Ɛpsilon

To J. V. Carus   8 December 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

December 8 1881

My dear Sir

Very many thanks for the corrections.—1 What wonderful lynx-like eyes you have for stupid errata! About “humus” two English Ladies complained that they did not know what the word meant, so I altered it; & I now wish that I had not done so. As I do not use the word in a chemical sense, it is merely an equivalent of vegetable mould.—2

In Haste, | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Murray is now selling the 5th Thousandth.!3

1
See letter from J. V. Carus, 6 December 1881 and n. 1. Carus was translating Earthworms into German (Carus trans. 1882).
2
Precise definitions of humus in a chemical sense varied, but generally referred to the total organic compounds in soil, excluding undecayed plant and animal tissues.
3
John Murray was CD’s publisher. CD had sent Carus proof-sheets from the printing of the fifth thousand of Earthworms (see letter from J. V. Carus, 6 December 1881).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13537,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13537