To John Murray   30 [January 1860]1

Down Bromley Kent

30th

My dear Sir

I am really sorry to trouble you so often; but it has this moment occurred to me that it would be a far easier & cheaper plan to give me one (or at most two) pages of additional Preface, in which I could state two or three important errors, which further examination of species referred to in text has led me to detect.2 What do you say to this? Is the present Preface stereotyped; if not I should rather like to leave out one sentence, but it is unimportant.

The shabbiest appearance in whole Book is Table of Contents in such small type,—not that I care about it.—3

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to John Murray, 29 January [1860].
2
The new issue of Journal of researches (1860) included a ‘Postscript’ to the original preface, in which CD corrected a few errors. See Journal of researches (1860), p. vii.
3
The table of contents was reset in larger type for the new printing.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 in text] interl
1.5 present] interl
1.5 if] after del ‘other’
2.1 small] ‘ll’ over ‘ty’
3.1 My dear Sir] added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2616,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2616