Summary

The pamphlet on the origin or variation of species sent by IGS-H has not arrived. CD is eager to see it and requests precise reference. ["Cours de zoologie (mammifères et oiseaux), fait au Muséum d’histoire naturelle, en 1850", Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée 2d ser. 3: 12–20.]

Summary

On the suggestion of Jeffries Wyman, he writes about the rats that he captured in Mammoth Cave in 1850. They were indeed blind. Reginald Mantell studied them and learned that with long exposure to graduated light, they became somewhat sensitised. Sends copy of an abstract which he wrote as a letter to A. H. Guyot ["On the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky", Am. Journal of Sci. and Arts 2d ser. 11 (1851)]. [See 3007.]

Summary

Much interested in MTM’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On the relation between the abnormal and normal formations in plants", Notes Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1860): 223–7].

Asks for information about crossing of varieties of peas. Describes his own experimental results: "the offspring out of the same pod, instead of being intermediate, was very nearly like the two pure parents; yet in one, there was a trace of the cross & the next generation showed still more plainly their mongrel origins".

Summary

Declines his Lordship’s invitation to dinner for reasons of health.

Summary

Encloses advertisement [for C. R. Bree, Species not transmutable (1860)].

Discusses Bronn’s chapter of criticisms.

Mentions variation in rats.

Has ordered book by Bree.

Discusses suggestion that southern corners of Australia may once have been islands.

Mentions "wild speculations" about change in earth’s axes.

CL’s ideas on variation.

Summary

Comments on relationship between eye-colour and deafness in cats [discussed in Origin]. Asks for more information.

Mentions criticism of Origin.

Thanks for information about horses.

Hopes JMR writes his book on language. Mentions Hensleigh Wedgwood’s work [A dictionary of English etymology, 3 vols. (1859–65)].

Summary

Thanks for memoir of her father [G. Jäger, Zum Andenken an Dr. C. F. von Gärtner (1851)] and engravings.

Declines gift of CFvG’s collection of hybrid plants. Suggests Kew Herbarium.

Summary

Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.

Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.

Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.

Summary

Has long venerated her father [Carl F. von Gärtner]. Looks forward to reading his life. CD will do everything he can to make Gärtner’s name more generally known.

Summary

On JDH’s suggestions for new edition of Origin.

Gray’s Atlantic Monthly articles to be published [in England] as a pamphlet.

Summary

CD is pleased by BP’s appreciative opinion of Origin. He never intended to claim that he originated the doctrine that species have not been independently created. The only novelty in his work is the attempt to explain how species became modified and how the theory of descent explains large classes of facts. If he has taken anything from BP, he has done so unconsciously. Gives names of those he would have mentioned in any account of authors who maintained that species have not been separately created.

CD greatly admires BP’s Philosophy of creation.

Summary

Local affairs.

Summary

CL has calculated that elevation and subsidence of certain formations in Sweden and Norway take place at the rate of 2 1/2 feet per century. He now proposes to estimate the age of a bed by including a conjecture that pauses occur in the oscillations in the ratio of 4 periods of stasis to one of movement. Applying this formula to Scotland, the last subsidence and re-elevation would be 590,000 years and the age of the beds with human implements would be 20,000 years.

Summary

Does FG know Mansfield Parkyns well enough to submit query to him? [Probably about domestication of Columba guinea in Abyssinia. See Variation 1: 183.]

Summary

Very pleased with IGStH’s approval [of Origin]. Will be proud to place IGStH’s Résumé des lecons sur la question de l’espèce (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1851) alongside his other works in his library.

Grateful for his offer to look over the difficult passages in Origin for a translator.

Summary

Sends copy of 2d ed. of Origin, with list of corrections.

Is at work on "fuller work" [Variation].

Summary

Sale of Origin requires new edition [3d (Apr 1861)].

Further discussion of geological elevation and subsidence in Europe. Compares evidence to that of South America. His theory that semi-fluid matter underlies earth’s crust.

Mentions David Forbes’s explanation of South American nitrate deposits.

Has followed CL’s advice not to reply directly to reviewers.

Summary

Glacial action in the Andes.

Origin of Chilean sheep.

Varieties of S. American horses.

Summary

Review of Origin in Gardeners’ Chronicle [31 Dec 1859].

Criticises views of J. G. Jeffreys on non-migration of shells. Cites case of Galapagos shells.

Mentions Edward Forbes’s theory of submerged continental extensions. Cites Hooker’s [introductory] essay [in Flora Tasmaniae (1860)] for evidence against any recent connection between Australia and New Zealand.

Discusses Huxley’s views of hybrid sterility.

Questions whether Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire believed in species change. Mentions views of Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

The distribution of cave insects.

CD’s study of man.

The problems of locating French and German translators.

Huxley’s criticism of Owen’s views on human classification.

The sale of Origin.

Summary

JW’s case of black hogs shows marvellous relation of colour and constitution.

Could JW get information about eyes of cave rat?

Was JW struck by length of hind legs of male cattle?

CD has long shared JW’s doubts that mutilations were ever inherited but Brown-Séquard’s case seems to settle question.

Is not case of cats with blue eyes being deaf very odd?

Spinal stripes on horse too common to explain in way informant supposes.

Believes Owen "goes a long way with us", though he attacked CD in Edinburgh Review.

"No one other person understands me so thoroughly as Asa Gray."