Summary

Explains discrepancies in weights and measures caused by changes since 1836 in apothecaries’ measures.

EC has found that a discrepancy in A. W. von Hofmann’s experiments with iodine solutions resulted from an error in Hofmann’s use of decimals.

Reports S. P. Woodward’s opinion of the Origin: "a very sad book, it unsettles all one’s religious principles and the worst of it is so much of it is true".

Summary

Asks Williams & Norgate to forward one copy of the German translation of Origin (Bronn trans. 1860) to Jan van der Hoeven, and another to Jacob Moleschott.

Summary

Cases of "dioecio-dimorphism" as in primroses are widespread. AG always considered them the first step toward bisexuality.

Summary

Sends Asa Gray’s review [of Origin]. Asks THH’s advice on getting it reprinted in England.

Hooker’s expedition to Syria.

Disgraceful review of Tyndall’s book in Athenæum.

Summary

The stone hatchets are a great muddle. Would like a copy of Jacques Boucher [de Crèvecoeur] de Perthes’s book [Antiquités Celtiques et antédiluviennes (1847–64)].

Is studying action of carbonate of ammonia on Drosera. Asks if this has been done.

Summary

Has received copies of translation of Origin. Thanks HGB for undertaking it.

Comments on review by F. J. Pictet ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce, par Charles Darwin: analyse et critique",Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55].

Summary

Agassiz denounces Origin as "atheistical";

AG is currently reviewing it [in Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 153–84].

Jeffries Wyman praises it, though not a convert.

Summary

Delighted to try experiments on Drosera spathulata.

Summary

Comments on corrections [in Origin, 2d ed. (1860)], especially on use of Wallace’s name.

Discusses human evolution with respect to CL’s work. Cites expression as a source of evidence.

Andrew Murray’s criticisms of the Origin involving blind insects in caves [Edinburgh New Philos. J. n.s. 11 (1860): 141–51].

Humorously describes human ancestors.

Summary

On the prospectus of Natural History Review. Suggests it might offer information on whether subjects that correspondents may wish to investigate have been done already.

Henrietta still very seriously ill.

Summary

Has received second part of AG’s Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.

Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.

Summary

Returns reviews of Origin.

F. J. Pictet [Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] goes further than he himself realises.

Naturalists will resist CD’s views until faith in certain "impassable" barriers between existent species is shaken.

Gives CD an instance of convergence.

Summary

On THH’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On species and races, and their origin", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 195–200]. Praises eloquence of his conclusion.

Has sent first part of German translation of Origin to THH.

Summary

W. B. Carpenter’s review of Origin [in Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404] "very good and well balanced, but not brilliant".

"There is a brilliant review by Huxley" [Westminster Rev. 17 (1860): 541–70].

Asa Gray sends good case of selection producing black pigs in Virginia.

Great blow to CD that CL cannot admit potency of natural selection.

Owen’s review in Edinburgh Review [111 (1860): 487–532] "extremely malignant, clever".

Patrick Matthew has published extract in Gardeners’ Chronicle [7 Apr 1860] from his Naval timber and arboriculture [1831], a complete but not developed anticipation of natural selection.

Summary

CD may be interested in a reference to a method of detecting 1/195000 of a grain of sodium chloride.

Also, on Drosera, suggests it would be interesting to try substances such as gun-cotton, in which nitrogen is in very different states from a salt of ammonia.

Summary

Thanks for information about the weight of water.

Describes experiments on Drosera.

Summary

Describes Sedgwick’s attack on CD’s views [at Cambridge Philosophical Society] and his own defence, though he believes CD has pressed his hypothesis too far.

Summary

Discusses pamphlet by A. S. Taylor

and note by A. W. v. Hofmann concerning iodine solution.

Summary

W&N have not yet received the German edition of the Origin.

Recommend French–English and French dictionaries.

Summary

Has no drone cells in collection of honeycombs. Discusses construction of cells by bees and ability of bees to judge distances in constructing comb.