DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 41 



Darwin found it, heart-breaking work ; and although 

 there may be good reasons why the system of ap- 

 pending the describer's name must be retained, such 

 a protest as that raised in these letters cannot fail to 

 do good in drawing attention to an abuse which is 

 only too common, and which introduces unnecessary 

 difficulty and gratuitous confusion into the study of 

 Nature. 



His father, Dr. Darwin, died November 13th, 

 1848, at the age of eighty- three, when he was so 

 much out of health that he was unable to attend the 

 funeral. In 1851 he lost his little daughter Annie, 

 who died at Malvern, April 23rd. A few days after 

 her death he wrote a most affecting account of her 

 a composition of great beauty and pathos. 



