Summary

On F. M. Balfour.

Effects of ammonium carbonate on roots.

FM’s Pontederia case is very curious.

Summary

Is obliged for TE’s paper on the wall lizard and another paper.

Summary

Praises G. H. Darwin’s letter ["On the geological importance of the tides", Nature 25 (1882): 213–14] which criticises the use made of George Darwin’s views by Robert Ball ["A glimpse through the corridors of time", Nature 25 (1881): 79–82, 103–7]. JWJ argues from the fineness of Cambrian sediments against Ball’s intensification of geological forces. Massive Carboniferous river deltas also contradict Ball’s excessively high tides.

Summary

Thanks CD for Earthworms.

Discusses the problem of accounting for difference between nitrogen in permanent grassland and ordinary arable soil. Finds castings of earthworms rich in nitrogen. Asks CD if his observations enable him to explain the source. If from below top-soil, it would be a considerable manuring.

Summary

B. D. Jackson’s plan for new Steudel Nomenclator approved. JDH asks for CD’s cheque.

Summary

Asking the lord mayor of London to call a public meeting concerning the persecution of the Jews in Russia.

Summary

Writes of his work and a paper accepted for publication in the Philosophical Transactions [? "Stresses caused in the interior of the earth", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 173 (1883): 187–230].

Gives news of friends.

Summary

Accepts election as a corresponding member of the American Social Science Association [see 13615].

Summary

Encloses letter from R. S. Ball [missing], who has placed reliance on Samuel Haughton’s wild speculations.

Has heard that J. Challis’s health is worse.

Summary

Wishes to know veracity of a report of CD’s reactions on seeing certain slides of supposedly organic material from meteorites.

Summary

FWS is applying for a position and wants a character reference.

Summary

Exchanges news on health.

Thanks AR for his worm observations.

George Darwin’s work is attracting attention; he intends to try for Plumian Professorship at Cambridge. Adds other news of George and of CD’s sons Leonard and William.

CD has finished his microscopic work and has only to write up two papers for the Linnean Society.

Summary

Thanks for writing. Had disbelieved the story. He has seen Dr Hahn’s slides and it is clear that Hahn cannot distinguish between mineral and organic structures.

Summary

Asks about significance of trilobites for evolution.

Asks if any organism can be designated as animal in one stage and vegetable in another.

Summary

Describes his collections and research on Brazilian insects, especially Orthoptera. Comments on insect phylogeny.

Summary

Thanks CD for note on his book on the sense of beauty [A primer of art (1882)].

Views of Huxley and Spencer on consciousness.

Summary

Instructs engraver on illustrations for his paper ["The action of carbonate of ammonia on the roots of certain plants", Collected papers 2: 236–56].

Summary

Slab with fossil annelid tracks safely arrived.

Summary

Returns certificate he has signed with pleasure.

Emma Darwin will be interested to hear that Charles Bradlaugh was expelled from Parliament.

Summary

Has rarely read anything more interesting than WO’s introduction to his Aristotle translation. Had no notion what a wonderful man Aristotle was. Linnaeus and Cuvier were mere schoolboys compared to him. His ignorance on some points, as on muscles and the means of movement, is curious.