Summary

Thanks for EK’s book [Werden und Vergehen (1876)].

Regrets he cannot write for EK’s journal, but his son, Francis, may do so.

Suggests EK as editor urge on readers [of Kosmos] the investigation of the causes of variability; why, for instance, do wild Pampas cattle change colour when domesticated? Thinks experiments and observations on recently domesticated animals and cultivated plants would throw light on the subject.

Summary

CD may choose where to publish EK’s reply to Butler. Would prefer Athenæum. Thinks it better that CD not reply himself.

Summary

Bad news about Kosmos [ceasing publication].

Fritz Müller’s losses [in a flood]; "I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world."

EK’s astonishing account of crustacean that repairs its legs in an ancestral form seems to support Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends.

Summary

As editor of the new journal, Kosmos, thanks CD for the permission he has granted Ernst Haeckel to publish with CD’s approval.

Cites his long support for evolution as exemplified by his book [Die botanische Systematik in ihrem Verhältniss zur Morphologie (1866)].

CD has many German supporters.

Summary

Sends copy of Nature in which EK’s letter, translated by Balfour, is printed. Thanks him. Now feels easy.

G. J. Romanes’ language in his review of Butler’s book [Unconscious memory] is perhaps too strong. Butler’s vanity is a "real psychological curiosity".

Summary

Sends his review of Movement in plants from Die Gartenlaube.

Comments on the future prospects of Kosmos.

Comments on review of Samuel Butler’s Unconscious memory by Romanes in Nature [23 (1880–1): 285–7] and Romanes’ reply to Butler [pp. 335–6].

Asks whether he might have a chapter of Earthworms to print in Kosmos.

Summary

Glad CD is pleased by his "Erasmus Darwin". Was not able to obtain book by Anna Seward [Memoirs of the life of Dr Darwin (1804)]. Could CD check relevant passages for errors? Would be great honour if CD could arrange English translation. Wants to enlarge essay into book.

Summary

CD interested in EK’s argument against belief that sense of colour has been recently acquired by man. Describes his observations of the difficulty his own children had in distinguishing, or naming, colours.

Adds that it appeared to him the gustatory sense of his children, when young, differed from that of grown-up persons.

Summary

Sends first part of MS of Erasmus Darwin.

Has found useful criticism of Anna Seward in J. G. Lockhart’s Life of Sir Walter Scott.

CD should regard MS as a draft and correct anything that seems incorrect or questionable. Asks biographical questions about Dr Darwin. Can CD give information about origin of family name?

Summary

Had doubts about excerpt from Anna Seward’s book [Life of Dr Darwin]. Sends slightly enlarged version of his "Erasmus Darwin". Includes footnote denouncing Seward’s book.

Finds that part 2 of ED’s Botanic garden, 2d ed. (1790), appeared before part 1 (1791).

Summary

Thanks CD for permission to print ["Sketch of an infant"] in Kosmos.

Discusses children’s ability to distinguish colours.

Describes disagreements among German supporters of CD. Discusses reaction of German protestants to Darwinism.

Summary

Thanks CD for copy of Movement in plants. It will be reviewed in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 258–71] by Hermann Müller.

Kosmos will probably cease publication. Publisher has decided to sell.

Fritz Müller has suffered from flood.

Müller’s latest letter contains a polemic against Wagner’s migration theory,

and some interesting observations on Crustacea.

Summary

Comments on Pangenesis. Quotes long passage from article by Fritz Müller concerning regeneration of lost members among crustaceans.

Kosmos has been sold to Eduard Koch in Stuttgart; will be converted into a weekly. Science will be de-emphasised. Krause seeking new publisher to continue on old basis.

Gustav Jäger injured in train accident.

Summary

Thanks for English edition [of Erasmus Darwin]. John Murray has not answered letters of German publisher. Questions CD about persons mentioned in book, in order to annotate German edition.

Summary

Asks CD for reference to the edition of Kosmos that contains the original of Ernst Krause’s article on Dr Erasmus Darwin. There are serious differences between the translation by W. S. Dallas and the Feb [1879] article by Krause on which CD, in the preface to Erasmus Darwin, says it was based. SB notes in particular that the concluding sentence of the translation, which is clearly aimed at [SB’s] Evolution, old and new, is not in the original. Since readers will assume the text of Erasmus Darwin was written before his book appeared, SB asks for an explanation.