Ɛpsilon

To Fritz Müller   13 February 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Feb 13 1874.

My dear Sir

Your letter recd yesterday has interested me greatly, though I had previously read your German papers on the Termites. Your discovery of the two mature sexual forms is a most remarkable one.1

As I thought you cd not object, I have sent your letter for publication to Nature; & if published I will transmit a copy to you—2 I have also sent by today’s post another copy of my book on Expression.3 I hope that you will have recd some little time ago Mr Belt’s book, as I think it will interest you.4 I sent off yesterday £4.13s to your brother at Lippstadt.5 What you tell me about the stingless bees of Brazil, especially about their wax-secreting glands, surprises & interests me much; & if it does not cost you too much trouble I shd like very much to hear a little about yr future observations. I have been doing nothing new of late, only the dull work of correcting new eds of 2 of my books.6

My dear Sir | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

1
See letter from Fritz Müller, [c. January 1874]. CD refers to the first three parts of F. Müller 1873–5.
2
See letter to Nature, 11 February [1874].
3
Müller’s name appears on CD’s presentation list for Expression (see Correspondence vol. 20, Appendix V); he had perhaps not received his copy.
4
CD had sent Müller a copy of Thomas Belt’s Naturalist in Nicaragua (Belt 1874; see letter to Fritz Müller, 1 January 1874).
5
CD had sent Hermann Müller the money from the profits of the English translation of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (F. Müller 1864, Dallas trans. 1869); the letter has not been found, but see the letter from Hermann Müller, 15 February 1874. See also Correspondence vol. 21, letter to Fritz Müller, 25 September 1873.
6
CD refers to the second editions of Coral reefs and Descent (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9288,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9288