From J. V. Carus   14 July 1872

Leipzig,

July 14th. 1872

My dear Sir,

You would oblige me exceedingly if you would kindly let me know, if your Essay on Expression will be published soon.1 In consequence of an illness of my children and my wife,2 who overworked herself in nursing them, and as I am myself rather knocked up, I am sent by the doctors to some place to regain strength for all of us. Before that I must be present at our Naturalists’ Meeting here in Leipzig, so that I cannot go before the 18th. of August.3 If I could do some of the translation before that term, it would be very nice.

We are now printing the new edition of the Origin. I rather think you are going a little too far in Mr Mivart’s objections. As far as I know it did very little harm here in Germany.4

In a very short time I shall send you a copy of my History of Zoology which is finished now, I am happy to say.5 You will see I had to go into very strange details.

Believe me, | My dear Sir, | Yours ever sincerely, | J. Victor Carus

1
Carus was going to translate Expression into German (Carus trans. 1872b; see Correspondence vol. 19, letter to J. V. Carus, 8 October [1871]).
2
Sophie Catherine Carus and J. V. Carus had three daughters (NDB s.v. Carus, Julius Viktor).
3
The meeting of the German society of naturalists and physicians was held in Leipzig from 12 to 18 August 1872 (Tageblatt der 45. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte in Leipzig).
4
Carus had prepared the German translation of Origin 6th ed. (Bronn and Carus trans. 1872), in which CD had added a substantially new chapter seven in order to discuss the objections of St George Jackson Mivart and others to the theory of natural selection. It does not appear that Mivart’s Genesis of species (Mivart 1871a and 1871b) was translated into German.
5
Carus’s history of zoology, which should have been completed in 1868, had been commissioned by the Historical Commission of the Royal Academy of Science in Munich for a series on the history of science in Germany (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to J. V. Carus, 5 April 1867 and n. 2). There is a copy of Geschichte der Zoologie bis auf Joh. Müller und Charl. Darwin (History of zoology up to Johannes Müller and Charles Darwin; Carus 1872a) in the Darwin Library–Down.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8409,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8409