Summary

Explains why he did not add his photograph to the album presented by German naturalists to CD. Instead he wishes to dedicate to CD his work on the vertebrate-type eyes on the back of some Mollusca. [Enclosed is a MS introduction to this work, Über Sehorgane von Typus der Wirbelthieraugen auf dem Rücken von Schnecken.].

Summary

Sends work on dorsal eyes of Onchidium ["Über Schneckenaugen", Arch. Mikrosk. Anat. 14 (1877): 118–24]. Comments on work.

Summary

Thanks CD for his kind letter and accepts his offer of a writing machine.

Summary

Thanks CD for writing machine.

Recalls visit by CD’s son [Francis].

Summary

Asks whether he may use CD’s letters in his work [Die natürlichen Existenzbedingungen der Thiere (1880)] in order to show that Moritz Wagner has misrepresented CD’s views.

Discusses the influence of isolation and external conditions on animals, and the relative importance of the direct effect of external conditions and of selection in bringing about change.

Summary

Thanks CD for his kind judgment on his book [The natural conditions of existence (1881)].

E. Ray Lankester has written an unfriendly review of it [Nature 23 (1880–1): 405–9].

Summary

Discusses coral reefs

and encloses a copy of his "Reisebericht" [Z. Wiss. Zool. 13 (1863): 538–70], as requested by CD.

Summary

Comments on G. H. Lewes’s book [The life and works of Goethe (1855)].