To Ludwig Rütimeyer   4 May [1867]1

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

May 4

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged to you for your never failing kindness in sending me so many of your works, which I have long esteemed as of the highest value.2 I am now correcting the proof sheets of a work on the variation of domestic animals & plants, & in this I have a short chapter on pigs, cattle &c; it contains no original matter & is compiled largely from your works; but this chapter has now been printed, & therefore I shall not be able to improve it from any facts contained in the second part of your work on cattle which I have just received.3

Prof. Victor Carus is going to translate my book into German & I will send you a copy when it is published, which I suppose will be towards the close of this year; but I fear there will not be much in it that will interest you.4

With my sincere thanks | believe me my dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the reference to the printing of Variation, which had started to be set up in type by March 1867 (see letter from John Murray, 19 March [1867]); it was published in January 1868 (Freeman 1977).
2
There are a number of works by Rütimeyer published in 1867 or earlier in the Darwin Archive–CUL, all inscribed by the author. In the Darwin Library–CUL are Rütimeyer 1861 (heavily annotated; see Marginalia 1: 718–26) and Rütimeyer 1863 (annotated; see Marginalia 1: 718). In the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL are offprints of Rütimeyer 1862 (annotated on the back, ‘not read’), Rütimeyer 1865a (lightly annotated), Rütimeyer 1865b, Rütimeyer 1866 (annotated), and Rütimeyer 1867a–d; Rütimeyer 1867d is annotated.
3
CD refers to chapter 3 of Variation, on pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats; Rütimeyer is cited extensively throughout. The second part of Rütimeyer’s work on cattle was Rütimeyer 1867b.
4
Julius Victor Carus’s translation of Variation (Carus trans. 1868) was published by July 1868 (see letter from Eduard Koch, 21 July 1868, Calendar no. 6284). CD sent a presentation list for the translation to his German publisher in November 1867 (see letter to E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 22 November [1867]); Rütimeyer’s name was on it.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5527,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5527