To T. R. R. Stebbing   10 October [1871]¹

My dear Sir

I sh^d. very much doubt whether it was worth while to try the experiment suggested by you.² If there had been any difference in the duration of human bones, I think it would have been detected in those found in caverns, tumuli, & even in the embalmed Egyptian mummies. I sh^d. think the habit of some form of sepulture common to the lowest races, would almost account for the absence of human remains in the river-bed-deposits, subsequently to the Glacial period, & men may not have entered Europe long before that period.— The difficulty is one that does not weigh the least on me, & I presume not on you.—

My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Prof. Huxley has sent an admirable Review of Mivarts book to the Contemporary for the November number.—³

I am preparing a new Edit. of Origin, in which I shall answer the detailed points in the same book.—⁴