[10b]

Leipzig Apr 29th 1882

[in the hand of Francis Darwin:] Carus answered

My dear Sir,

I was just come home from Meran in Tirol, when the sad news of the death of your dear father reached us. Very long time I doubted if I could not go to London to see him at least once, although, alas! dead. But with the most heartfelt regret I has to give it up as I was not quite well. I was so very deeply obliged to your father, that it seemed to me quite inconsistent with my feeling to send you in the first excitement any conventional sign of condolence. Now I may tell you that of all the mourners at large I feel his loss the heaviest and most painful. He gave me his sympathy and

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friendly interest without my having deserved it, nor having ventured to ask him. It is now nearly sixteen years that I had occasion to write to him, and ever since he has shown me the very same kind and friendly sympathy.

That I am not a little proud of having been (by his kindness) the subordinate mediator between him and my countrymen, will be, I hope, pardonable. All I can say is, that I kept strictly to his words, without becoming guilty of the excentricities, into which, unwisely enough some of your father's so-called followers fell.

Now I have to beg your pardon for adding to these lines a request from the part of Herr Koch. He intends to publish a new edition of the Descent of Man and asks if there are some corrections or additions. At the same time he urges me to ask you, if there is a biography preparing. As he has published your father's work in one set, as "Works", he would be of course most happy, if he could, in a future edition, give a biography as Vol. I. But, of course, of all this you will have to decide. I need not repeat, that you may entirely dispose of me; I shall be only too happy to be of any service.

With my kindest regards to your family believe me,

My dear Sir

Yours ever sincerely

J. Victor Carus

[3]

[in the hand of Francis Darwin:] Answered V Carus