Ɛpsilon

To ?   9 October [1856]1

Down Bromley | Kent

Oct. 9th

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind note & for all the very great trouble which you have so kindly taken for me. Next summer would not be at all too late, & if you can remember it, I shd be extremely glad to get some for my experiments.2

I have been myself keeping Helix Pomatia in confinement all summer, but they have not laid a single egg, so that I have not at all profited by my scheme.3

With many thanks, & hopes that your correspondent may succeed for me next summer. I remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Chas. Darwin

1
The year is given by CD’s interest in the possible means of dispersal of land molluscs, as expressed in the letters to P. H. Gosse, 28 September 1856, and to J. D. Dana, 29 September [1856].
2
CD had probably requested eggs of land molluscs (see letter to W. D. Fox, 3 October [1856]). His experiments on the possible means of transport of snails’ eggs and on the soaking of Mollusca in salt water, begun in October 1856, are recorded in his Experimental book (DAR 157a).
3
See Correspondence vol. 5, letter to John Lubbock, 14 [July 1855], for CD’s first consignment of Helix pomatia.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1972,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1972