Summary

Expresses his support for new books being sold with the pages cut.

Summary

B. J. Sulivan offers fossil leaves from Eocene beds at Bournemouth to CD or JDH. Does JDH want them, or should they go to Oswald Heer?

Has written to Athenæum [see 5308] about publishers cutting pages of their books.

Summary

C. Reinwald wishes to publish a French translation [of Movement in plants] but is doubtful on account of cost. CD wants to supply him with stereotypes of the 195 cuts at prime cost.

Summary

Is not writing prospectus [of Variation] – merely sketch of contents and tenor of first volume for advertisement to booksellers.

Questions on details for the translation.

Publisher anxious to get volume out.

Summary

Has not heard from Appleton about an American edition [of Forms of flowers]. Asks how many copies Murray is printing.

Summary

New edition of Descent just off the press. Murray feels price must be 9s instead of 12s, if it is to sell. This will reduce profit to almost nil.

Summary

An absurd error ("Election" for "Selection") in the advertisement of Variation. Dallas is the best man for index.

Summary

Reception of ARW’s book, Malay Archipelago.

Summary

Gives up plan to have Haeckel’s Generelle morphologie translated.

His big book [Variation] has gone to printer. Thinks of adding a chapter on man.

Will order Duke of Argyll’s book [Reign of law (1867)].

"Nature never made species mutually sterile [by selection]; nor will man.–"

Summary

Variation to be published at end of month.

Dimorphism and self-sterility.

Seed dissemination in Adenanthera.

Summary

Has no idea about length of index [for Descent]. W. S. Dallas wrote it would take ten days more. Asks how many presentation copies he may have. Lists journals to receive review copies.

Summary

Insectivorous plants ready for publication. Asks price. Suggests advertisements in Nature and Gardeners’ Chronicle.

Summary

Relieved by JM’s note and by his agreement on type size. Is alarmed by what the verdict [on Variation] of JM’s friend will be. He is not a man of science. An unscientific reader would have condemned the Origin. An eminent semi-scientific man thought the Journal of researches not worth publishing.

Summary

Thanks for presentation copy of Descent.

Mivart’s Genesis of species [1871] is poor.

Mathematical illustrations of Pangenesis at Cambridge.

Wallace’s address on Madeira not convincing ["The President’s Address", Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. (1870): xliv–lxix; A. R. Wallace, Studies scientific and social (1900) 1: 250–66].

Summary

Mentions review [of Variation] in the Athenæum [15 Feb 1868, pp. 243–4].

Comments on adaptive utility of the right hand, an organ still undergoing specialisation.

Summary

Could not believe Owen to be so demoniacal as to write the Athenæum review [of Variation].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [see 5918] is weak. CD’s ideas on causes of variation may be as hazy as the reviewer’s.

Huxley’s clever remark on Pangenesis. JDH’s view of Pangenesis as fundamental to development doctrines, but nothing is gained by formulation in terms of germs or gemmules.

Tries to answer question on last page of CD’s letter anent sexuality.

Summary

Amazed that Hugo von Mohl and E. M. Fries are not foreign members of Royal Society; Thomson going over the whole matter.

Candolle’s contribution to botany.

Lubbock shocked about Wollaston.

CD’s answer to Greg was capital.

Comments on Variation.

Charles Murchison’s work on Falconer’s Memoirs [Palaeontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer (1868)] and JDH on Falconer.

Summary

Reports on events at Exeter [BAAS] meeting. G. G. Stokes made a first-rate President.

Huxley "poured boiling oil" over James McCann in answer to his "conceited dogmatic sermon".

F. A. W. Miquel is coming to stay.