My dear Darwin

Best thanks for Semper¹   It is an interesting but monstrous illnatured article (he doesn’t attack me) and it serves him right that he has not only been completely anticipated by Balfour— but that Balfour’s must ⁠⟨⁠foot of page excised⁠⟩⁠ shew that he has altogether blundered in his interpretation of the fact. Indeed the only value of the paper is that it confirms Balfours statement as to fact²

I will return the paper to you as soon as I have made some excerpts

It did us good on Sunday to see how well &³ ⁠⟨⁠foot of page excised⁠⟩⁠

P.S. | I forgot to say that I have been making out wonderful things about Amphioxus   His skull & brain are bigger in proportion (or at any rate longer) to his body than yours— and the theory of the vertebrate skull that I have been grinding at these seventeen years,⁴ is I believe just as clear proving at last the great break between Amphioxus & other fishes supposed to exist by us all up to this time—is pretty well bridged over & the relations of Amphioxus with the Lampreys are as clear as mud in a wine glass—⁵ The skull consists of above 14 segments all trace of which is lost even in the embryo of the higher vertebrates

Three cheers for our great ancestor!— Prot. Adam (Haeckel)⁶