Ɛpsilon

To Hermann Settegast   20 October 1871

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Oct 20 1871

My dear Sir

I am much obliged for the preface to your 3rd edition recd this morning. The editor of a Journal had already sent me the proof-sheets, & I have read a part with interest, but the German is difficult to one who knows the language but little.1 From your general opinions, my sympathies, as you may well believe, are strongly with you. I have purchased a copy of Nathusius’ work, but have read only a portion of it. As you remark, he seems to have changed his conclusions a good deal since the publication of his admirable treatise on the pig.2 He completely ignores all the little which I have attempted to make out with respect to the history of our domesticated animals.

With my best thanks I remain | my dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
CD refers to Settegast’s Thierzucht (Animal breeding: Settegast 1872). There is an offprint of the preface in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. The editor and the journal have not been identified.
2
CD refers to Hermann Engelhard von Nathusius, Nathusius 1860 (his work on pigs, which CD cited extensively in Variation), and the first volume of Nathusius 1872–80. Nathusius criticised Settegast’s Thierzucht in the first volume of Nathusius 1872–80, and Settegast devoted a large part of the preface to his third edition to a response to Nathusius.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8020,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8020