Summary

CD and ED bequeath an annuity of £50 to J. Parslow [the Darwins’ butler].

Summary

Sends an allotment of shares which he presumes are Emma’s.

Summary

Health very bad. All scientific work stopped for 2½ months.

E. B. Tylor’s Early history of mankind [1865] impresses him.

Would like JDH’s opinion of last number of Spencer’s [Principles of] Biology [vol. 1 (1864)], especially on umbellifers. CD not satisfied with Spencer’s views on irregular flowers.

ED reports on CD’s health.

Summary

Huxley’s capital, witty letter.

Charles Kingsley has written of his interest in "Climbing plants".

Health has been very bad.

Summary

Bad month of sickness. John Chapman’s ice bag on spine.

Does not quite agree with JDH about Lubbock’s plagiarism charges. Lyell’s memory must have failed him.

Summary

Gratified by AG’s praise of "Climbing plants".

Thanks for Specularia seed.

Summary

Notes on the caste system of India; its influences on form and habit.

Summary

Falconer’s death haunts him. Personal annihilation not so horrifying to him as sun cooling some day and human race ending.

His health has been wretched.

Masters has written his agreement with CD’s "Climbing plants".

Summary

Studying moraines.

On Lubbock’s book [see 4860], and Lyell’s apology. Recapitulates whole affair.

W. E. H. Lecky [Rise of rationalism in Europe (1865)] and other reading.

Spencer’s observations are wrong on umbellifers, his reasoning partially right.

Natural History Review is all but defunct.

Summary

Reports on progress of ice treatment.

Summary

Is working one hour a day now, on illegitimate seedlings of Lythrum and Primula.

Begins to doubt John Scott’s accuracy about primrose and cowslip.

Does JDH believe in Karsten’s denial of parthenogenesis of Coelebogyne?

Summary

Not surprised at delay of his book [Generelle Morphologie (1866)].

P. M. Duncan taking side of evolution.

Has received paper on Geryonidae ["Über eine neue Form des Generationswechsels bei den Medusen", Monatsber. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1865): 85–94]. Had often speculated on whether such a case ever occurred in nature.

Summary

Sends specimen of Californian fish that inhabits mountain lakes. The lakes often dry up and the fish have developed legs to enable them to wander in search of water.

Summary

Sends camera outlines of pollen. Thinks the red longstyled ones are more sterile than the yellow.

Summary

CD would be proud to be one of EW’s series [Portraits of men of eminence (1863–7)]. If he goes to London in the summer he will call on Mr Edwards [the photographer].

Summary

How did CD handle his sons’ expenses at Cambridge?

Summary

Impressed by Fritz Müller’s argument for natural selection in air-breathing apparatus of crustaceans ["The Darwinian hypothesis supported by observations on Crustacea", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 15 (1865): 410–16].

Plans to visit CD.

Summary

Agrees with JDH on difference in grief over loss of father and of child. His love of his father.

The Reader.

Politics and science.

Health improved by Bence Jones’s diet.

[Dated "Thursday 27th" by CD.]

Summary

Asks JC to pay him a professional visit at Down to consider whether the ice treatment would apply to his case. Describes his sickness.

Summary

Sends Fritz Müller citation as CD requested.

Huxley is boldly proclaiming his Darwinism at Royal Institution ["Methods and results of ethnology", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 4: 460–3; also Collected essays 7 (1894)].