To Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire   28 January [1860]

Down Bromley Kent

Jan. 28

Sir

I beg pardon for troubling you again. The pamphlet on the origin or variation of species, which you kindly said you had sent me has never arrived & I fear is lost.1 In your letter you say it was published in the Magasin de Zoologie; but your reference is defaced by a blot. It seems like 1850, but I can find nothing; would you be so good as to give me the volume year & page of the Magasin, for I am very anxious to see the paper.2 To save you as much trouble as possible I enclose an envelope.—  

With may apologies for troubling you & with much respect, I remain | Dear Sir | Your obliged servant | Charles Darwin

Perhaps your paper was printed in the Revue de Zoologies: I searched many volumes in vain.—

Postmark: 30 Jan 1860

1
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s letter has not been found. CD referred to it in the letter to Charles Lyell, 14 January [1860]. See also letter to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 12 January [1860].
2
CD refers to I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1851, published in the Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée. The article contains a section entitled ‘Résumé des lecons sur la question de l’espèce’, in which Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire stated his belief that species are subject to limited variability (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1851, pp. 15–20). There is a lightly annotated copy of the work in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. CD cited the article in the ‘historical preface’ added to the revised American edition of Origin (see Correspondence vol.8, Appendix IV), to the German translation (Bronn trans. 1860), and to the third English edition (1861).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2665A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2665A