To William Turner   11 February [1867]1

Down.

Feb. 11,

My dear Sir

I write to ask no more questions, but merely to thank you sincerely for your last, which has explained clearly all that I wanted to know.2 I have sent my MS. on “Domestic Animals, &c” to the printers, and it proves so terribly bulky that I have resolved not to include my Chapt. on Man; but as I have collected materials during several years on certain points (though so ignorant on other and perhaps more important subjects) in the Natural History of man I mean to publish a separate essay hereafter.3 I mention this merely that you might not think that your labours and kindness have been thrown away,—that is as far as I am capable of making use of them.4

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely & obliged | Ch. Darwin.

Copy

1
The year is established by the reference to Variation having been sent to the printers (see n. 3, below).
3
CD refers to the manuscript of Variation (see also letter to W. D. Fox, 6 February [1867], n. 2). CD ultimately used his extra material in Descent and Expression (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 February [1867] and n. 16).
4
For CD’s use of Turner’s information in Descent and Expression, see the letter to William Turner, 1 February [1867], nn. 2 and 5.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5398,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5398