1859 ^863] ERASMUS DARWIN 12$ 



Down [June ?] 9 [1859 ?]. Letter 76 



If on the nth you have half an hour to spare, you might 

 like to see a very good show of pigeons, and the enclosed 

 card will admit you. 



The history of error is quite unimportant, but it is curious 

 to observe how exactly and accurately my grandfather (in 

 Zoonomia, Vol. I., p. 504, 1794) gives Lamarck's theory. I 

 will quote one sentence. Speaking of birds' beaks, he says : 

 " All which seem to have been gradually produced during 

 many generations by the perpetual endeavour of the creatures 

 to supply the want of food, and to have been delivered to their 

 posterity with constant improvement of them for the pur- 

 poses required." Lamarck published Hist. Zoolog. in 1809. 

 The Zoonomia was translated into many languages. 



To C. Lyell. Letter 77 



Down, 28 [June 1859]. 



It is not worth while troubling you, but my conscience is 

 uneasy at having forgotten to thank you for your Etna} 

 which seems to me a magnificent contribution to volcanic 

 geology, and I should think you might now rest on your oars 

 in this department. 



As soon as ever I can get a copy of my book 2 ready, in 

 some six weeks' or two months' time, it shall be sent you ; 

 and if you approve of it, even to a moderate extent, it will 

 be the highest satisfaction which I shall ever receive for an 

 amount of labour which no one will ever appreciate. 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 78 



The reference in the following letter is to the proofs of Hooker's 

 Australian Flora. 



Down, 28 [July 1859]. 



The returned sheet is chiefly that which I received in MS. 

 Parts seem to me (though perhaps it may be forgetfulness) 

 much improved, and I retain my former impression that 

 the whole discussion on the Australian flora is admirably 



1 " On the Structure of Lavas which have been consolidated on Steep 

 Slopes, with remarks on the Mode of Origin of Mount Etna, and on the 

 Theory of ' Craters of Elevation' "(Phil. Trans. R. Soc., Vol. CXLVIII. 

 1858, p. 703). 



2 The Origin of Species, London, 1859. 



