Summary

Thanks OH for two memoirs on the fossil flora of Bear Island and Spitzbergen [K. Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handl. 8 (1869) no. 7; 9 (1870) no. 5].

Summary

Thanks LHM for his work on consanguinity. [See 7299].

Summary

If decapod does not pass through zoea stage, is this acceleration? If hypothetical adult retained zoea characters, would this be retardation? Believes obliteration of growth stages frequently due to natural selection. Most interesting points in AH’s letter deal with senile characters. CD attributes them to laws of growth not selection. Explains degraded characters as result of readaptation to simpler conditions. Believes no innate tendency to progressive development exists.

Hopes AH visits F. Hilgendorf’s famous deposit [at Steinheim]. A. Weismann [Einfluss der Isolierung (1872)] makes good use of Hilgendorf’s observations.

Summary

Requesting two books by Lionel Smith Beale.

Summary

Thanks WALM for having sent interesting publications, especially the one on relation of structure of man to lower animals,

and just a few days since, on protuberances on bird skulls. WALM’s facts on the latter subject have an important bearing on the acquisition of sexual characters. CD is pleased that the influence of sexual selection is admitted.

Summary

Discusses role of orbicular muscle and distended veins in eye in secretion of tears. Asks WB’s opinion.

Summary

JS’s valuable observations on worms in India along with Asa Gray’s in the United States confirm CD’s opinion that worms work in the same way all over the world. Requests further information on the subject.

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

Asks recipient to send parcels to his brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, at 6 Queen Anne Street, London, and not to Down.

Summary

CD is grateful for the eulogy in Index [no. 104]. Many would disagree. It is the fashion to say he is a good observer with "an utterly illogical mind".

Summary

Thanks for JLGK’s article [see 8331].

CD thinks it a pity that Owen shows so little consideration for the judgment of other naturalists.

Summary

CD’s son Leonard of the Royal Engineers has applied to Sir George Biddell Airy to be an observer on the Venus Expedition. Leonard failed to mention his qualifications, which CD now relates with the request that HA draw them to his father’s attention.

Summary

Sends details of Alexander Dickson’s paper ‘On some abnormal cones of Pinus Pinaster’ (Dickson 1871).

Summary

Thanks FCD for information, which will make him "strike out a good deal".

Has received German pamphlet.

Will read work by John Soelberg Wells [? A treatise on the diseases of the eye (1869, 1870)].

Discusses his work on expression.

Summary

George Snow, the carrier, now leaves Nag’s Head on Thursday mornings.

Summary

Thanks for a quarto work on the mining industry. CD’s sons much obliged for kindness in California.

Summary

Obliged for QdeB’s efforts [to have CD elected member of Académie Française].

With regard to stress that QdeB lays on man’s walking on two legs, no one attributes much significance to difference in mode of locomotion between seals and terrestrial Carnivora or kangaroos and other marsupials.

Summary

Thanks for the letter commending Expression [see 8692]. CD "was not at all sure the work was worth publishing".

Acknowledges receipt of some pamphlets from PM, which his wife will translate.

Regretfully must refuse PM’s offer to translate Expression since it has been promised to another.

Has now received PM’s Physiology of pleasure [Fisiologia del piacere (1870)].

Summary

Invites RM to keep some specimens as long as he wishes.

Recalls vaguely the mention of a butterfly species in which the male alone is mimetic.

Summary

States his reasons for authorising JJM to translate the Origin.