Summary

Thanks for sending his article in the Westminster Review [n.s. 41 (1872): 28–49] and the notice of CD’s work.

Natural selection is under a cloud at present, but CD expects that it will be resuscitated.

Summary

Papers by T. J. Newbold [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 3 (1842): 702–5], T. C. Hunt [3 (1842): 565–6] and J. Phillips [3 (1842): 705–6] need not be printed in Transactions of the Geological Society.

Summary

Thanks JET for his book.

Summary

Sends CD a copy of his book [Flowers; their origin, shapes, perfumes and colours (1878)].

Summary

Elaborates on the theories propounded in his recently published work [Earthworms], describing the reproductive system of worms and the absorption of organic matter in the soil. [See 13483.]

Summary

Thinks CD overestimates earthworms’ role in creating mould. Gives some observations on worms and questions about their breeding habits.

Summary

On the delay in receiving CD’s new book [Variation] and his delight in a borrowed copy.

Encloses a Prospectus on his new periodical "American Entomologist" devoted to economic entomology.

Comments on the talents of his young partner, C. V. Riley.

Requests photographs for Riley of CD and Westwood.

Dr J. L. Le Conte has not yet received the request that he furnish CD with information about the stridulatory organs of Coleoptera.

Summary

Writes about London plays; wishes CD had been of the party.

Summary

The grass [see 6243] is Sporobolus elongatus, common in the tropics.

Visit to Oxford with X Club.

On his forthcoming address.

Summary

Thanks JP for his note and reference. CD’s paper will not deal with the general question of erratics but only their transportal from a lower to a higher level ["The transportal of erratic boulders", Collected papers 1: 218–27]. His notion is that the boulders were transported by coast-ice, not drifting icebergs, and that during the period of transportal the land was subsiding. Can JP tell him whether the raised conglomerate boulders he observed were rounded or angular?

Summary

Thanks CD for assistance concerning sponge specimens. Mentions Englishmen who have sent specimens. J. S. Bowerbank has not answered requests.

Sends articles dealing with sponges and Medusae. Cites passages for CD to read. Suggests passages from Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren [1869].

Describes meeting with Sars and his trip to Norway.

Summary

Has not yet read the pamphlets [selection of reviews of Origin, sent by CD at GB’s request]. Though GB does not go so far as Hooker in accepting all of CD’s hypotheses and does not feel up to a thorough discussion of his views, he hopes in his Linnean Anniversary Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix] to speak on the present state of the [species] question.

Summary

Shot a sandpiper in Norway, the hind toe of which was clasped by a freshwater bivalve.

Sends replies to CD’s queries about sex ratios in humming-birds.

Summary

JP’s reference was clear, but seems to be different from the case cited by W. Hopkins about erratic conglomerate boulders. Asks for more details on the latter. CD does not think much of Hopkins’ paper ["Elevation and denudation of the district of the lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 4 (1848): 70–98].

Summary

Thanks HHH for essay.

Describes disposition of cirripede specimens.

Summary

Discusses the human foot and its abnormalities; notes an example of syndactylism.

Gives his observations on sexual differences in coloration of terns and ostriches.

Summary

Encloses some queries.

Would also like information about proportion of male to female humming-birds.

Reference to OS’s paper in Ibis, vol. 2.

Summary

Encloses printed letter from Land and Water in which he proposes a hypothesis that explains how soaring birds can stay aloft by expelling air from their lungs.

Summary

Responds to CD’s two objections to the principles involved in the "Rules of zoological nomenclature": (1) that strict enforcement of the rule of priority would cause much inconvenience, and (2) attaching name of the first describer in perpetuity puts a premium on careless description by "species mongers".

Summary

Is convinced that the "brotherly spirit of the transaction" will cause Huxley not to raise objections.