LETTERS. 213 



the specially protected forms is advantageous, in 

 reducing for each of them the number of individuals 

 which must be sacrificed during the process of educa- 

 tion which their youthful enemies must undergo, 

 before they learn what is fit and what unfit for food. 

 The arrangement is, in fact, much like that between a 

 couple of firms that issue a common advertisement, 

 and so save about half the expense of advertising 

 alone. It is only another added to the numerous 

 examples of the production by natural selection, and 

 without the introduction of consciousness, of a result 

 which could not be bettered by the deliberate action 

 of the most acute intelligence. 



Meldola at once wrote to Darwin asking his ad- 

 vice about the translation of F. Miiller's paper, and 

 received the following reply : 



" June Gth, 1879. " Down. 



" MY DEAR Mu. MELDOLA, Your best plan will be to write 

 to ' Dr. Ernst Krause, Friedenstrasse, 10 II. Berlin.' He is one 

 of the editors with whom I have corresponded. You can say 

 that I sent you the Journal and called your attention to the 

 paper, but I cannot take the liberty of advising the supply of 

 cliches. He is a very obliging man. Had you not better ask 

 for permission to translate, saying the source will be fully 

 acknowledged ] 



" F. Miiller's view of the mutual protection was quite new 

 to me. 



" Yours sincerely, i " CH. DARWIN." 



The cliches were obtained and Meldola's translation 

 published in the Proceedings of the Entomological 

 Society for 1879, p. 20. The new contribution to the 

 theory of mimicry was at first somewhat severely 



