Ɛpsilon

To G. H. Darwin   28 July [1880]1

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

July 28th

My dear George

It is rather perplexing, but the probability is that no one will apply to you.— I think you cannot refuse & you might in writing to Wrigley express your sense of his kindness & he certainly brought you on well.—2 If any one shd. apply to you as referee, you might say that you had always heard that W. had been very successful with military pupils.— If any question were asked about discipline of school, you might justly refuse to answer on grounds that you had left it some 15 years ago.—

You cd. speak of his personal kindness to you, & that you had profited by being at Clapham.— In fact your answer wd. deceive no one because it wd. give no information.—

Very many thanks about trypsin. (N.B. I have just looked, & the Frenchman spells it thrypsine)3

I beg you to thank Mr Lea what he proposes to send will do perfectly.—4

Your affect. Father | C. Darwin

We are very sorry to hear about Horace.—5

I hope that you will join the Thomsons6

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880.
2
See letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880 and nn. 1 and 2. Alfred Wrigley was the headmaster of Clapham Grammar School.
3
See letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880 and n. 5. The writer who used the French spelling ‘thrypsine’ has not been identified. The word ‘trypsin’ had been coined by Wilhelm Friedrich Kühne (see Kühne 1876, p. 195).
4
See letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880 and n. 6. Arthur Sheridan Lea had promised to send a compound with a high percentage of trypsin in it.
5
Horace Darwin was ill with toothache and a sore throat (letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880).
6
George had been invited to join Frances Anna and William Thomson on their yacht at Cowes (letter from G. H. Darwin, 27 July 1880 and n. 3).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.2 your] interl
3.1 (N.B. … thrypsine) 3.2] square brackets in ms
3.1 spells] above del ‘splells’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12669,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12669