Summary

Mentions review [of Variation] in the Athenæum [15 Feb 1868, pp. 243–4].

Comments on adaptive utility of the right hand, an organ still undergoing specialisation.

Summary

Regrets he cannot come to hear DS’s paper ["On the structure of Mont Blanc", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 11 (1855): 11–27]. Has a lively interest in the subject.

Edward Forbes has misrepresented his view on foliation and cleavage [Athenæum 30 Sept 1854].

CD is convinced DS’s view will replace Huttonian and Lyellian view of metamorphic schists.

Recommends H. C. Sorby’s paper [probably "On the origin of slaty cleavage", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].

Summary

Does not think much of the arguments of the Duke [of Argyll], though liberal and complimentary to himself.

THH’s Athenæum letter ["Man and the apes", 30 Mar 1861, p. 433] almost too civil. What a thorn THH must be to Owen.

Summary

Fears England and U. S. will drift into war; he and AG must "keep to Science".

Thanks for facts on Incas; regrets he has always avoided the case of man.

Has sent his Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105].

Is it true that Ohio has legislated against marriage of cousins?

Can AG explain the invariable angles in phyllotaxy; are they the consequence of packing in the early bud?

Owen’s comments on heterogeny in the Athenæum [28 Mar 1863] have vexed W. B. Carpenter; CD has replied [Collected papers 2: 78–80].

Hopes AG will observe Gymnadenia; John Scott has been experimenting on its fertilisation.

Gives his observation on pollination of Cypripedium.

Summary

Thanks CD for sending his book [Descent].

Summary

Seeks support for election of his nephew, Henry Parker, to the Athenaeum.

Summary

Samuel Butler’s fierce attack on CD and EK in Athenæum. CD’s sentence saying that EK had altered his Kosmos article was accidentally omitted from second proofs. Butler insinuates that EK’s attack on his book was suggested by CD or interpolated by him in EK’s text.

Summary

Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.

Summary

Asks WBC for his vote and influence in favour of Albert Dicey at the Athenaeum balloting.

CD feels "as old as Methusalem".

Summary

JL’s review of Lyell’s Antiquity of man (1863) [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 211–19].

Owen’s review of W. B. Carpenter in Athenæum [28 Mar 1863, pp. 417–19].

Summary

Bound copies [of Descent] have been dispatched to CD.

Robert Cooke, JM’s cousin and partner, has been nominated for Athenaeum; asks CD’s support.

Begs CD not to permit any notice by F. P. Cobbe to appear until after next week.

Summary

The Athenæum article [review of Variation, 15 Feb 1868, pp. 243–4] is a disgrace.

WSD will keep CD’s queries about Hemiptera in mind. Secondary sexual characters are certainly more marked in exotic than in British species.

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

Changes in admission to Athenaeum.

Slowly working at his volume on Variation.

Experiments on insectivorous and "sensitive" plants.

Summary

Another message about club elections.

Summary

Relates some of his observations on the behaviour and activity of earthworms.

Summary

CD does not mind C. R. Bree’s dull, unvarying abuse and misrepresentation, but when he doubts CD’s deliberate word, "that is the act of a man who has not the soul of a gentleman in him".

JSH’s letter in Athenæum ["Flints in the drift", 20 Oct. 1860, p. 516] is interesting.

H. Freke’s paper [On the origin of species by means of organic affinity (1861)] is beyond CD’s scope.