Summary

Eldest daughter [Henrietta] very ill.

CD enjoys Owen’s having had "a good setting down".

Summary

If jaw belongs to Archaeopteryx, it will show great peculiarity. A German author has advanced the case as argument for Origin.

Summary

Arranges a time for visiting HF.

Summary

Thanks for information about Pliocene mammal. Interested in relating process of formation to duration of the species. Oswald Heer’s view that species suddenly formed surely false.

Bad summer with much sickness. Going to Malvern [for water-cure] for a month.

Muddled over phyllotaxy and made out nothing.

Summary

Invites him to visit. JDH and one or two others coming.

Summary

Sends address.

Comments on BAAS meeting at Newcastle.

Summary

Thinking about HF’s paper on Plagiaulax [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck mammals are marsupials.

Summary

Extreme interest in MS of HF’s paper on the American fossil elephant [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 43–114].

Pleased HF does not believe in immutable species. Significance of proboscidean group verging towards extinction. Comments on natural selection preserving type despite variability. Natural selection solves problem of how every part of each creature has become adapted.

Summary

Although their views differ, HF is glad they can discuss those differences without offending.

Summary

Wanted to talk with CD about the astonishing new Pliocene fossil discoveries in North America reported by Leidy. One horse fossil’s dentition, if it could be believed, would be of great interest to CD’s views.