From S. T. Preston   26 October 1880

Dear Sir

I thank you much for your kind reply to my letter, which it was very satisfactory to me to receive.¹ I would merely say that in my article on “Evolution & Female Education”, I took the reference from your work “The Descent of Man” to imply that had it not been for the “law of equal transmission of characters to both sexes”, woman would have fallen behind man in mental endowment to a very large extent (as illustrated by the comparison employed in the quotation).² I wished to convey the idea therefore that from the fact that woman has not fallen behind to this extent, she must (in effect) have gained somehow this amount, i.e. the amount which she would have lost, had not this “law of equal transmission” come to the rescue— in other words, that the total loss attendant on woman’s inaction (of brain) has been distributed with (approximate) equality on both sexes by the law of equal transmission, instead of being thrown entirely on one side so as to produce the marked and palpable inequality which would otherwise have resulted. This is the interpretation which (to the best of my ability) I attached to the passage quoted from your book, [vz.] this is substantially the meaning I intended to convey in speaking of “inheritance as draining qualities from man”.

I trust that in this sense I may be substantially correct (and that any points of difference that may exist in regard to my paper may be minor ones)—not wishing to lead to any correspondence.³ But I thought the cause of Female Education &c was a good one that might be worthy of any additional encouragement, provided the means be legitimate.

Again thanking you for your last letter. | Yours truly | S Tolver Preston

Charles Darwin Esqr FRS &c—