Summary

Amazed that Hugo von Mohl and E. M. Fries are not foreign members of Royal Society; Thomson going over the whole matter.

Candolle’s contribution to botany.

Lubbock shocked about Wollaston.

CD’s answer to Greg was capital.

Comments on Variation.

Charles Murchison’s work on Falconer’s Memoirs [Palaeontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer (1868)] and JDH on Falconer.

Summary

CD was frustrated by the delay [in producing index for Variation], but was quite mollified by WSD’s note; is sorry the work turned out so badly for him.

Summary

Aggressive behaviour of a bullfinch toward new arrival in JJW’s aviary.

Sexual differences in goldfinches: size of beaks.

Sexual selection in Lepidoptera.

Thinks Dr Alex Wallace’s observations on Bombyx not conclusive in proving that no preference is shown by females.

Summary

JDH too severe on Duke of Argyll.

Pities JDH on [BAAS] address [see 6099]; Huxley feels JDH will do well and will not pity him.

Thinks Huxley will give an excellent and original lecture on geographical distribution of birds.

Has been working hard on sexual selection and correspondence about it.

Mignonette is sterile with its own pollen but any two distinct plants are fertile together. It is utterly mysterious and not even Pangenesis will explain it.

On Lyell’s book [Principles, 10th ed.].

Wallace’s wonderful cleverness, but he is not cautious enough. CD differs from Wallace on birds’ nests and protection.

A. Murray’s miserable criticism of Wallace [J. Travel & Nat. Hist. 1 (1868): 137–45].

Summary

Second issue [of Variation] is ready.

Murray thinks that the Athenæum review was written by J. E. Gray [see 5931].

Summary

WSD is delighted to hear that first edition [of Variation] has sold so well.

Has received a cheque from J. Murray for 30 guineas, double what was agreed upon. Sends a postal order for the five guineas CD sent him [see 5788].

Summary

Asks JM to consider publishing a MS on John Wesley by CD’s niece, Frances Julia Wedgwood [John Wesley and the evangelical reaction of the eighteenth century (1870)].

Has received clean sheets for Italian translation [of Variation?].

Summary

Thanks JM for presentation copies [of Variation]. Sends directions and list.

Has been told positively that hostile review in Athenæum was by Berthold Seemann, to whom he once refused a testimonial.

On the whole, reviews have been very good.

Summary

Heartily glad for JM’s sake at sale [of Variation]. Thinks JM right to publish a smaller second edition, for "the public will soon find out that it is dull" – though scientifically valuable. The index is excellent. CD is "always greedy" for presentation copies.

Summary

Questions arising in German translation of Variation; its sales prospects. CD from the first has said it was very doubtful that the book was worth translating.

Summary

Discusses possible English translation of A. E. Brehm’s [Illustrirtes] Thierleben [1864–9].

Asks for permission to use 15 of Brehm’s illustrations [in Descent].

Summary

Thanks for Nathusius [Die Racen des Schweines (1860)].

CD will call on JEG to hear his views on specific differences of pigs.

Does not know who has "cut me up so severely" in the Athenæum but suspects "your great man in the Museum" [Richard Owen].

Summary

B. D. Walsh has not received his copy of Variation. Several other foreign correspondents have similar complaints.

Summary

Rejoices over news of Variation sales.

Pall Mall Gazette review [7 (1868): 555, 636, 652] is undoubtedly by G. H. Lewes [see 5951].

Dinner at Lyells’.

Dean Stanley favours a monument to Faraday in Westminster Abbey.

Perceval Wright is back from Seychelles and reports on plants he collected.

Summary

JM will send another copy of Variation to B. D. Walsh.

Summary

F. Müller’s corrections warrant stating that the English translation has "additions and corrections by the author".

Is gratified to hear his index [to Variation] is considered a good one.

Ernst Haeckel’s book [Generelle Morphologie (1868)], though speculative, strikes him as "one of the most remarkable books of our time".

Summary

In response to CD’s letter of 21 April, TE has forwarded the 67 clichés of the woodcuts from Fritz Müller’s work [Für Darwin (1864)]; acknowledges CD’s cheque for £3 6s. in payment.

Summary

Does not understand JDH on Pangenesis: on last page he appears to admit all that he regards as mere words on previous pages.

Wallace admires chapter on Pangenesis.

Pangenesis is a comfort. CD gains no idea from words like "potentiality" or "diffusing an influence"; atoms and cells give a distinct idea.

A. Newton told George that Berthold Seemann wrote the Athenæum review

and that Lewis [Lewes] did not write the Pall Mall Gazette review [see 5874].

Summary

Requests entomological data on sexual selection, especially proportions of sexes.

Sends Queries about expression with note: "a great hobby of mine".

Summary

JEG’s paper on pigs is being printed [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1868): 17–49].

Colouring in horses.