Summary

Thanks AS for his kindness towards himself and his family. Looks back with great satisfaction to his last visit ("as it will probably prove") to Cambridge.

Summary

Thanks for RAvK’s work [Anatomisch-systematische Beschreibung der Alcyonarien, pt 1, Die Pennatuliden (1870)].

Asks whether muscles to quills of porcupine are striped. Are they homologous to muscles of ordinary hairs? Could unstriped muscles develop into striped?

Summary

Encloses a copy of a letter he has written to a French geologist. In it he raises objections to evolutionary theory:

why are corals inadequately represented in the fossil record?

How can one explain the widespread appearance and then disappearance of groups like the trilobites?

If Mollusca and Articulata have a common ancestor, why are not ancient forms more akin than present ones?

Summary

Reports "shindy" at Oxford over persons proposed for doctorate. Pusey assented to CD’s being "doctored" to keep out seven worse devils.

Summary

Copies of the French translation of Orchids were sent to C. V. Naudin, Quatrefages de Bréau, and Charles Martins at CD’s request and to Duchartre, Brongniart, Baillon, Lecoq, Godron, and Alphonse de Candolle on Rérolle’s initiative.