LIFE AND LETTERS 



OF 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



-*o+- 



CHAPTER I. 



THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. 



'VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS.' 



1 863-1 866. 



His book on animals and plants under domestication was my 

 father's chief employment in the year 1863. His diary 

 records the length of time spent over the composition of its 

 chapters, and shows the rate at which he arranged and wrote 

 out for printing the observations and deductions of several 

 years. 



The three chapters in vol. ii. on inheritance, which occupy 

 84 pages of print, were begun in January and finished on 

 April 1st ; the five on crossing, making 106 pages, were written 

 in eight weeks, while the two chapters on selection, covering 

 57 pages, were begun on June 16th and finished on July 20th. 



The work was more than once interrupted by ill-health, 

 and, in September, what proved to be the beginning of a six 

 months' illness forced him to leave home for the water-cure 

 at Malvern. He returned in October, and remained ill and 

 depressed, in spite of the hopeful opinion of one of the most 

 cheery and skilful physicians of the day. Thus he wrote to 

 Sir J. D. Hooker in November : — 



" Dr. Brinton has been here (recommended by Busk) ; he 



VOL. III. B 



