act was to keep the forest unenclosed and available for public recreation. Alfred Russel Wallace had sought CD’s support in his application for the post of superintendent (see Correspondence vol. 26, letter from A. R. Wallace, 14 September 1878).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12351,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12351