Summary

CD’s nomination to French Academy fails again.

Summary

Thanks for gift of Souvenirs d’un naturaliste (Quatrefages 1854).

Can AdeQ ask M. J. P. Flourens about experiments which show that hybrid offspring of dogs, wolves and jackals are sterile between themselves in the third generation.

CD cannot obtain a copy of Dureau de la Malle’s work on breeds of horse: can AdeQ assist?

Summary

The information correspondent hopes to get from M.-J.-P. Flourens will be valuable.

CD is keeping all varieties of pigeons, poultry, ducks, etc. for his work on variation.

Summary

Mentions English scientists who support mutability of species.

Asks QdeB whether he could help locate a French translator and publisher.

Summary

Asks if Quatrefages has found anyone to translate Origin into French, because P. T. A. Talandier, although not a naturalist, wishes to do so.

Summary

Discusses P. T. A. Talandier as possible translator [of Origin].

Comments on reception of book in North America and opposition of Louis Agassiz.

Asks about reaction of Henri Milne-Edwards.

QdeB’s lectures on anthropology.

Summary

Comments on QdeB’s [Études sur les maladies actuelles du ver à soie (1860)].

Has failed to find French publisher for Origin.

Summary

Comments on QdeB’s Unité de l’espèce humaine [1861].

Discusses acceptance of his theory among scientists, especially geologists.

C. V. Naudin did not show how selection applied in nature, but Patrick Matthew clearly anticipated CD’s views.

Summary

Their views on transformism differ a great deal, as CD says, but perhaps not as much as CD thinks. Sending his [Physiologie comparée: métamorphoses de l’homme et des animaux (1862)].

Summary

Can AdeQ verify the statement that the moths of the several races of the common silkworm are very similar?

When the female moth comes out of the cocoon, are her wings less developed than those of a male moth at the same stage?

Summary

Thanks for answers to CD’s questions; would appreciate any new information on similarity of moths of distinct races.

CD has been "atrociously abused by religious countrymen, but it does not hurt except when it comes from an old friend like Prof. Owen".

Wishes French translator of Origin had known more natural history.

Summary

Charles Martins of Montpellier will collect the varieties of silkworm for CD.

QdeB is battling with the polygenists in the Société d’Anthropologie.

Summary

Continues to support, in debates at the Société d’Anthropologie, the view that variability of animals and anatomical modifications are produced by environment. Wishes to use CD’s niata cattle example from Journal of researches [2d ed., pp. 145–6].

Summary

The niata is a very good case because the race is well established and must originate in South America. There is a description of the head by [Richard] Owen in the Descriptive catalogue of the osteological collection of the College of Surgeons.

Has observed modifications in the skeletons of rabbits, ducks, poultry, and pigeons. There is an extract about modifications in pigeons in the first chapter of Origin. Encloses a woodcut of crested or polish fowls; there is a change in the brain as well as in the exterior bones.

Summary

Is sending photographs of the niata skull [requested in 4082]. W. H. Flower reports that he could have a cast made for £3.3s.0d.

Summary

Spoke on Moulin-Quignon Jaw before Académie des Sciences.

Thanks CD for photograph [of Niata skull].

Controversy on species fixity [at Société d’Anthropologie].

Sends photographs of Mouin-Quignon Jaw.

Summary

Specimens obtained from Charles Martins will be most interesting.

Comments on QdeB’s book [Physiologie comparée (1862)].

Summary

Sends his book [Histoire naturelle des annelés marins et d’eau douce, 2 vols. (1865)].

Summary

Proportions of sexes of the silkworm are about equal, but knows of no statistics.

Cannot share his view of origin of species.

Summary

Wishes to introduce his son, George Howard Darwin.

Has glanced at the second of AdeQ’s articles on natural history in Revue de deux mondes; ordered first article but second is already out of print.