From Hermann Müller   30 November 1880

Lippstadt

Nov. 30., 1880.

My dear Sir,

I answer immediately your kind letter in order to moderate your apprehension about my brother Fritz. He has, indeed, suffered some damage by the unprecedented flood (the river Itajahy surpassed its normal level 1423 Meter!) but a moderate one, which will not seriously trouble him in his scientific researches.1 His books have been saved almost completely, likewise his microscope and apparatus, and he has already recommenced his scientific working. Two small but important articles have been lately sent by him to Dr. E. Krause for the Kosmos.2 I do not believe, therefore, that your generous offer would be accepted by my brother, but I will send him your letter in order to let him know how highly you value his work.3

I have continued the lecture of your admirable work until to Chapt. VI. with ever increasing interest.4 It would, indeed, be impossible to find out any matter of more universal bearing in the whole vegetable Kingdom!

As you wish to hear soon about my brother I close this letter, as I am called off by my office until this evening

With the greatest thankfulness | yours very sincerely | H. Müller.

1
See letter to Hermann Müller, 27 November 1880. Fritz Müller’s homestead was beside the Itajahy river (now called Itajaí Açu), about twenty-five miles inland from the town of Itajahy, in the north-east of Santa Catarina state in Brazil. It was later incorporated within the town of Blumenau.
3
In his letter to Müller of 27 November 1880, CD offered £50 or £100 to Fritz Müller to cover any losses from the flood.
4
Müller was reading Movement in plants; see letter from Hermann Müller, 27 November 1880. He later reviewed it in Kosmos (H. Müller 1880e).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12878,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12878