MARCUS HARTOG Cork, April, 1910

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Not finding the “well-known German scientific journal Kosmos” {0m} entered in the British Museum Catalogue, I have presented the Museum with a copy of the number for February 1879, which contains the article by Dr. Krause of which Mr. Charles Darwin has given a translation, the accuracy of which is guaranteed—­so he informs us—­ by the translator’s “scientific reputation together with his knowledge of German.” {0n}

I have marked the copy, so that the reader can see at a glance what passages has been suppressed and where matter has been interpolated.

I have also present a copy of “Erasmus Darwin.”  I have marked this too, so that the genuine and spurious passages can be easily distinguished.

I understand that both the “Erasmus Darwin” and the number of Kosmos have been sent to the Keeper of Printed Books, with instructions that they shall be at once catalogued and made accessible to readers, and do not doubt that this will have been done before the present volume is published.  The reader, therefore, who may be sufficiently interested in the matter to care to see exactly what has been done will now have an opportunity of doing so.

October 25, 1880.