Summary

Blyth’s effort to raise money for a Chinese expedition.

Comments on free-will in animals.

Says natural selection is not in the same category with Huxley’s "force" and "matter".

Discusses remarkable variation in period of gestation in dogs and ducks.

Discusses Arctic flora.

Has been working on orchids; they beat woodpeckers in adaptation.

Summary

Discusses relationship between natural selection and more general laws. Law of gravity is not seen as requiring design. Mentions mathematicians’ judgment of probability.

Notes gestation periods for hounds.

Etty is somewhat better.

Mentions his paper on fertilisation of orchids by insects [Collected papers 2: 32–5].

Summary

Discusses views of T. V. Wollaston concerning island species related to those of mainland; possible land connection between islands and mainland.

Comments on bats of Atlantic islands.

Plant extinction on St Helena.

Experiments on Drosera.

Bronn’s objections [to the Origin] at end of his translation.

Summary

Mentions extinction on St Helena.

Madeira and Canary Island insects are found at Cape of Good Hope.

Regrets errors on dingo in his manuscript on the dog.

Discusses crosses among pigeons.

Compares development in birds and mammals.

Plans to write about other domestic animals.

Discusses races of early man.

Falconer’s discoveries of fossil elephants.

Comments on articles by Asa Gray.

Summary

Comments on CL’s reaction to the Origin. Mentions reactions of other scientists.

Discusses fertility of Aspicarpa.

Criticises Herbert Spencer’s views on population.

Summary

Auguste Bravard’s discoveries magnificent.

Bravard has sent pamphlets [Observaciones geológicas (1857) and Monografia de los terrenos marinos terciarios (1858)] with strange doctrine that Pampean deposit is subaerial.

Review of Origin by Wollaston [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 5 (1860): 132–43] clever and misinterprets CD only in a few places.

Wallace’s MS ["Zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 4 (1860): 172–84] admirably good.

Henslow "will go very little way with us". "He, also, shudders at the eye!"

Baden Powell says CD’s statement about eye is conclusive.

Leonard Jenyns cannot go as far as CD, yet cannot give good reason.

Summary

Additional response, at length, to CL’s criticisms of natural selection. Comments on failure of rodents to develop in Australia. Argues that most species become extinct and do not develop. Discusses variability, especially variability of rudimentary organs. Extinction among ammonites. Survival of Ornithorhynchus. Descent of marsupials and placentals. Emphasises embryological argument for descent of species.

Summary

Comments on letter from Jeffries Wyman.

Discusses reprinting reviews by Asa Gray.

Mentions views of W. S. Symonds on the geological record.

Discusses descent of turtles and tortoises.

The universality of variation.

Notes only a few species leave modified descendants.

Discusses Apteryx.

Variation among pigeons.

Comments on fertility among hybrids.

Does not agree that he makes natural selection do too much work.

Summary

Discusses extinction of ammonites.

Discusses August Krohn’s cirripede research and Krohn’s correction of his own work.

Discusses origin of dog in connection with origin of man.

Comments on the guinea-pig in South America.

Notes K. E. von Baer’s view of species.

Mentions difficulty of crossing rabbit and hare.

Agrees with Hooker’s views on variation under cultivation and in nature.

Regrets use of term "natural selection", would now use "Natural Preservation".

Summary

Mentions Etty’s illness.

A "coarsely contemptuous" review of Origin by Samuel Haughton ["On the form of the cells made by various wasps and by the honey bee; with an appendix on the origin of species", Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Dublin 3 (1860): 128–40].

Comments on reception of Malthus’ ideas.

Says William Hopkins does not understand him.

Discusses problem of term "natural selection".

J. A. Lowell’s review of Origin [Christian Examiner (1860): 449–64].

Relationship between instinct and structure.

Discusses blindness of cave animals.

The fallacy of Andrew Murray and others; the slight importance of climate.

Summary

Has resolved not to correct Owen’s misrepresentations in his review of Origin.

Discusses at length the theological implications of natural selection.

Summary

Wonders why the coracoid bone in the flightless Apteryx is so large when the clavicles are reduced. The clavicles are even separate in the ostrich. The large coracoid in reptiles is explained by the connection to the forelimbs.

Summary

Discusses at length CL’s criticisms of natural selection.

Comments on possible former connection between the Galapagos and South America.

Discounts survival of mammals on atolls.

Discusses reptile origin of mammals.

Discounts development of a mammal on an island and the descent of mammals from a bird.

The antiquity of islands.

Comments on bats of New Zealand. Geographical distribution of seals. Discusses Amblyrhynchus.

Glad CL will read his MS on origin of dogs [Variation 1: 15–43].

Summary

Suggests references in Journal of researches 2d ed. in response to a query about the antiquity of man. Perplexed about S. S. Haldeman and Haldeman 1843–4. Glad to hear about A. C. Ramsay. Has received letter from H. G. Bronn.

Summary

Hopes to get Asa Gray’s review of Origin republished.

Argues for single origin of mammals.

Encloses two phylogenetic diagrams indicating possible descent of mammals.

Comments on rodents, marsupials, and dingo in Australia,

and on a paper on the survival of stumps as a result of root grafting.

Argues that man had a single progenitor and consists of a single species.

Comments on destruction of non-white races.

Discusses introduction of rodents to islands by man.

Summary

Sale of Origin requires new edition [3d (Apr 1861)].

Further discussion of geological elevation and subsidence in Europe. Compares evidence to that of South America. His theory that semi-fluid matter underlies earth’s crust.

Mentions David Forbes’s explanation of South American nitrate deposits.

Has followed CL’s advice not to reply directly to reviewers.

Summary

Praises CL’s work on human species.

A critical review of Origin in Saturday Review [24 Dec 1859].

A letter from J. G. Jeffreys criticises CD’s geological statements.

A note from William Whewell concerning Origin.

Summary

Discusses the intellectual development of the ancient Greeks as an objection to evolution and gives his reply.

Summary

Encloses advertisement [for C. R. Bree, Species not transmutable (1860)].

Discusses Bronn’s chapter of criticisms.

Mentions variation in rats.

Has ordered book by Bree.

Discusses suggestion that southern corners of Australia may once have been islands.

Mentions "wild speculations" about change in earth’s axes.

CL’s ideas on variation.

Summary

Is sending CL an arrow-head. Says John Lubbock tells of vast numbers of flint tools in peat in France. Urges CL to conduct further research on the subject.

Comments on paper by J. S. Newberry concerning palaeozoic deposits in America [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 208–18]

and on A. von Keyserling’s view of species change.

Mentions J. W. Salter’s chart arranging Spirifer.

Comments on Andrew Murray’s paper on the Origin ["On Mr Darwin’s theory of the origin of species", Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh 4 (1860): 274–91].

A Manchester newspaper article says CD has proved "might is right".