i860.] GERMAN TRANSLATION. 71 



success, it remained an obvious translation, and was cor- 

 respondingly unpleasant to read. Bronn added to the trans- 

 lation an appendix of the difficulties that occurred to him. 

 For instance, how can natural selection account for differ- 

 ences between species, when these differences appear to be of 

 no service to their possessors ; e. g., the length of the ears and 

 tail, or the folds in the enamel of the teeth of various species 

 of rodents? Krause, in his book, 'Charles Darwin,' p. 91, 

 criticises Bronn's conduct in this matter, but it will be seen 

 that my father actually suggested the addition of Bronn's re- 

 marks. A more serious charge against Bronn made by Krause 

 {pp. cit. p. 87) is that he left out passages of which he did not 

 approve, as, for instance, the passage ('Origin,' first edition, 

 p. 488) " Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his 

 history." I have no evidence as to whether my father did or 

 did not know of these alterations.] 



C. Darwin to H. G. Bronn. 



Down, Feb. 4 [i860]. 



Dear and much honoured Sir, — I thank you sincerely 

 for your most kind letter; I feared that you would much dis- 

 approve of the ' Origin,' and I sent it to you merely as a mark 

 of my sincere respect. I shall read with much interest your 

 work on the productions of Islands whenever I receive it. I 

 thank you cordially for the notice in the ' Neues Jahrbuch 

 fur Mineralogie,' and still more for speaking to Schweitzer- 

 bart about a translation ; for I am most anxious that the great 

 and intellectual German people should know something about 

 my book. 



I have told my publisher to send immediately a copy of 

 the new* edition to Schweitzerbart, and I have written to 

 Schweitzerbart that I gave up all right to profit for myself, so 

 that I hope a translation will appear. I fear that the book 

 will be difficult to translate, and if you could advise Schweit- 

 zerbart about a good translator, it would be of very great 



* Second edition. 



