i86o.] GERMAN TRANSLATION. 7 1 



success, it remained an obvious translation, and was cor- 

 respondingly unpleasant to read. Bronn added to the trans- 

 lation an appendix of the difficulties that occurred to him. 

 For instance, how can natural selection account for differ- 

 ences between species, when these differences appear to be of 

 no service to their possessors ; e. g., the length of the ears and 

 tail, or the folds in the enamel of the teeth of various species 

 of rodents ? Krause, in his book, ' Charles Darwin,' p. 91, 

 criticises Bronn's conduct in this matter, but it will be seen 

 that my father actually suggested the addition of Bronn's re- 

 marks. A more serious charge against Bronn made by Krause 

 {op, cit. p. 87) is that he left out passages of which he did not 

 approve, as, for instance, the passage ('Origin,' first edition, 

 p. 488) " Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his 

 history." I have no evidence as to whether my father did or 

 did not know of these alterations.] 



C. Darwin to H. G. Bronn. 



Down, Feb. 4 [i860]. 



Dear and much honoured Sir, — I thank you sincerely 

 for your most kind letter ; I feared that you would much dis- 

 approve of the ' Origin,' and I sent it to you merely as a mark 

 of my sincere respect. I shall read with much interest your 

 work on the productions of Islands whenever I receive it. I 

 thank you cordially for the notice in the ' Neues Jahrbuch 

 fur Mineralogie,' and still more for speaking to Schweitzer- 

 bart about a translation ; for I am most anxious that the great 

 and intellectual German people should know something about 

 my book. 



I have told my publisher to send immediately a copy of 

 the new'^ edition to Schweitzerbart, and I have written to 

 Schweitzerbart that I gave up all right to profit for myself, so 

 that I hope a translation will appear. I fear that the book 

 will be difficult to translate, and if you could advise Schweit- 

 zerbart about a good translator, it would be of very great 



* Second edition. 



