I was sorry to hear on my return from Scotland that I had missed the pleasure of a call from you,¹ and also to hear from Mr. Teesdale to-day that you had returned to Down, owing, he fears, to the alarming condition of Miss Wedgwood.² I trust, however, that her state of health may not be so serious as he apprehends.

On my way South I stayed for a couple of days at Newcastle, to give two lectures on Mental Evolution, and hence my absence when you called.³ I stayed with Mr. Newall, who has the monster telescope, and ‘as good luck would have it, Providence was on my side,’ in the matter of giving us a clear sky for observing, rather a rare thing at Newcastle.⁴

You will be glad to hear that our season’s work at the ‘Zoological station’ has been very successful. A really interesting research has been conducted by Ewart and myself jointly on the locomotor system of Echinoderms, he taking the morphological and I the physiological part.⁵ When next I see you I shall tell you the principal points, but to do so in a letter would be tedious.

I think it is probable that Mivart and I shall have a magazine battle some day on Mental Evolution, as I think it is better to draw him in this way before finally discussing the whole subject in my book.⁶