Summary

CD cannot improve style [of Expression] without great changes. "I am sick of the subject, and myself, and the world".

Summary

Condolences on death of JDH’s mother.

Summary

Asks AWB for a reference to a paper;

thanks him for his generous review of the last edition [6th] of the Origin.

Summary

Comments on CL’s Principles of geology, 11th ed.

Discusses natural selection in man.

Summary

Thanks for facts about ducks.

Thinks TCE will be converted to principle of evolution if he continues testing facts for and against it. Natural selection is another question.

Summary

Sends copy of last edition of Origin.

Respecting AH’s theory that acceleration of growth produces new characters, urges AH to examine decapods that do and do not pass through zoea stage. Believes there are no marked differences between them.

Summary

Reports on very successful sale of Expression in England. Suggests German publisher keep the type set up in case more than the expected 3000 copies are needed.

Has begun work on some old botanical observations [of Drosera for Insectivorous plants].

Summary

Is sorry JDH cannot come to Down.

Hopes the House of Lords "pitch into the accursed fellow" [Ayrton].

Summary

Agrees to read paper; warns he lacks mathematical knowledge.

Summary

Cannot accept honour of nomination as Lord Rector [of Aberdeen University].

Summary

Thanks for gift of a book, and offers to send copy of Expression.

Summary

Asks to see notes on Indian worm-castings.

Summary

Had thrown Geographical Society’s Proceedings in waste-basket, but as Strachey shows such admirable powers of discrimination he will fish it out and read the whole article.

Comments on 3d ed. of Sachs’s work [Lehrbuch der Botanik (1873)]. Wishes he were more controversial.

Has become wonderfully interested in Drosera and Dionaea.

9000 copies of Expression have been printed and most are sold.

Summary

Thanks FCD for suggested deletions in MS of Expression. Declines offer from FCD to examine proofs also.

Summary

F. M. Balfour wants to experiment on Pangenesis. Asks FG to recommend coloured rabbits that breed true.

Summary

Has signed the memorial by men of science with real pleasure. Fears it may be too severe. He told Lady Derby about JDH’s troubles. She said she would tell Lord Derby what he had said.

Summary

Dionaea plants have arrived. Just ready to observe some points in their structure.

Has Murray sent Expression book?

JDH’s particulars about Owen, Ayrton and Co. ("a nice firm") amused CD much.

Summary

Wishes to insert R. B. Litchfield’s remarks [into Expression] but will not give them as his own.

Summary

Delighted to have cloud of darkness removed by CW’s paper on phyllotaxy [Mem. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. n.s. 9 (1867–73): 379–415].

Has heard that Mivart will answer CW’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].

Summary

Pros and cons of answering Owen’s letter.

On Artizans’ Dwellings, he approves the object but it is lost money as an investment.