Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Haeckel   9 February 1881

Feb 9/81

My dear Haeckel,

Will you forgive me for troubling you on a subject in which you can help me? My son Francis, who works with me, wants to get a microscope from Zeiss.1 Will you therefore be so kind as to call on Zeiss and see that he really sends good lenses.

On the blank sheet opposite is a list of the ‘Stativ’, objectives and other things which my son wishes to have.2 He will send the money to Zeiss as soon as the latter will let him know that the microscope can be sent off. I received a few weeks ago two additional parts of your magnificent work on the Medusæ, for which I am very much obliged3

My dear Haeckel | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

1
Carl Zeiss had established a workshop to produce optical instruments in Jena in 1846; by the late 1870s, the demand for the microscopes made there was so great that the business had expanded into an industrial enterprise (DBE). Francis Darwin was CD’s secretary and botanical assistant.
2
The sheet with Francis’s list of specifications for his microscope has not been found. The objectives are the lenses of a microscope; a typical microscope has several objective lenses providing different magnifications. Stativ (German): stand.
3
CD had received the second part of the first volume of of Haeckel’s monograph on medusae, System der Acraspeden, together with the associated plates of the Atlas (Haeckel 1879–81). In his letter written on the same day, Haeckel asked whether CD had received the most recent part (see letter from Ernst Haeckel, 9 February 1881).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13044,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13044