Summary

News of the parish and neighbours.

CD pleased JBI is interested in his book [Cross and self-fertilisation].

He is pretty well and hard at work with Francis.

Summary

Thanks CD for copies of the Origin and Cirripedia;

sends his latest publication in return [Beiträge zur Parthenogenesis der Arthropoden (1871)]. Discusses his work on parthenogenesis which, he believes, is a case of atavism.

Summary

CD’s anxiety about being examined in court if Horsman [former curate at Down] brings suit. He doubts it will happen, but if so will defend himself to utmost.

Has pleasant recollections of his relations with JBI.

Summary

Wants the Anthropological Society renamed the Ethnological Society. Is trying to raise funds toward payment of the Society’s debt.

Summary

On nesting habits of pied and spotted flycatchers.

JPT disagrees with CD’s comment in Descent.

Marriages of first cousins produce congenital deaf-mutism.

Summary

Requests help for George Darwin’s investigation of marriages of first cousins. Seeks to determine proportion of first-cousin offspring among the insane, deaf and dumb, blind, etc.

Summary

Regrets he cannot get to Queen Anne Street, but intends to come to Down.

Summary

Sends £35 as his subscription towards the building of a vicarage.

Summary

Accepts the proposed corrections of his spelling except for "chloèn". [WSD was preparing the index for Descent, vol. 2.]

Summary

Returns historical sketch [of GHD’s "cousin paper"?] with comments. "For Heavens sake put a sentence in some conspicuous place that your results seem to indicate that consanguineous marriage, as far as insanity is concerned, cannot be injurious in any very high degree."

Summary

Approves of GHD’s letter [to Q. Rev. 137 (1874): 587–9] and his present plan, which removes all CD’s objections. Will make his own letter to Murray less imperious. "It will be a dreadful evil to me, if … we come to a quarrel."

Summary

Asks JM, as a favour, to use his influence with the Editor of Quarterly Review to print George Darwin’s answer to the charge made by the author of "Primitive man" [St George Mivart] that GD approved "of the encouragement of vice to check population".

Summary

Sends three sheets but keeps one. Suggests looking at a curved field on the way to Orpington.

Summary

Regrets he cannot follow the line of denial CD suggests. Explains why he must defend himself against charge that he approves of oppressive laws.

Summary

Has no objection to sending GHD’s letter as it is. The only accusation it seems necessary to rebut is about licentiousness. Regrets this is not made more prominent.

Gives some suggestions for GHD’s reply to Mivart’s attack.

Summary

Sends a draft of his letter to the editor of the Quarterly Review [137 (1874): 587–9], answering Mivart’s charges. Encloses draft of CD’s letter to John Murray, urging publication of GHD’s defence, with George’s amendments.

Summary

Sends corrections for Descent.

Summary

Anecdote of bear reasoning [see Descent, 2d ed., p. 76].

Similarity of forms of ornamentation and implements in widely separate races and ages [Descent 1: 233].

Summary

CD most interested by Primitive culture [1871]. Impressed by EBT’s account of development of religious beliefs and of the survival of old customs. Hopes EBT will treat morals.