Ɛpsilon

To [Greville Williams?]1   10 February 1882

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Feb. 10th 1882

Dear Sir

I hope that you will excuse the liberty which I take in sending the enclosed certificate for Mr. Meldola, with whom I believe you are personally acquainted.2 If you think that he is a fit person for election in the course of a few years, I hope that you will sign the enclosed & return it to me in the enclosed envelope.— But if you object to do so for any reason, the circumstance shall be mentioned to no one.

I remain Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The correspondent is conjectured from the order of his signature on Raphael Meldola’s certificate, just below that of Norman Lockyer, who signed around 8 February 1882 (see letter to Edward Frankland, 8 February 1882 and n. 1; see also n. 2, below).
2
Williams signed the ‘Certificate of a candidate for election’ for Raphael Meldola’s fellowship of the Royal Society of London. For a list of all the signatories, see the letter to Raphael Meldola, 5 February 1882, n. 3. Meldola had been employed as an industrial chemist from 1871 to 1873 at the Star Chemical Works, where Williams was a partner (ODNB).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Kent.] before del ‘(Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13675,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13675