428 MISCELLANEA. [1882. 



In April he received a letter from Dr. W. Van Dyck, 

 Lecturer in Zoology at the Protestant College of Beyrout. 

 The letter showed that the street dogs of Beyrout had been 

 rapidly mongrelised by introduced European dogs, and the 

 facts have an interesting bearing on my father's theory of 

 Sexual Selection.] 



C. Darwin to W. T. Va?i Dyck. 



Down, April 3, 1882. 



Dear Sir, — After much deliberation, I have thought it 

 best to send your very interesting paper to the Zoological 

 Society, in hopes that it will be published in their Journal. 

 This journal goes to every scientific institution in the world, 

 and the contents are abstracted in all year-books on Zoology. 

 Therefore I have preferred it to * Nature,' though the latter 

 has a wider circulation, but is ephemeral. 



I have prefaced your essay by a few general remarks, to 

 which I hope that you will not object. 



Of course I do not know that the Zoological Society, 

 which is much addicted to mere systematic work, will publish 

 your essay. If it does, I will send you copies of your essay, 

 but these will not be ready for some months. If not pub- 

 lished by the Zoological Society, I will endeavour to get 

 * Nature ' to publish it. I am very anxious that it should be 

 published and preserved. Dear Sir, 



Yours faithfully, 



Ch. Darwin. 



[The paper was read at a meeting of the Zoological So- 

 ciety on April i8th — the day before my father's death. 



The preliminary remarks with which Dr. Van Dyck's pa- 

 per is prefaced are thus the latest of my father's writings.] 



We must now return to an early period of his life, and 

 give a connected account of his botanical work, which has 

 hitherto been omitted. 



