Ɛpsilon

To Albert Müller   28 March [1866]1

Down Bromley Kent

March 28th

Dear Sir

I shd. have been very glad to have given you the desired information, had it been in my power; but I can assign no reason for fewer slaves being captured in England than in Switzerland.2 That this is the case, can hardly be doubted after Mr Smith’s & my own examination of so many nests.—3 I forget whether I stated in the earlier edition of the Origin that I had found one nest with the slaves going out in search of food.—4

I remain Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Albert Müller, 28 March 1866.
3
CD’s discussion of slave-making by Formica sanguinea and other ant species in Origin, pp. 219–24, was based primarily on observations made by him and the entomologist Frederick Smith in Britain (see Correspondence vols. 7 and 8). CD’s observations of slave-making ants, made between 1858 and 1860, are in DAR 205.11: 88–107. CD’s information on F. sanguinea in Switzerland was based on Huber 1810.
4
In Origin, p. 221, CD stated: ‘I observed a few slaves mingled with their masters leaving the nest, and marching along the same road to a tall Scotch-fir-tree … which they ascended together, probably in search of aphides or cocci.’ This passage was unaltered in subsequent editions.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5040,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5040