i88o.] ERASMUS DARWIN. 397 



he came to the determination to leave the charge unanswered, 

 as unworthy of his notice.* Those who wish to know more 

 of the matter, may gather the facts of the case from Ernst 

 Krause's ' Charles Darwin,' and they will find Mr. Butler's 

 statement of his grievance in the Athenceum^ January 31, 1880, 

 and in the St. James s Gazette^ December 8, 1880. The affair 

 gave my father much pain, but the warm sympathy of those 

 whose opinion he respected soon helped him to let it pass 

 into a well-merited oblivion. 



The following letter refers to M. J. H. Fabre's ' Souvenirs 

 Entomologiques.' It may find a place here, as it contains a 

 defence of Erasmus Darwin on a small point. The postscript 

 is interesting, as an example of one of my father's bold ideas 

 both as to experiment and theory :] 



C. Darwin to J. H. Fabre. 



Down, January 31, 1880. 



My dear Sir, — I hope that you will permit me to have 

 the satisfaction of thanking you cordially for the lively pleas- 

 ure which I have derived from reading your book. Never 

 have the wonderful habits of insects been more vividly de- 

 scribed, and it is almost as good to read about them as to 

 see them. I feel sure that you would not be unjust to even 

 an insect, much less to a man. Now, you have been misled 

 by some translator, for my grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, 

 states (' Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 183, 1794) that it was a wasp 

 (guepe) which he saw cutting off the wings of a large fly. I 

 have no doubt that you are right in saying that the wings are 

 generally cut off instinctively ; but in the case described by 

 my grandfather, the wasp, after cutting off the two ends of 

 the body, rose in the air, and was turned round by the wind ; 

 he then alighted and cut off the wings. I must believe, with 

 Pierre Huber, that insects have " une petite dose de raison." 



* He had, in a letter to Mr. Butler, expressed his regret at the over- 

 sight which caused so much offence. 



