Summary

Requests information about rudimentary muscles and organs in man. Asks about marrow of os coccyx, and about testes and ovaria in early embryos of both sexes.

Summary

Relieved by JM’s note and by his agreement on type size. Is alarmed by what the verdict [on Variation] of JM’s friend will be. He is not a man of science. An unscientific reader would have condemned the Origin. An eminent semi-scientific man thought the Journal of researches not worth publishing.

Summary

Responds to CD’s criticisms. JDH is sometimes confused as to what he has borrowed from CD.

Summary

JVC is having difficulty in translating the names of dogs [in Variation]. Also asks CD for help with names of pigeons.

Summary

Thanks JVC for his biography [of CD].

Has almost finished first proofs of Variation.

Has difficulty in answering JVC’s queries about dogs because of differences in German names and breeds. Refers him to A. E. Brehm’s Illustrirtes Thierleben [1868] and, on pigeons, to Gottlob Neumeister’s book [Das Ganze der Taubenzucht (1837)].

Hopes JVC is not discouraged by first volume. Thinks second will be more interesting.

Summary

Some corrections and queries about Variation text. Is pushing hard to finish, but CD is right that the names in the notes make the work interminable. Fears he is causing delay in publication. Is astonished at "the wonderful array of facts brought together and at the manner in which you bring them to bear".

Summary

Informs CD of his reply to Argyll and the North British Review criticisms [in "Creation by law", Q. J. Sci. 4 (1867): 471–88]. Cites "the predicted Madagascar moth" and Angraecum sesquipedale.

Birth of Herbert Spencer Wallace.

Summary

Answers to CD’s questions on expressions among the Atnah and Espyox Indians of Nass River [see Expression, pp. 22, 232, 252, 260].

Discusses the debate in America over the relationship among Indian tribes. JTR does not believe Indians are all of one race; they are as varied as Europeans.

[Forwarded to CD by Asa Gray.]

Summary

Observations on orchid self-sterility.

Wants information on characters that may have originated through sexual selection in lower animals.

Encloses queries on expression.

Summary

Discusses a rare shell found by BJS on the Beagle voyage, an account of which has just been written by Davidson [possibly in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 20 (1867): 81–3].

Summary

Sorry he cannot remember where S. Filippe [San Felipe?] is.

Doubts that bones of ox, sheep, and horse could have been deposited in guano [on coast of Chile], but they would be worth examination.

[Tipped in copy of Origin (1866) with CHM’s bookplate.]

Summary

Thanks for information about the dotterel.

CD had ascertained by dissection that the female of the carrion-hawk of the Falkland Islands is very much brighter coloured than the male. Has inquired about its nidification. Mentions other instances of female birds that are brighter and more beautiful than the males and suggests causes for this anomaly.

Summary

At the request of his sister, Marion Bell, he sends a copy of his essay on the nervous system. It contains a view of the development of the animal kingdom in illustration of Charles Bell’s classification of the nerves. Human powers are held to be more dependent upon the structure of the mouth than that of the hand.

Summary

Has abstracted for insertion in his sterility chapter [Variation 2, ch. 18], FM’s observations of plant’s pollen being poisonous to itself.

Occurrence of mimetic plants.

Colouring of Planariae.

Summary

Seeks explanation of the case of the Rhynchaea, of which the female is more beautiful than the male, with the young resembling the latter. Wallace has told CD that at Nottingham AN explained this by the male being the incubator.

Does the male black Australian swan, or the black and white S. American swan, differ from the female in colour of plumage?

Summary

Encloses memorandum on Origin [1866]

discussing mimicry in mammals and birds,

abnormal habits shown by birds,

behaviour of cuckoos,

and analogies existing between mammals of the same geographical region.

Speculates on possible lines of development linking groups of mammals.

[CD’s notes on the verso of the letter are for his reply.]

Summary

Comments on ARW’s view of colouring in relation to sexual selection and protection. It is not new to CD. Hopes to discuss subject fully in his "Essay on Man" [Descent]. As to the problem of brightly coloured females, CD is not satisfied that it is due to males taking over incubation. Admires "value and beauty" of ARW’s generalisations.

Summary

Studying freshwater Planariae. Did CD find they had nervous systems?

News of T. C. Eyton and [William?] Owen.

Summary

Admires his paper ["On the credibility of Darwinism", J. Trans. Victoria Inst. 2 (1867): 39–62, and discussion 63–125].

Ridicules William H. Ince and Admiral FitzRoy on their naive ideas about Noah’s ark.

Summary

On the Duke of Argyll and a review of his Reign of law.

Asa Gray’s theological view of variation. God’s role in formation of organisms; JDH’s view of Providence.

Insular and continental genera.

Owen on continuity and ideal types

and on bones of Mauritius deer.

On man.