The Wallace-Darwin Correspondence 



Few other instincts, so to speak, can be preserved in a 

 museum. 



Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes ; 

 if there are any donkeys', pray add them. 



I am delighted to hear that you have collected bees' 

 combs; when next in London I will inquire of F. Smith 

 and Mr. Saunders. This is an especial hobby of mine, and 

 I think I can throw light on the subject. If you can col- 

 lect duplicates at no very great expense, I should be glad 

 of specimens for myself, with some bees of each kind. 

 Young growing and irregular combs, and those which 

 have not had pup?e, are most valuable for measurements 

 and examination; their edges should be well protected 

 against abrasion. 



Everyone whom I have seen has thought your paper very 

 well written and interesting. It puts my extracts (written 

 in 1839, now just twenty years ago!), which I must say in 

 apology were never for an instant intended for publication, 

 in the shade. 



You ask about Lyell's frame of mind. I think he is some- 

 what staggered, but does not give in, and speaks with horror 

 often to me of what a thing it would be and what a job it 

 would be for the next edition of the Principles if he were 

 *' perverted." But he is most candid and honest, and I 

 think will end by being perverted. Dr. Hooker has become 

 almost as heterodox as you or I — and I look at Hooker as 

 ly far the most capable judge in Europe. 



Most cordially do I wish you health and entire success 

 in all your pursuits ; and God knows, if admirable zeal and 

 energy deserve success, most amply do you deserve it. I 

 look at my own career as nearly run out; if I can publish 

 my abstract, and perhaps my greater work on the same 

 subject, I shall look at my course as done. — Believe me, 

 my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, q Darwin. 



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