Dear Sir

I enclose the results of several more years of observation on the point of conjugal selection, respecting which you wrote to me—¹ I am sorry that I have been so long in sending these particulars, but must beg you to excuse my tardiness, as I have been intensely occupied in various ways, & have had no one by me to whom I could entrust the business— You will see that the tendency of these later figures is to confirm the former ones—²

In this later investigation I have excluded the women between 20 & 25, & between 45 & 50, who were included in the former one—³ I do not think the hair grows notably darker after 25 in most people—⁴ But red hair does become less vividly red—

To test the matter further, I will divide the women into two classes, viz, those above & those below 35, & let you know the result—⁵

Your apology for troubling me in this matter really made me feel ashamed— I think there can be but few of us humbler cultivators of natural science, who would not feel it an honour to be permitted to contribute his stone towards the building of your great edifice— At any rate, it will always be a pleasure to me to do for you anything that you may esteem a service— I hope before long to send you a copy of a statistical memoir of mine “on the stature & bulk of Man in Britain”, which is being printed in the Anthropological Memoirs—⁶

I am, dear Sir | Yours faithfully | John Beddoe M.D.