Summary

About elections to [an unspecified] club.

Summary

A set of electros of the woodcuts to Variation was sent to an Italian publisher in 1869, but no reply or payment has been made since then.

Summary

Gives directions for growing plants he has sent and corrects CD’s taxonomy.

Summary

Recounts the removal and regrowth of her son’s extra digit; her grandfather showed the same condition.

Summary

Has previously quoted details concerning the regrowth of her amputated extra digit in Variation [2: 14–15]. The case has since been disputed, so CD, who is revising his work, asks for some fuller details.

Summary

JM expresses his willingness to publish a new edition of Variation whenever CD revises it.

Descent [2d ed.] has not sold much since the annual sale – 1300 copies altogether.

Summary

BJS has just moved.

Gives the information he has of their old shipmates.

Tells of his brother’s misfortunes.

Summary

Asks that a copy of GHD’s paper on cousin marriage be sent to Hermann Müller. J. F. McLennan admires it "as a model".

Summary

Purpose of bushy tails; their usefulness to their owners as a means of keeping warm.

Summary

Sends CD a cheque for 68 guineas – his two-thirds share of profit on sale of 2000 copies of 2d edition of Descent.

Summary

Approves vivisection memorial.

Lyon Playfair supports his request for Kew assistant.

Asks whether CD has botanical suggestions for Arctic expedition.

Summary

CD’s Descent.

Fighting among beetles.

Similarity between dogs and men; intelligence of dogs.

Summary

Discusses the price to be charged to Appleton’s for the plates of Insectivorous plants.

Summary

Wants to study hereditary mental characters to see whether they are limited by sex – an idea CD holds provisionally and which she doubts. She sends a questionnaire form that she asks CD to criticise. Has read Francis Galton [Hereditary genius (1869)].

Summary

Encloses corrections and notes on Variation [1st ed.].

Summary

Gives an example of the power of reasoning shown by dogs.

Summary

New [3d] German edition of Descent will soon be out.

Will begin translating Journal of researches, which will be first volume of CD’s collected works.

JVC has proposed bringing out all CD’s botanical papers in one or two volumes.

Errata in Descent enclosed.

Summary

Thanks AD for his Ursprung [der Wirbelthiere (1875)], which astonished CD. AD’s views, if accepted by competent authorities, will show how much we have to learn about the history of every animal. Suggests caution on "degradation principle". Comments on other views in the work. Has long seen importance of the principle of "Functionswechsel" [transfer [change!?] of function], but never enunciated it as a distinct principle.

Summary

Is alarmed by the petitions against vivisection that are being circulated. Believes there is scope for reasonable legislation and would like to see eminent physiologists prepare a petition so that the science could be protected and animals saved from needless suffering.

Summary

Has read CD’s book on Drosera [Insectivorous plants] and found that it presents new material and is very interesting.

Has discovered that the parasites he thought he had found in Melipona nests are in fact true females. It is remarkable that they differ so greatly from the sterile females and males of their species.