Summary

Better news about the rabbits.

Summary

[William Rathbone] Greg is author [of "Failure of ""natural selection"" in the case of man", Fraser’s Magazine 78 (1868): 353–62].

Comments on findings in J. M. Duncan [Fecundity, fertility, sterility and allied topics (1866)].

Saw A. D. Bartlett about monkeys.

Summary

Sends CD proofs of a lecture he will give at Liverpool. Asks CD to check the part referring to him.

Élie de Beaumont’s remark, in which he requires CD to recant before being admitted to the [French] Academy, is intolerable. "This spirit has much to do with the present condition of France."

Summary

Relates instances of rabbits suffering from a condition which affects only the patches of white on their fur.

Will make observations on the platysma for CD.

Summary

Statement of sales of U. S. edition of Origin.

Summary

Would like to call at 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning.

Summary

Will not be returning to London for a week; writes to save CD’s calling.

Summary

Copy of Duchenne [see 7089] has not arrived; CD is concerned that it may be lost.

Summary

Thanks for copies of FVH’s "Preliminary field report [of the U. S. Geological Survey] of Colorado and New Mexico" [Am. J. Sci. 49 (1870): 258–63] and Geological report [of the exploration] of the Yellowstone [and Missouri] River[s under the direction of Captain W. F. Reynolds (1869)].

Summary

Returns H. C. Watson’s letter.

CD must study JDH’s manner of arrangement of varieties and subspecies, etc.

Summary

Has sent F. Müller "a long screed" about the Passiflora.

Summary

Thanks BJS for a journal and an interesting letter.

Summary

Plans to visit Down in a week.

Summary

Thanks for the information sent by WGS in his letter of 4 November 1870.

Summary

Thanks LGK for the part he played in getting CD elected as an Associate [of Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences].

Summary

Sending two sheets [of Descent]. About one-and-a-half more will complete PLS’s task.

Summary

Sends MS [of chs. 3 and 4, "Comparison of the mental powers of man and the lower animals", Descent] to HED for her criticism. CD fears parts are too much like a sermon; "who wd ever have thought I shd turn parson?"

Summary

Sends CD "L’applicazione della teoria Darwiniana ai fiori ed agli insetti visitatori dei fiori" [Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 2 (1870)]. Continues to support vitalism and teleology.

Summary

The Zoological Garden has only one old adult male of Limulus. When there were females, eggs were never observed.

Encloses a separate letter [7071] about AD’s scheme [for a zoological station].

Suggests AD be cautious [in his work]. "Caution is almost the soul of science."

Summary

Sends monstrous oranges,

red grape leaves,

and a bean with blue fruits (a hybrid of Phaseolus vulgaris and a Dolichos species).