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To Smith, Elder & Co.   27 March [1874]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

March 27th

Dear Sir

I thought that I had corrected the sheets of the Coral Reefs enough, but I find so many bad sentences that I am recorrecting rather heavily.2 This is unfair towards you, & it would be a great satisfaction to me (as I shd. then feel no scruples) if when you get the Printer’s account you will charge me all the cost above what you think an author commonly & fairly requires. This is the practice of the Geological Soc.3 & seems to me just.

Pray oblige me in this & believe me Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established from the reference to the proofs of the second edition of Coral reefs; copies of Coral reefs 2d ed. were available from late May (see letter from G. H. Darwin, 30 May 1874), and its publication was announced in Publishers’ circular, 1 July 1874, p. 420.
2
CD’s daughter, Henrietta Emma Litchfield, was helping to correct the proofs of Coral reefs 2d ed. (see letters to H. E. Litchfield, 21 [March 1874] and 27 [March 1874]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9374,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9374