From George Maw   6 November 1880

Dear Sir,

I have lately come across rather a curious fact which I do not think has been before observed in which you may perhaps be interested.

In the death of vertebrate animals as far as I have observed the tail becomes deflected to the left hand side. I first observed this in a mouse-trap in which the row of dead mice had their tails all turned to the left   I have noticed this several times & I believe it is invariable.

Again in passing through Paris last Monday all the sheep (without any exception) hanging up in the Butchers Shops had their tails turned to the left in rigor mortis. In France most of the sheep have their tails uncut so that it was more noticeable there than at an English butchers. Would you kindly tell me whether this fact is generally known. & has it any connection with another curious fact— the tendency of a person walking in the dark or in a fog to deviate to the right from an intended straight line. & the use of the right hand in preference to the left hand in a young child, a sort of want of exact symmetry in the action of the muscles on the two sides of the body.

I venture to send you by to days post a specimen of my monograph on the genus Crocus at which I have been hard a work during the last two years   When I commenced there were but 50 species known & I have been able to bring the number up to 70 nearly the whole of which I have in cultivation.¹ I am drawing all the plates myself mostly from living examples. It is a genus full of interest in every detail & I shall have to record some very curious facts in connection with the distribution of species & the character & structure of the fossil parts in relation thereto.

Believe me I remain | Y^rs very sincerely | George Maw

C. Darwin Esq