118 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



Mrs. Edwards. Will you kindly also remember me to 

 your father. 



The following is in answer to a letter that cannot be 

 found : — 



FROM DARWIN 



Down, Beckenham, Kent, 

 June 1, 1871. 



My dear Mr. Agassiz : — 



Very many thanks for your kind letter and curious 

 facts about the fishes. What an extraordinary number 

 of complex and wonderful structures have been devel- 

 oped in relation to sex! 



I am also particularly glad to hear about the pedicel- 

 larise of the Echinodermata, the homologies of which I 

 did not in the least know. I must now find out the 

 homologies of the " Birds-beaks " and serrated bristles of 

 the Bryozoa, which I remember watching in old days 

 with astonishment. 



I am thinking of bringing out a new and cheap edi- 

 tion of the " Origin ; " and if so I should give a chapter 

 to answering, as far as I can and space permits, Mivart'a 

 very clever book. I have no doubt the book will pro- 

 duce a great effect on many ; and you will think it blind 

 prejudice when I say it has had none on me. There is 

 not one new point in it, though many are admirably 

 illustrated. Mivart never racks his brains to see what 

 can be fairly said on [the] opposite side, and he argues 

 as if I had said nothing about the effect of use or 

 the direct action of external conditions : though in an- 

 other part of his book on these points, almost every 

 illustration is taken from my writings and observations. 



