Summary

Agrees to contribute £10 towards a new road in the area of Beckenham, although he doubts whether the road will be of much use to him.

Summary

Invites correspondent to dinner and overnight the next Friday, and gives directions at length from London to Down. "I have heard from Mr Litchfield that you are in London … will you give us the pleasure of seeing you here".

Summary

Thanks for notes on worm-castings. Amount of ammonia surprises CD. David Forbes asserts that published analysis of carbon in vegetable matter valueless. Suspects that worms search for food and do not blindly swallow earth.

Summary

Sends sentences from Hermann von Helmholtz about difference between minor and major chords.

Summary

Thanks GHD for extracts, but says the subject of music is beyond him.

Suggests that GHD deliberate over one or two sentences of his paper on dress ["Developments in dress", Macmillan’s Mag. 22 (1872): 410–16].

Refers to prospective marriage of Amy [Ruck and CD’s son Francis].

Summary

Having sent CD his two essays outlining his theory on "A secular transposition of oceans" [see 7368], JHS now forwards to CD a book he believes establishes his theory as an "eternal law of nature" [Die neue Theorie periodische säkularer Schwankungen des Seespiegels [periodischer!?] (1872)].

Summary

Glad Mrs Darwin likes his preface, but fears she will not like his tone on religion.

Summary

CD has been elected Honorary Member of Società Italiana di Antropologia e di Etnologia.

Cranial measurements connect man and apes.

He has shown differences between male and female skulls that bear on sexual selection.

Summary

Comments on HM’s paper ["Anwendung der Darwin’schen Lehre auf Bienen", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. preuss. Rheinland 29 (1872): 1–96];

sexual selection in bees.

Encloses account on habits of Bombus.

Summary

Thanks CD for MS on the routes of male bees.

His "Fertilisation of flowers" is complete [Die Befruchtung der Blumen (1873)].

Summary

"Be so good as to send me Unsere Zeit with Julius Frauenstädt’s article ["Darwin’s Auffassung des geistigen und sittlichen Lebens des Menschen" n.s. 8 (May 1872), 597–605]. I am much obliged for the information."

Summary

Comments on CL’s Principles of geology, 11th ed.

Discusses natural selection in man.

Summary

Wants CD’s support for his application for post of Assistant Keeper in Zoological Department of British Museum.

Death of G. R. Gray.

Summary

Encloses a testimonial for AG [in support of his application for a promotion at British Museum].

Does he agree with Carl Gegenbaur’s paper on the limbs of fish [Jenaische Z. Naturwiss. 5 (1870): 397–447]?

Asks what caused G. R. Gray’s sudden death.

Summary

The die is cast on Ayrton affair. Lord Derby has called for all of the correspondence, as a result of pressure by men of science on JDH’s behalf.

Has just had a Greenland collection, which supports his views altogether; "I am ready to do fight for these with you."

Summary

His chapter on machines in Erewhon has been misunderstood as laughing at the Origin. He was only trying to show how an absurd proposition can be defended with a little ingenuity, distortion, and departure from strict scientific method. Will explain in a second edition, if one is called for.

Summary

Has found the skull of the horned cock.

With regard to CD’s suggestion about the possibility of producing a pigeon breed with differently coloured sexes, WBT reports the results of crossing blue and silver dragons; the silver offspring are almost always hens.

Would like the latest edition of the Origin.

Encloses notes on volume one [of Descent].

Encloses a photograph showing the bleaching effect of the sun’s rays on dun feathers in pigeons.

Summary

Thanks for CD’s testimonial.

Summary

Is the horned toad of Oregon a batrachian or a lizard?

Hopes AG will be promoted in the British Museum.

Summary

Will FD try to persuade A. D. Bartlett to show a live snake to a porcupine and observe whether the porcupine rattles the quills on its tail? [See 8333.]