Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Krause   23 March 1880

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

Mar 23 1880

My dear Sir,

I am exceedingly sorry to hear about the delay & have written by this post to Mr Murray. I feel sure that it has not been through any wilful neglect. Perhaps it may be due to the whole photographic establishment having been lately burnt to the ground.1 As soon as I hear I will write again. It never crossed my mind that you would care about my two short letters to Nature; otherwise you may rely on it that I would gladly have sent you copies when they were published.2

I fear that you will hate the name of Erasmus you have had so much trouble with the whole subject.3

My dear Sir, | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

1
See letter from Ernst Krause, 22 March 1880 and n. 2. Krause had reported that John Murray was withholding a phototype and electrotypes and holding up the publication of the German edition of Erasmus Darwin (Krause 1880). CD’s letter to Murray has not been found. The London premises of the Autotype Company, which produced the images for Erasmus Darwin, were totally destroyed by fire on 8 December 1879 (The Times, 17 January 1880, p. 3).
2
‘Fertility of hybrids from the common and Chinese goose’ and ‘The sexual colours of certain butterflies’ (Nature, 1 January 1880, p. 207, and 8 January 1880, p. 237); see letter from Ernst Krause, 22 March 1880 and n. 3.
3
Krause had written the second part of Erasmus Darwin and expanded it for the German edition (Krause 1880).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12543,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12543