208 CHARLES DARWIN. 



their way out of the little peas or seeds. These elegant 

 beetles, with the knowledge of their manner of development 

 may interest some Coleopterist. 



" I hope to hear some time about Dr. Zacharias' photographs. 

 I received your obliging letter from Paris. 



" Yours sincerely, " CH. DARWIN." 



" May 25 [1878]. "Down. 



" MY DEAR SIR, The living beetles and the cocoons were 

 found in a small paper packet containing the seeds. Those 

 from which the beetles had emerged were much broken, and 

 the larva? had evidently attacked some of the other seeds. I 

 am sorry to say that some of the injured ones were thrown 

 away. I am glad that you are going to draw up a paper from 

 Fritz Miiller's letters. 



" Yours sincerely, " CH. DARWIN." 



After another short note, dated July 24th, 1878, 

 Darwin wrote the following letter, which explains 

 how it was that he came to write the preface to 

 the translation of Weismann's "Studies": 



" October 31 [1878]. " Down. 



"Mr DEAR SIR, As you are inclined to be so very liberal 

 as to have a translation made of Weismann's Essays on your 

 own risk, I feel bound to aid you to the small extent of writing 

 a short prefatory notice. But this is a kind of job, which I do 

 not feel that I can do at all well and therefore do not like ; 

 but I will do my best. It must, however, be short for I am 

 at present working very hard. I do not quite understand 

 whether you intend asking some Publisher to bring out the 

 book on commission at your cost for if so there will be no 

 difficulty in finding a Publisher. But if you expect any 

 Publisher to publish at his risk and cost ; I think from recent 

 experience you will have much difficulty in finding one. I 

 suppose that you have asked Weismann's concurrence. 



"Down is rather an awkward place to reach, as we are 



