Ɛpsilon

From C. J. Breese   7 November 1881

1. Marquess Road, | Canonbury. N.

7th Novr. 1881

My dear Sir,

Permit me to apologize for trespassing upon time so very importantly occupied as your own, and allow me to plead in excuse your known accessibility to humbler workers in Natural History, and the facts that I am an old FLS;1 and have, for some years past, been much engaged on the Annelida

I enclose herewith an Abstract published in 1871 of a paper on the Earthworm read by me, and I would ask you, if in the course of any correspondence on the subject, you may have received information in regard to the question of luminosity exhibited by these animals, or if in your numerous observations and experiments the phenomenon has been frequently presented—2

I need hardly add that I shall highly esteem your kind reply, and if you care to have in extenso the portion of the paper relating to this point, it will be a great pleasure to me to furnish it, as indeed it would be any other items of interest to you—

I am my dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles J Breese

C Darwin Esq etc etc etc

1
Fellow of the Linnean Society.
2
Breese had read a paper to the West Kent Natural History Society in 1871; a brief abstract was published in the Transactions of the West Kent Natural History Society for 1872. The abstract is summarised in Nature, 16 March 1893, p. 462, in a letter headed ‘Luminous earthworms’: ‘According to Breese the luminosity exists in the excreted glutinous material with which the outer skin of the animal is covered.’ Luminosity is not mentioned in Earthworms. CD had briefly discussed luminosity in glow-worms and other insects in Descent 1: 345; see also Correspondence vol. 16, letter to G. H. Lewes, 7 August [1868].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13469,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13469