Summary

Thanks for the copy of Orchids.

Summary

Two thousand more copies of Origin to be printed. Has CD any corrections to make?

Type for Cross and self-fertilisation, Orchids, and Forms of flowers must now be broken up. If CD does not object, Murray will have stereotypes made of the three works. Asks for any corrections CD may want embodied.

Summary

French translation of Insectivorous plants published.

Climbing plants has not sold well.

Summary

Forwards a copy of his book Diseases of women [1877].

Summary

Thanks for letter. Values CD’s opinion more than that of anybody else.

Perfectly astonished at reception CD got among popular audiences at GJR’s lectures.

Summary

Answers CD’s query about payment made to him [for Descent and Forms of flowers] and explains the basis on which it was made. Because of CD’s wish to be paid before editions are sold off, profits must be estimated. If he were willing to accept annual statements of sales, payments based on them, and final accounting when all were sold, there would be no uncertainty. This is JM’s usual practice.

Summary

Is writing Diseases of women [1877]; sends some proof-sheets for criticism.

Summary

Attributes the Castilian accent of speech of deaf and dumb men to imitation of their teachers’ lip movements.

Summary

Sends another extract [from Diseases of women (1877)].

Has reviewed Cross and self-fertilisation in the Spectator.

Summary

Thanks CD for permission to quote his comments; mentions some of his conclusions with regard to the early speech of children.

Thanks for [newspaper] account of American Philological Association meeting.

Summary

Pleased CD is satisfied with translation of Cross and self-fertilisation.

Sends £20 royalties for Insectivorous plants (700 sold).

Summary

Sexual selection, he thinks, must be left to others to settle. "Conscious" will be substituted for "voluntary" selection. Sound- and scent-producing organs attributed to "natural", not "conscious", selection.

Summary

All young intelligent French naturalists support CD. But the professors are afraid of being called materialists, atheists, or communists.

A paper of his ["Sur l’origine paléontologique", C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. 84 (1877): 534–7] met with silence, except from Bureau. If only France had become Protestant!

Summary

JDH cannot attend at the bestowal of CD’s honorary doctorate at Cambridge.

O. C. Marsh is rash to suggest all vertebrate types originated in America.

Summary

Galton agrees with GJR about rudimentary organs.

GJR’s note referred to possibility of selection acting on organic types as distinguished from individuals.

Thinks Grant Allen has not made out his point [in Physiological aesthetics (1877)], but his fundamental principle probably has much truth.

Summary

Would like to see the Kosmos article.

Is considering producing a translation of August Weismann’s essays.

Comments on Wallace’s paper on the colours of animals and plants [Macmillan’s Magazine 36 (1877): 384–408, 464–71].

Summary

Sends letter clipped from Manchester Courier on CD’s accounting for scarcity of holly berries by scarcity of bees, and writer’s explanation of latter.

Summary

Orchids [2d ed.] will soon be published.

1000 more copies of Descent [2d ed.] will soon have to be printed, so CD could send any alterations to be made in the plates.

Summary

Criticises Herbert Spencer’s Principles of sociology, particularly for its treatment of the family, for its superficiality, and for its dependence on J. F. McLennan’s views on exogamy. Americans are coming to see Spencer’s ideas as too broad.

Summary

Reports on French translations of Cross and self-fertilisation, Climbing plants, and Insectivorous plants.