From J. V. Carus   7 July 1874

53, George Street, | Edinburgh,

7th. July | 1874

My dear Sir,

I was very sorry to learn from Mr G Darwin, that his illness might perhaps make his tour through Germany impossible. I sincerly hope, that he is better and that he did not become seriously ill.1

I have to thank you for the proof-sheets, which I have received up to p 184.2

Mr Koch, my publisher, desires me to ask you, if you could not make the photographer send him better and more equal photos (to the Expression) than he got for the first edition. He complained much of the inegality of the lot and the bad state of some of them.3 I cannot judge, as I have not seen any copy besides my proofs.

The session is drawing to its close. Friday fortnight my lectures will end, and the 4th. August I shall be in London for one or two days.4 I feel the strain of my work more than I did last year, yet I hope to stand it fairly to the end.

Believe me | Ever yours sincerly | J. Victor Carus

1
George Howard Darwin was travelling in Europe. CD had asked Carus whether he could provide him with introductions in Leipzig and Dresden (see letter to J. V. Carus, 17 June [1874]). After visiting Frans Cornelis Donders in Utrecht, he had travelled to Hanover; Emma Darwin had just written that his health was ‘really better’ (letter from Emma Darwin to Leonard Darwin, 7 July 1874; DAR 239.23: 1.19). George arrived back at Down on 11 July 1874 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
2
Carus was translating the second edition of Descent into German (Carus trans. 1875a).
3
Eduard Koch was the head of E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. CD had used a recent innovation, heliotype printing, to produce the photographs for Expression, but the plates were of uneven quality. The plates for both domestic and foreign editions, including Carus trans. 1874, had been supplied by John Murray from the producer, the Heliotype Company Limited. For more on the difficulties with the plates, see Correspondence vol. 20; see also Prodger 2009, pp. 108–10.
4
In the summers of 1873 and 1874, Carus gave a course of lectures on natural history at the University of Edinburgh in place of Charles Wyville Thomson (see Correspondence vol 21, letter from J. V. Carus, [before 8 May 1873], and this volume, letter from J. V. Carus, 19 January 1874).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9536,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9536