To W. S. Dallas   8 November [1867]1

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

Nov. 8th

My dear Sir

On reflection I fear you will find it endless labour to give all author’s names in notes.2 So use your own discretion; anyhow most ought to be introduced. You might omit the word “note” in the index,3 as the searcher has only one page to search; & even a word omitted in index is a gain.— When I had strength & made my own index, I used to give every author’s name, but added only 2 or 3 words on the subject on which he treated or species or genus treated of by him; but then I never had such an index to make as this ought to be.4 But as I said before kindly use your discretion & make a good Index.—

Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. S. Dallas, 4 November 1867.
2
CD’s earlier letter commenting on the index to Variation, which Dallas was preparing, has not been found, but see the letter from W. S. Dallas, 4 November 1867).
3
Subjects in footnotes and main text are indexed without differentiation in Variation.
4
A series of brief descriptive entries appears after each personal name in the index of Variation; sometimes names mentioned in the text are not included in the index.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 the word] ‘the’ added
1.6 subject on] ‘on’ before del caret
1.6 or species … him] interl
1.8 &] over ‘.—’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5671,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5671