Ɛpsilon

To W. E. Darwin   31 January [1881]

My dear W.

I shd. think that the Preference 5 per cent stock of the Southampton Docks would do very well, but you can settle as you think fit, for it concerns you all very much more than me.—1 I have had to refund 30£ for Duty & £50 goes to Miles, but you can invest about the £1000, only there will be so much less to divide next year.2 We had a note this morning from Leonard at Chatham, & he seems going on very well: he says that he has just invested £800!3 I am very glad that you approve of Romanes article:4 some have thought it vulgarly strong, but I & others did not think so,—though perhaps a few terms had better have been softened— I received this morning a remarkably nice letter from Wallace about the Pension—5 When you have a bit of leisure look to Petioles of Acacia & remember that I want to see the specs. & know which end was buried.6 I am now wholly rewriting my first chapter on habits & think that I shall show that worms have much bigger souls than anyone wd suppose—7

Dear. old William—goodbye | C. Darwin

Down Jan. 31.—

Postmark: JA 31 81

2
In 1880, CD had started distributing his surplus income each year to his children (see letter to the Darwin children, 3 January 1881). £30 duty was paid on the £1000 bequest from Elizabeth Wedgwood; £50 was paid to Samuel Miles, who was Elizabeth’s butler from 1871 (CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS)).
3
Leonard Darwin was an instructor in chemistry and photography at the School of Military Engineering in Chatham; his letter has not been found.
4
George John Romanes’s highly critical review of Samuel Butler’s Unconscious memory (Butler 1880) was published in Nature, 27 January 1881, pp. 285–7.
5
Alfred Russel Wallace had been awarded a civil list pension (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 29 January 1881 and n. 1).
6
In Earthworms, CD discussed the direction in which leaves and petioles were drawn into burrows by worms; on the petioles of Robinia pseudo-acacia (black locust or false acacia), see Earthworms, pp. 81–2.
7
Earthworms, pp. 8–54; on the senses and mental powers of worms, see Earthworms, pp. 19–35.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13034,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13034