From Hermann Kindt   5 September 1864

Yarm, Yorkshire

September 5. 1864.

Sir,

Would you be kind enough to let me know, if it be allowed to translate extracts from your work on “The Contrivances by which Orchids are fertilised by Insects”?1 A friend of mine in Germany particularly wishes to know this; or if the whole work is in the course of translation?2 You will know how your writings have captured German students of Natural Philosophy, and how we consider them quasi a commentary to Dr. Louis Büchner philosophical writings.3 There is a small volume of yours which my friend cannot obtain in Germany; I, therefore beg to ask you, if it was only printed for the Royal Society. The title is: ‘A monograph on the Subclass Cirripedia”.4

Allow me to take this opportunity to express to you the admiration I feel for your enlightning writings, and believe me with greatest respect, | Sir, | your obdt servant | Hermann Kindt

Charles Darwin Esq. | M.A., F.R.S., etc.

1
The reference is to Orchids, published in 1862.
2
Kindt’s friend has not been identified. Kindt was evidently unaware that a German translation of Orchids by Heinrich Georg Bronn had been published on 20 October 1862 (Bronn trans. 1862). See Correspondence vol. 10, letter from H. G. Bronn, 21 June 1862.
3
In 1855 Ludwig (Louis) Büchner published Kraft und Stoff (Büchner 1855), in which he put forward a materialist concept of nature (see Gregory 1977, pp. 100–21). For an assessment of the significance of Büchner’s work in popularising Darwinism in Germany, see Kelly 1981 and Tort 1996. For a general discussion of the reception of CD’s theory in Germany, see the letter from Ernst Haeckel, 9 [July 1864] and n. 6.
4
Living Cirripedia (1851, 1854) was published in two volumes by the Ray Society in 1851 and 1854. In recognition of his work on the first volume, CD was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1853. For a discussion of CD’s barnacle work, conducted between 1846 and 1854, see Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix II.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4609,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4609