Summary

Flora of Cameroons shakes JDH’s faith in ability to explain past or present migrations. Sees need for a major novel explanation such as natural selection, glacial cold, or continental connections.

Lyell in a bad way about feud with Falconer.

JDH’s opinion of Wallace, Bates, J. E. Gray, Owen, Asa Gray, Lubbock, and Bentham.

Bentham’s Linnean Society address [see 4118].

Summary

Comments on his fear that "so many heavy guns fired by great men" might influence the public and scientists.

Sends CL the Owen-inspired Wilberforce review [Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].

Mentions defence of Origin by Asa Gray at American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Agassiz and Theophilus Parsons have poor criticisms ["Prof. Agassiz on the origin of species", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 30 (1860): 142–54].

Lists other negative reviews by Rudolph Wagner ["An essay on classification by Louis Agassiz", Göttingische Gelehrte Anz. (1860) pt 2: 761–800], Charles Daubeny ["Remarks on the final causes of the sexuality of plants, with particular reference to Mr Darwin’s work On the origin of species by natural selection", Rep. BAAS 30 (1860) pt 2: 109–10], and two anonymous ones (one favourable).

Huxley says K. E. von Baer "goes a long way with us".

Comments on "pipes" in chalk as evidence of geological processes still at work.

Is writing on origin of dog breeds [Variation 1: 15–43].

Summary

A son [George Howard Darwin] was born on Wednesday.

Sends queries on Galapagos flora.

Discusses JDH’s comments on [Journal of researches].

CD feels that with his views on descent "really Nat. Hist. becomes a sublimely grand result-giving subject".

"How differently people view the same subject, for I look at insular Floras … as leading to an opposite view to yours."

Summary

Sends information about Pliocene fauna of the "Forest Bed" of the Norfolk coast.

A genus described as extinct by Owen is found by E. A. I. H. Lartet to exist in Russia.

Edouard Suess attributes to Oswald Heer and HF the generalisation "That the time during which a new species is formed, is (as a rule) very short in comparison with the time during which it persistently presents the same peculiar specific characters". [Edouard Suess, "Über die Verschiedenheit und die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiären Landfaunen in der Niederung von Wien", Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (Math-naturw. Klasse) 47 (1863): 306–31.] [See 4277.]

Summary

Second issue [of Variation] is ready.

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

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

Reports on the international support he has obtained for the zoological station [see 7038]. Asks CD whether he will serve on a board of naturalists who would receive an annual report on the station.

Huxley is now convinced by AD’s views on homologies of the nervous system of arthropods, annelids, and vertebrates. Kovalevsky takes the same line but does not go far enough.

Summary

Extract from Athenæum 11 May [1878], p. 606, of R. I. Lynch on germination of the provision tree.

Summary

Orders books: J. R. Leifchild, The higher ministry of nature (1872);

Hermann Müller, The application of the Darwinian theory to flowers [(1872?), reprint from Am. Nat. 5 (1871): 271–97];

and a review by J. B. Hunter.

Summary

Agrees that naval expeditions to the Arctic are a waste of money. Believes Sir J. Barrow responsible. "Dr [Richard?] King is quite right in the advantage of Land Expeditions".

Summary

Gives reference to his observations on tendrils [Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4: 98–9].

Notes cases in which the pollen of the fertilising plant affects the form of the fruit of the fertilised plant, e.g., gourds and maize.

Discusses the Civil War and the attitudes of the English press.

Summary

Curious about author of review of Origin in Athenæum.

W. B. Carpenter has written and sounds converted, as has Quatrefages [de Bréau], who will "go a long way with" CD.

Has been ill and thus had time to brood about reception of book.

Summary

William Spottiswoode was not at home, but JT sought out Herbert Spencer. Spencer will come with JT to see CD [about the Huxley fund].

Summary

Thanks JDH for agreeing to observe coats of asses and mules in Middle East.

Asks for observations on vigour of plants as JDH ascends mountains.

Ad hominem article in Athenæum [review of John Tyndall, Glaciers of the Alps, 1 Sept 1860, pp. 280–2].

Reports extensive experiments on Drosera.

Observations on orchid anatomy.

Summary

Congratulations on Professorship.

Homologies between Drosera and Dionaea. Carbonate of ammonia on roots. Wants W. H. Fitch to make drawings of Dionaea. Will copy minute structure of hairs from Trécul [see 2965].

Summary

A friend of EAD’s has removed a CD letter pasted into a book given by CD to a library, and kept it lest the author think CD did not like his book.

Summary

Returns Anthropological Review.

Asks to borrow Desmarest on Crustacea [Considérations générales sur la classe des crustacés (1825)].

Has been reading JL’s address to the Entomological Society [Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 3d. ser. 5 (1865–7): cxiii–cxxxi].

Would like to hear JL’s conclusion for or against Pangenesis.

Summary

Very glad about profits of book. Glad CD flummoxed Mivart.

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

Thanks for information on printing charges

and for clarifying "typical forms".

In a few days CD will go away for six weeks.