Summary

Thanks LS for his advice and his kind note. When CD thinks how he has been treated he will say to himself "so good a judge as Leslie Stephen thinks nothing of the accusation".

Summary

Thanks FGMP for his sympathetic and very kind letter.

Summary

CD is pleased with EK’s account in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 321–2] of the Buffon and Coleridge passage [cited by Samuel Butler, see 12939, 12969]. Would like a translation published in England, but Butler seeks notoriety and would make unscrupulous use of it. Will ask advice. Thinks EK’s letter to Popular Science Monthly, just received, an excellent reply to Butler.

Summary

Further comments on JW’s Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen [1881]. Discusses heliotropism and sensitivity of root tips. Bewildered by their differences concerning circumnutation.

Summary

Says that salt water kills earthworms.

Interested in ERL’s study of worm anatomy.

Summary

Has been reading Julius von Wiesner’s book [Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen (1881)]. Comments that it is "an excellent book, but he vivisects me in the most grievous terms, but most effectively".

Has been experimenting on aggregation of chlorophyll but with little success.

Summary

Discusses allegation [about Erasmus Darwin] made by Samuel Butler. Will value LS’s verdict highly.

Summary

JL’s address [Presidential Address, 31 Aug 1881, Rep. BAAS (1881): 1–51] has made him think about important steps in advancing geology. Lists major advances in his lifetime.

Summary

Uncle Erasmus is ill.

Thanks WED for his trouble about the cottages.

He has signed the note to Higgins.

CD has used WED’s Rhododendron case in Earthworms [p. 69].

Is using paper triangles in experiments on intelligence of worms.

Summary

All his advisers agree that CD ought not to take notice of Butler’s attack.

F. M. Balfour has offered to translate EK’s reply to Butler and to send it to Nature. [The letter was published in Nature 23 (1881): 288.]

Summary

Some papers have arrived for FD.

Comments on the work of Phillipe van Tieghem who evidently knows nothing of insectivorous plants.

Leslie Stephen’s visit to Down went off well.

Summary

Declines to provide testimonial for J. C. Ewart, since he has already done so for Lankester. Was also asked by W. C. M’Intosh.

Summary

Earthworms is selling well.

Discussed how to repeat some of their plant experiments while in Cambridge.

Comments on Julius Wiesner’s views on plant movement.

S. H. Vines was very much surprised at the action of carbonate of ammonia on the roots of Euphorbia.

Summary

Discusses earthworm activity

and animal grazing on slopes.

Summary

Thanks EK for his article [on CD’s Movement in plants].

Admires EK’s wide interest in science. Would like to send him something to publish in Kosmos.

Fears his new book [Earthworms] will hardly do, but will send sheets when printed so that EK can decide whether any chapter or a part of one will serve. Victor Carus’s consent would be needed for publication in Kosmos, and CD will ask for it.

Summary

No Benjamin Franklin letters to Erasmus Darwin preserved.

Was inaccurate about Franklin’s nephews [in Erasmus Darwin].

Recounts story about Franklin at court of France.

Summary

Wishes to draw up a new will; outlines the changes to be made in the provisions.

Summary

Division of CW’s share [of E. A. Darwin’s estate]. Investment advice.

Recounts his memories of their mother and of her death. Remembers "her black velvet gown and her work table and the death scene", but cannot remember her face. Remembers that Caroline "always acted like a mother" to him and Catherine.

Summary

Discusses some business matters

and E. A. Darwin’s health.

Summary

Writes of WED’s certificate for the Geological Society

and discusses various instances of earthworm activity.