Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Farrer   13 October 1880

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

Oct 13. 1880

My dear Farrer,

I have been glad to see your copy-book, and all is now clear to me.1 I have been able to correct some doubtful points, so that I need not trouble you with my M.S. I have been examining under the microscope the castings received this morning, and they are quite invaluable to me.2 I shall send the bits of brick to Mr Sorby, who is the great authority on rock-structure, to see if my impression is correct that they have undergone attrition.3 But before sending them I much want answers on a few points. The queries are written on a separate paper, with open spaces, as this will save you trouble.4 These are the last of my questions.

My dear Farrer, | Yours truly obliged. | Charles Darwin

LS

1
Farrer had sent a copy of the notes he had made when the Roman villa on the Abinger estate was first excavated (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 9 October 1880).
2
Horace Darwin had collected worm-castings from a road made of brick rubbish (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 10 October 1880).
3
CD wanted castings from paths made from brick and mortar rubble in order to see whether the small fragments swallowed by worms acted like millstones to crush their food (letter to T. H. Farrer, 10 October [1880] and n. 4). Henry Clifton Sorby had developed techniques to make thin sections of rocks that allowed him to determine the linear dimensions of the small bodies of which the rock was composed (ODNB).
4
For CD’s questions and Farrer’s answers, see letter from T. H. Farrer, 16 October 1880.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12755,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12755