Summary

JW’s case of black hogs shows marvellous relation of colour and constitution.

Could JW get information about eyes of cave rat?

Was JW struck by length of hind legs of male cattle?

CD has long shared JW’s doubts that mutilations were ever inherited but Brown-Séquard’s case seems to settle question.

Is not case of cats with blue eyes being deaf very odd?

Spinal stripes on horse too common to explain in way informant supposes.

Believes Owen "goes a long way with us", though he attacked CD in Edinburgh Review.

"No one other person understands me so thoroughly as Asa Gray."

Summary

"You cannot tell how much your paper on Gestation has interested me" ["On some unusual modes of gestation in batrachians and fishes", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 27 (1859): 5–13].

Robert McDonnell has made curious discoveries on electrical organs of rays.

Is giving JW’s hog case in corrected ed. [3d] of Origin.

Would like account of tip of tail of young rattlesnake.

Summary

Can there be any truth in account of rattlesnakes fascinating their prey? Structure of rattle complex.

Fears it will be impossible to show gradation among other snakes.

Has JW seen Robert McDonnell’s article on electrical organ in skate ["On an organ in the skate", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 57–60]?

Thanks for observations on Vespidae. Particularly values such cases of variation.

Summary

Experiments with string and elastic paper answered well.

Does JW know Ferdinand Cohn’s paper on contraction of stamens of certain Compositae [Edinburgh New Philos. J. n.s. 18 (1863): 190–4]?

Formerly made observations on movement in plants, but weak health has made it impossible to publish.

Summary

Obliged for JW’s information on variability of size of bees’ cells. Hexagonal cells not always work of several insects. W. H. Miller found great variability in thickness of cell walls.

Summary

Cases of monstrosities becoming transmissible.

Comments on passages in Origin on the blindness of the tucu-tucu (Ctenomys) and Mammoth Cave rats.

Summary

Responds to CD’s inquiries about rattlesnake.

Summary

Discusses the climbing movements of plants and describes experiment to establish a mechanical explanation for double spiralling movements of tendrils.

Summary

Has made observations on bees’ cells. Their dimensions are not constant, nor do single bees make single cells; each one is a result of co-operation.