From Emma Darwin to John Scott   9 January 1864

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Jan 9 1864

Sir

Mr Darwin I am sorry to say is quite unable to look over your paper.1 He desires me to say however that he is convinced that is it is entirely fit for publication & will prove most valuable.

He has withdrawn your observations addressed to him & only waits your further consent to send it on just as it is.2

He will speak to the Secretary in order that you may have the proof sheets to correct for yourself.3

I am with Mr Darwins kinds regards | yours truly | Emma Darwin

Mr Darwin begs me to tell you that tho’ worse in health than when he wrote before he hopes that in time he will regain his usual state.4

1
In his letter of 7 January [1864], Scott once more asked CD to look over the manuscript of his experiments with Primula and other genera in the Primulaceae (Scott 1864a) (see letter from John Scott, 7 January [1864] and n. 3).
2
Scott had attached a few private remarks to the manuscript of Scott 1864a (see enclosure 1 to the letter from John Scott, 7 January [1864] and n. 5). CD planned to send the manuscript to the Linnean Society for publication in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) (see letter from John Scott, 7 January [1864] and n. 2).
3
The secretary for botany of the Linnean Society was Frederick Currey (Gage and Stearn 1988, p. 59); no correspondence between him and CD relating to Scott’s manuscript has been found. However, CD did communicate the article to the Linnean Society and it was read on 4 February 1864 (see letter to John Scott, 6 February [1864]).
4
See letter to John Scott, 8 January [1864]. In December 1863, William Brinton, a physician at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, and a specialist in stomach disorders, had told CD that he would recover his ‘former degree of health’ (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4383,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4383