Summary

Returns Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63].

Summary

Returns [Fritz?] Müller’s work [probably Für Darwin (1864)]. It is a remarkable memoir.

Summary

Anxious to make acquaintance of Ernst Haeckel [who was staying with CD].

Summary

Has read abstract of JL’s paper ["On the present state of archaeological science", Athenæum 21 July 1866, pp. 79–82] and praises it.

Summary

Asks JL to look up a paper by Thomas Hincks on Polyzoa or Bryozoa [Q. J. Microsc. Sci. 2d ser. 1 (1861): 278–81].

Summary

Herbert Spencer is staying with the Lubbocks and would much like to see CD.

Summary

Local matters.

Summary

John Lubbock wants a copy of Origin (4th ed.) for Philip Norman.

Summary

Age at which babies first shed tears.

Summary

Did not think JDH had written Murray review [see 5217].

Does not think Gardeners’ Chronicle best for publication of "Insular floras" [Gard. Chron. (1867): 6–7, 27, 50–1, 75–6].

T. Laxton’s article, on direct action of pollen of peas on seed and pod, a grand physiological fact and "delightful" for Pangenesis.

Interview with Herbert Spencer.

Summary

Hooker’s lecture to BAAS ["Insular floras"] was capital,

but hears Wallace’s paper [Address to Anthropology Section, Rep. BAAS 36 (1866): 93–4] was best.

Pleased RS continues zealous work for natural history.

CD considers the report that N. American antelopes’ horns are intermediate between hollow and solid horns of ruminants to be one of the more curious facts he has lately heard of with respect to higher animals [C. A. Canfield, "On the habits of the prongbuck", Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1866): 105–11].

Summary

Orchids.

Lyell has written to JDH about coal-plants of Melville Island.

Has glanced at first edition of Principles and has no doubt that Lyell meant the whole globe was cooler when land was massed at poles. JDH doubts this.

Summary

Family news. Describes [final] illness of Susan Darwin [d. 3 Oct 1866]. CD’s health better.

Making rapid progress on Variation.

Has heard of hybrids between moths mentioned by WDF.

Work on [4th] edition of Origin has delayed Variation.

Summary

Balbiani’s puzzling observations on Aphis.

Summary

JDH sends a list of the principal confirmatory evidences of CD’s theory which he has prepared at W. R. Grove’s request for Nottingham speech ["Presidential address", Rep. BAAS 26 (1866): liii–lxxxi].

Summary

On various subjects: Dana’s misquotations,

H. J. Clark’s book Mind in nature [1865],

BDW’s Cynips experiments, galls,

Balbiani’s paper on aphids ["Sur la reproduction et l’embryogénie des pucerons", C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. 62 (1866): 1231–4, 1285–9, 1390–4].

Claus and other Germans testing CD’s views of variability in common lower animals.

Summary

Thanks CD for 4th ed. of Origin.

Discusses abnormal sexual characters produced by mimicry. ARW’s papers on the subject.

Agassiz’s "marvellous" Amazonian glacier theory.

Summary

Plants arrived.

Delightful dinner at Lyell’s.

Will be interested in seeds passed through a fowl.

Wedgwood medallions were bought by a Miss W. [Sophy Wedgwood] of Leith Hill.

Lubbock’s account of a new centipede at Linnean Society gave rise to lively discussion by Busk and Huxley.

Summary

Orders Richard Owen’s Anatomy of vertebrates [1866–8],

subscribes to Annals and Magazine of Natural History,

and orders three back numbers of Medical Times and Gazette.

Summary

On his "Insular floras" lecture.

Huxley’s success as President of Section.

D. W. R. Grove’s address. Grove left Darwinism to JDH after "sounding the charge".