Ɛpsilon

To W. D. Fox   12 December [1868]1

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

Dec. 12th

My dear Fox

I write a line to say that I received safely your letter this morning, & to thank you very much for it.—2 You have told me all that I wished to know most clearly & fully.

If I rceive the other returns promised to me I shall find yours on the sheep & cattle very useful to add to the others.—3

My dear Fox | Yours affectionately | C. Darwin

My work will have to stop a bit for I must prepare a new edit. of that everlasting origin, & I am sick of correcting.—4

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. D. Fox, 9 December [1868].
3
CD had asked for information on the proportion of sexes in domestic animals in letters published in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 15 February 1868, and in the Field, 22 February 1868 (see letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, 11 February [1868], and letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 11 February [1868]). William Bernhard Tegetmeier had undertaken to tabulate the results and forward them to CD (letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, 9 March 1868). CD’s tabulations of results for sheep and cattle, including those sent by Fox in his letter of 9 December [1868], are in DAR 85: B25, B40.
4
CD recorded beginning work on the fifth edition of Origin on 26 December 1868 (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 16, Appendix II)). See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6500,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6500