Summary

Thanks for £5 for the Voysey fund.

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.

Summary

In hunting dogs behavioural and physical traits are often inherited together and from either male or female parent.

Summary

Informs CD that there are goats at Nancy with maxillary appendages similar to those of the ancient Irish pig [see Variation 1: 75].

Summary

Replies to CD’s queries about the homologies of the avicularian and vibracular organs of Polyzoa and gives examples of gradations between the two.

Summary

Writes to check on stock certificates received.

Summary

Sees mistake he made on certificates; will make list for future use.

Summary

Prefers W. C. Wells’s explanation of the formation of the Nehro type to CD’s sexual selection.

Outlines his view of the origin of man by natural selection.

Summary

Is turning to experiments with rats, "Siamesed together" for cross-circulation.

Summary

Location of stock certificates.

Summary

Requests CD’s autograph.

Sends photograph of an emblem, which he uses as his personal symbol: "Moleshott, Büchner, Darwin: Scienza e Natura, Forza e Materia".

Summary

Georgina [Tollet?] is eager to see a copy of Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].

Summary

Believes CD will not consider him a good Darwinian since he accepts natural selection only as a secondary law.

Summary

Observations on behaviour of spiders in Astrakhan and Turkestan.

Summary

There is a primary law of growth and innate improvement. Natural selection is a secondary law that operates to "arrange the details". This is not Lamarckian, because will is not involved.

Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].

Amused by critics who say CD is metaphysically unsophisticated.

Summary

Geese do not commonly sift water through their bills for food, as they feed on land. A few have well-developed lamellae for sifting. Will have his son check at Zoological Garden.

Summary

Reports on variations in the development of lamellae and how the bills are used in several kinds of geese. Will send skins for examination.

Summary

Surprised at Mivart’s harsh review [Q. Rev. 131 (1871): 47–90], considering courteous tone of his book. Assures CD he has not been converted by Mivart.

Summary

On St G. J. Mivart’s Genesis of species and Chauncey Wright’s review of it [North Am. Rev. (July 1871)].

Summary

Offers his services for the future.

Working hard at establishing physiology at Cambridge.