From W. T. Preyer   9 May 1870

Jena, University,

May 9, 1870.

Dear Sir,

I beg you to accept my very best thanks for the most interesting letter you had the kindness to address to me.1 I would long since have sent you the biographical sketch: “Charles Darwin”, eine biographische Skizze with your portrait published in the “Ausland”, had I not been absent from here for two months.2 I only arrived here, coming from Naples, a few days ago. I hope the german article may not displease you. At the same time I take the liberty of sending you a book published by Dr. O. Peschel, in Augsburg, editor of the “Ausland”.3 It is in his name that I subjoin it to my paper.

I have been told that you intend to write a book on the application of your theory to the development of mankind.4 I should feel very much obliged if you would kindly inform me when this work is to be published, but only in case you can find without difficulty five minutes of leisure for, dear Sir | your’s most truly | Wm. Preyer

The reference is to Preyer 1870b; there are two copies of the article in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
Oscar Ferdinand Peschel had been the director of the weekly Das Ausland since 1854. No book by Peschel has been found in the Darwin Library–CUL or the Darwin Library–Down. Preyer may have sent Peschel’s monograph Neue Probleme der vergleichenden Erdkunde als Versuch einer Morphologie der Erdoberfläche (New problems in comparative geography as an attempt at a morphology of the earth’s surface; Peschel 1870).
Preyer refers to Descent.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7181,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7181