To R. F. Cooke   8 April 1874

Down, Beckenham, Kent

April 8, 1874

My dear Sir

I send by this post the MS and I shall be very glad to receive proofs soon.1 I can be published whenever you like. It is all right about the blocks; four by Mr. Wood, done long ago, and 3 new ones now to be paid for.2 I have paid the artists and I think one of engravers. I have been looking at the MS. additions again and I fear they will increase vol. 1 by 40 or 50 pages; but, as I said before, I cannot judge. The additions to vol. 2 are much less.

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P. S. My nephew got into the Athenæum with splendid success.3

I see that I have paid Butterworth and Heath 3£ for engraving and Mr. Wood 3£ for drawing Argus Pheasant.4

Copy

1
CD refers to the manuscript of Descent 2d ed.
2
Four illustrations from Descent were replaced by new ones drawn from life by Thomas W. Wood (see Descent 2d ed., 2: 27). The new illustrations were: fig. 39, p. 372 (Tetrao cupido, the greater prairie chicken, male), fig. 47, p. 386 (Paradisea papuana, the lesser bird-of-paradise), fig. 50, p. 395 (Rupicola crocea, the cock-of-the-rock, male), and fig. 51, p. 397 (Polyplectron chinquis, the peacock-pheasant, male). On the three new illustrations for Descent 2d ed., see the letter to John Murray, 4 April 1874 and n. 4.
3
CD refers to Henry Parker. See letter to R. F. Cooke, 7 February 1874 and n. 2, and letter from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] and n. 2.
4
Butterworth and Heath was a London firm of wood-engravers. Wood’s illustration of the male argus pheasant appears in Descent 2d ed., p. 413.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9398,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9398