Summary

His suspicions regarding [Edward] Sabine’s treatment of CD were justified by the Anniversary Address. THH, [George] Busk, and [Hugh] Falconer insisted on a more accurate account of the grounds on which the Copley Medal was awarded to CD.

Summary

Impressed by Tylor’s book [see 4836].

Encloses admirable note from Huxley on Lyell–Lubbock affair.

Summary

Encloses a letter [from Huxley about his invitation to lecture at Edinburgh]. Has done his best to dissuade Huxley from accepting the burden.

JDH’s depression in bereavement.

Summary

Sends proofs of Huxley’s article on Mivart, to be published in Contemporary Review ["Mr Darwin’s critics", 18 (1871): 443–76].

Summary

Acquired characteristics.

Huxley’s lectures: good on induction, bad on sterility, obscure on geology.

Asa Gray on slavery.

Falconer’s partial conversion.

Alphonse de Candolle on Origin.

Summary

Huxley’s lectures [Man’s place in nature (1863)]; he would be a scientific H. T. Buckle, if he were more careful.

Asks CD what the evidence is for inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Summary

On Huxley’s article for Contemporary Review [see 7977] confuting Mivart. It has cheered him,

for he is very low about his mother’s state.

Is also in detestable position with "my lord and master", A. S. Ayrton. JDH has denounced him to the [First] Lord of the Treasury [W. E. Gladstone] for his conduct.

Summary

Huxley has shown him the jaws of an Anoplotherium brought from the Gallegos by R. O. Cunningham.

Saw Hallett’s wheat crops at Brighton; results of his selection very striking.

Huxley is assembling his Darwiniana papers for republication.

Has written a crushing reply to Richard Congreve ["The scientific aspects of positivism", Fortn. Rev. n.s. 5 (1869): 653–70] and JDH feels "infantine" beside him.

Comments on Sabine’s being offered and accepting K.C.B.

Summary

Sorry to hear of JDH’s troubles;

pleased he thinks so highly of Huxley’s article [see 7977].

Huxley makes CD feel infantile in intellect (as JDH once said of himself). CD is not so good a Christian as JDH thinks, for he did enjoy his revenge on Mivart.

Summary

His view of Huxley’s cutting Mivart without explanation. States his own intentions. Mivart’s apology in October Quarterly Review is abominable.

Has heard of a Drosophyllum in Edinburgh. Is it too late?

Summary

Comments on Huxley–Falconer dispute [see "On the method of palaeontology", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 18 (1856): 43–54].

Wollaston’s On the variation of species [1856].

Has exploded to Lyell against the extension of continents.

Plants common to Europe and NW. America as result of temperate climate.

Summary

JDH on Asa Gray’s sanguine view of the Civil War and slavery.

Wishes to discuss variation with CD, a subject that Huxley does not understand.

Summary

Huxley’s Royal Institution lecture on Origin [10 Feb 1860, Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 195–200] an "entire failure" as an exposition of CD’s doctrine.

R. I. Murchison very civil.

CD counts Lyell among the converted.

Summary

Morphological differences only partly define species; physiological differences, e.g., incompatibility results in Primula, are far more interesting.

T. Thomson’s review of Agardh’s muddled book ["Agardh’s classification of plants", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1864): 536–51].

Summary

[T. Bell Salter’s?] "hybrid" Epilobium a false claim.

Admires Huxley’s response to Falconer [see 1904].

Tristan da Cunha plant list, requested by CD, supports JDH’s position [on continental extension?].

Chilean plants not exceptional.

JDH considers parallels between Australian Alps and European plants strong evidence for multiple creations.

Summary

Reports on the 1870 BAAS meeting at Liverpool. Huxley’s address was over the heads of the laymen.

Tyndall’s was eloquent to listen to, disappointing to read.

George Rolleston’s "Rococo" address [Nature 2 (1870): 423–7, 442–6].

Murchison.

Lyell.

Has done an immense lot of work.

Regrets CD has not kept the simple title "Origin of man" [for Descent].

Summary

Sends a letter concerning priority [of Patrick Matthew] for JDH to read and post.

Angered at Owen’s review.

Huxley’s Royal Institution lecture ends well.

Summary

Interested in Barkly’s letter about Mauritius. Doubts non-volcanic origin. Urges collection of all forms of terrestrial life to determine whether they are of a former continent or "waifs and strays". He leans to latter view, as snakes and reptiles are different.

Huxley’s address wonderfully "brilliant", but it is a mistake to separate evolutionists from uniformitarians.

Bentham has come out "splendidly" on descent of species.

Summary

His answer to Asa Gray.

On JDH’s view of aristocracy. Primogeniture is dreadfully opposed to selection.

Orchid book proofs ready soon – has no idea whether it is worth publishing.

Huxley on Owen.

Feeble letter from J. H. Balfour against Huxley’s lectures ["Relation of man to lower animals", pt 2 of Man’s place in nature (1863)].

Has received the "astounding" Angraecum sesquipedale with nectary 1ft long: "what insect could suck it?"

Summary

Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.