Ɛpsilon

To J. V. Carus   26 December [1866]1

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

Dec 26

My dear Sir

Owing to Dr Günther’s recent observations will you be so kind as to alter the beginning of the paragraph at page 417 as follows—2

“Turning to the sea we find the same law. The marine Faunas on the Eastern & western shores of Southern & Central America are very distinct, with hardly a single shell, Crustacean, or other animal in common, except as lately shewn by Dr Günther, some fish; yet these great” &c

I hope you are making good progress in your laborious undertaking.

Pray believe me | My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the reference to Carus’s translation of Origin 4th ed. (see n. 2, below).
2
Carus was translating Origin 4th ed. into German. CD had just heard of Albert Günther’s paper reporting that about a third of fish species were identical on either side of the Isthmus of Panama (Günther 1864–6; see Correspondence vol. 14, letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 December 1866 and n. 10). The change appears in the third German edition (Bronn and Carus trans. 1867, p. 417). CD made a similar change to Origin 5th ed., p. 424.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6513,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6513