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From John Murray   3 March [1868]1

50A, Albemarle St. | W.

Mar. 3

My Dear Sir

On making up the accounts of expences incurred in the Second Edition of your “Animals & Plants” Under Domestication”— I find that the sale of 1250 copies, of wch the Edition consists, will enable me to offer you for it, the sum of Four Hundred Guineas, by note at 4 months from the day of publication.2

It is right to tell you that in this calculation I have added to the expences of the 2nd Edn a sum of £30 " paid for paper of the 1st. Edn. & omitted to be charged by oversight— I trust you will not see reason to object to this

I remain My Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | John Murray

Charles Darwin Esq

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from John Murray, 24 February [1868].
2
Murray refers to the second printing of the first edition of Variation; the initial print run of 1500 copies was sold within a month (see letter from John Murray, 6 February [1868]). Although the title pages of the two printings are identical, several corrections and additions were incorporated into the second printing (see Freeman 1967, pp. 122–3). CD recorded a payment of £420 from Murray on 1 July 1868 in his Account books–banking account (Down House MS).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5972,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5972