Ɛpsilon

From J. V. Carus   24 June 1881

Leipzig

June 24th. 1881

My dear Sir,

You will have seen from my last letter, that I entirely agree to any arrangement you will please to take with regard to your new book.1 In the mean time I have got a letter from Herr Koch, who informs me, that he has arranged with Mr Krause, that I should translate the book and send one chapter of it to the Kosmos for previous separate publication. As Koch is at present the publisher of the Kosmos, he is of course in regular correspondence with Herr Krause.2

For my part I entirely depend upon your decision. If you kindly allow me to translate the book, of course it would not be convenient, to have the same chapter translated twice by two different men. With regard to the choice of a chapter I fully agree with Herr Koch, that one on the practical work of the Earthworms would be more interesting to the general reader than on the organs of sense etc.  Here also your advice would be of the greatest value for us.3

I was at Marienbad for about 12 days, but came home rather worse than I went. Now I look forward to a good rest during the long vacation, from the middle of August to the end of September or thereabouts.4 If you could send me proofsheets soon, I could work before I go. You would oblige me very much if you would kindly let me know how far the book is in progress and when you think it possible to send me sheets.

But of course I should not like to trouble you in the very least.

Believe me, | My dear Sir, | Yours ever sincerely | J. Victor Carus

1
See letter from J. V. Carus, 21 May 1881; the book was Earthworms.
2
See letter from J. V. Carus, 21 May 1881 and n. 2. The journal Kosmos, which was edited by Ernst Krause, had recently been purchased by Eduard Koch, the head of E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, CD’s German publisher (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Ernst Krause, 4 December 1880).
3
In the event, a translation of a chapter did not appear in Kosmos, but an essay review of Earthworms by Krause with some extracts from the book appeared in Kosmos, November 1881 (Krause 1881a).
4
See letter from J. V. Carus, 21 May 1881. Carus had been suffering from bronchitis. Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně) was a popular spa town in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13216,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13216