My dear Huxley

I am extremely much obliged to you for having so fully entered on my point,² I knew I was on unsafe ground, but it proves far unsafer than I had thought. I had thought that Brulle had a wider basis for his generalisation; for I made the extract several years ago, & I presume (I state it as some excuse for myself) that I doubted it, for differently from my general habit, I have not extracted his grounds.—³ It was meeting with Barneouds paper which made me think there might be truth in the doctrine.⁴ Your instance of Heart & Brain of Fish seems to me very good.—

It was a very stupid blunder on my part, not thinking of the posterior part of the time of development. I shall, of course not allude to the subject, which I rather grieve about, as I wished it to be true;⁵ but alas a scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections,—a mere heart of stone.—

There is only one point in your letter which at present I cannot quite follow you in: supposing that Barneoud’s (I do not say Brulle’s) remark were true & universal, ie that the petal which have to undergo the greatest amount of development & modification begins to change the soonest from the simple & common embryonic form of the petal,⁶ —if this were a true law, then I cannot but think that it would throw light on Milne Edwards’ proposition that the wider apart the classes of animals are, the sooner do they diverge from the common embryonic plan,—which common embryonic⁷ may be compared with the similar petals in the early bud—the several petals in one flower being compared to the distinct but similar embryos of the different classes.—

I much wish, that you w^d. so far keep this in mind, that whenever we meet, I might hear how far you differ or concur in this.— I have always looked at Barneoud’s & Brulle’s proposition as only in some degree analogous.—

With hearty thanks for your very kind assistance. | Your’s most truly | C. Darwin

P.S. | I see in my abstract of M. Edwards paper he speaks of “the most perfect & important organs” as being first developed,⁸ & I sh^d. have thought that this was usually synononymous with the most developed or modified.—

P.S. | Allman’s account of the fertilisation of the ova in his F.W. Polyzoa seems dreadfully opposed to “Darwin not an eternal hermaphrodite.”⁹