Summary

Birthday wishes.

Summary

Discusses heliotropism in plant cotyledons. Asks for information.

Summary

Has been asked to contribute to W. K. Clifford memorial fund. Asks JT’s advice on how much the committee hopes to raise. Would like to give handsomely but feels bound "with such a lot of children, not to be extravagant".

Summary

HM’s teaching methods and his ideas are under attack in Germany along with the works of Ernst Krause.

Summary

CD cannot find his pincers and other tools for microscopical dissection. Does FD know where he should look?

Hopes FD will feel better after "so complete a change" [trip to North Africa].

Sends his love to George.

Bernard gets more charming every day.

CD has been put on a committee for a memorial fund for W. K. Clifford.

Summary

Directs CD where to find tools in his room. Has been looking at agave and aloe flowers. Thanks family for their letters.

Summary

Sends thanks to the Masters for congratulations on his birthday, saying "the approbation & sympathy of one’s fellow-workers in the acquisition of knowledge is the highest possible reward which any man ought to desire".

Summary

Outlines his theory to explain the form of certain Swedish sandhills and puts forward his ideas regarding the geological history of the earth.

Summary

Thanks JT for his information. Sends £50 to the W. K. Clifford memorial fund.

Summary

Second request that CD sign a Cambridge memorial [i.e., petition]. The heading has been amended to include graduates who have formerly studied medicine.

Summary

Thanks for having sent prehistoric remains.

Summary

Requests testimonial from CD for position of Assistant Keeper, Zoological Dept, British Museum.

Summary

"I do not know whether the enclosed will be of any use to you.– I can say nothing of your fitness for the desired office, as I know nothing whatever of its duties.

I am sincerely sorry to hear of Mr F. Smith’s death."

Summary

Since he was innocent of sending the Botanische Zeitung to CD, he inquired of the editor, who informs him that it is sent every week by post by order of Williams and Norgate.

Summary

Read GA’s book [The colour-sense] with "great interest". Makes criticisms and suggestions.

Cannot believe in GA’s theory of the origin of pleasure and pain.

Is glad he defends sexual selection;

CD finds A. R. Wallace’s explanations "mere empty words" and for many years he has "quite doubted [ARW’s] scientific judgment".

Considers the possible effect of environmental colour on the colour tastes of animals.

Summary

Sends short testimonial [missing] for RBS, but doubts its value as he has has already given one for the same office [to A. G. Butler, see 11888].

Summary

Letter of recommendation for Richard Bowdler Sharpe, ornithologist.

Summary

Thanks for criticisms of Colour-sense.

Clarifies his views that actions desirable for species result in development of nervous organs capable of pleasurable stimulation.

Believes that all "tastes" occurring in nature are explicable with reference to ancestral habits and that none is purely arbitrary.

Summary

Wants to borrow Duchartre’s Éléments de botanique [1867].

Summary

Circular about the distribution of the overplus of his income and advice on investment.