My Dear Sir,

I am very grateful for your letter. The dodge of making incisions is new to me & I shall try it.²

I purpose giving a lecture on “Insect-eating Plants” to our local Natural History Society on the 15^th. & if it should meet with approval I shall publish it. May I dedicate it to you? Silence will give consent.³

I should be glad if M^r. Frank could find the reference to the mice at Nat. Selection illustrated by the Mouse’s tail & send it to me on a post card⁴

If I can ever at any time relieve you of any drudgery in correcting proof, pray let me know. My wife⁵ does all mine & she is the sharpest hand at it I have ever met with. She will be delighted to ease the labours of one whose writings she knows so well

I am more at liberty to pursue the tail question now, as I have just delivered my Magnum opus to the Royal Society in the hope of its leading to my admission to that sanctum, the F.R.S. being my greatest ambition. The paper is on the umbilical cord and I think that I shall yet be able to draw upon it a great illustration of evolution. It will be read on the 17^th.⁶

Yours, faithfully, | Lawson Tait