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.