Summary

Thanks for birthday greetings.

Comments on work at Naples Zoological Station. F. M. Balfour to visit Naples. Would like to send third son [Francis Darwin] to learn art of observing marine animals.

Health indifferent.

Summary

AD exaggerates what CD has done for science.

On the Zoological Yearbook, CD thinks it would be an excellent plan to give an account of zoological publications from all countries in a single work.

Summary

News of Naples Zoological Station developments.

His remarks on physiology in the Academy were aimed at Prof. Ludwig and his school.

The usual "exact" methods in experimental physiology want only a little pushing to put an end to superstition.

Recounts how he had worked out the explanation of Rhizocephala morphology via the Anelasma – an example of both the power of inheritance and the power of genealogical investigation. R. Kossman’s work has now confirmed AD’s explanation.

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.