234 MISCELLANEA (continued). [i877- 



C. Darwin to G. Croom Robertson* 



Down, April 27, 1877. 



Dear Sir, — I hope that you will be so good as to take the 

 trouble to read the enclosed MS., and if you think it fit for 

 publication in your admirable journal of ' Mind,' I shall be 

 gratified. If you do not think it fit, as is very likely, will you 

 please to return it to me. I hope that you will read it in an 

 extra critical spirit, as I cannot judge whether it is worth 

 publishing from having been so much interested in watching 

 the dawn of the several faculties in my own infant. I may 

 add that I should never have thought of sending you the 

 MS., had not M. Taine's article appeared in your Journal.f 

 If my MS. is printed, I think that I had better see a proof. 

 I remain, dear Sir, 



Yours faithfully, 



Ch. Darwin. 



[The two following extracts show the lively interest he 

 preserved in diverse fields of inquiry. Professor Cohn, of 

 Breslau, had mentioned, in a letter, Koch's researches on 

 Splenic Fever ; my father replied, January 3 : — 



" I well remember saying to myself, between twenty and 

 thirty years ago, that if ever the origin of any infectious 

 disease could be proved, it would be the greatest triumph to 

 science ; and now I rejoice to have seen the triumph." 



In the spring he received a copy of Dr. E. von Mojsisovics' 

 'Dolomit Riffe;' his letter to the author (June 1, 1878) is 

 interesting, as bearing on the influence of his own work on 

 the methods of geology. 



" I have at last found time to read the first chapter of your 

 ' Dolomit Riffe,' and have been exceedingly interested by it, 

 What a wonderful change in the future of geological chron- 

 ology you indicate, by assuming the descent theory to be 



* The editor of { Mind.' peared in the 'Revue Philoso- 



t 1877, p. 252. The original ap- phique," 1876. 



