Asks JT to support his nephew, Henry Parker, for election to the Athenaeum.

Asks AN to vote for CD’s nephew, Henry Parker, at the Athenaeum.

Criticises paper by Ziegler [see 9339].

Acid experiments on seeds have failed.

Sends photograph.

Comments on Mme P’s bulldogs.

Cannot answer AN’s questions about Origin; it would take weeks to find the references. Assures AN he stated nothing without an authority he thought good.

Feels sure missel thrushes have increased in number since his youth. Starlings have also increased astonishingly in Kent. "How inexplicable most of these cases are".

In a P.S. remembers his source for statement about increase of missel thrushes in Origin.

Can give no definite information. Believes severe winters are by far the most important check on numbers of birds; the destruction of eggs is of subordinate importance.

Testifies to the trustworthiness of Charles Pearson.

Comments on JS’s lecture on evolution ["Address on evolution", Aberdeen Daily Free Press 24 Feb 1874].

Thanks for information about Hedychium. Hopes wings of Sphinx will be found covered with pollen for that will be a fine bit of prophecy from the structure of a flower to special and new means of fertilisation.

Has been at Descent so hard he has done nothing, not even H. Spencer’s answer.

Has not yet read Croll ["Ocean currents", London Edinburgh & Dublin Philos. Mag. 47 (1874): 94–122, 168–90].

Has heard nothing about Carter and Eozoon. Eozoon, he infers, is done for.

Has read Belt [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)]: best of all natural history travel books.

Has written to Fritz Müller about leaf-carrying ants.

Hopes to resume work on Drosera.

Etty [Henrietta Litchfield] is helping with Coral reefs [2d ed.]; will JDH lend her his copy?

Thanks for JL’s willingness to sell land.

C. V. Riley’s case of Pronuba moth and the fertilisation of Yucca, is the most wonderful case of fertilisation ever published [Am. Nat. 7 (1873): 619–23].

CD’s son Francis is to be married, so CD is seeking advice as to how much he should arrange as a marriage-settlement.

Is sorry to hear the news about the cousin question – a real misfortune.

Congratulates GHD on being nearly finished with work on Descent.

F. M. Balfour is in Naples. Comments on rate at which sea eats back the land, as given in early editions of Origin.

GHD’s corrections seem very good. Murray hopes there will be few corrections in Descent. CD assured him no changes have been made merely for improving style.

Wants very much to hear about "the terrible cousin affair".

CD’s son Horace wishes to continue at Easton and Anderson’s Works. CD trusts they will not bind him to long hours of work as this would be against medical advice.

Would be interesting to discuss political economy in light of evolution. Recommends Walter Bagehot Physics and politics [1872] and Descent in which source of moral sense is discussed.

Thanks him for copy of book [Der Kampf um’s Dasein am Himmel (1874)].

D. A. Spalding has asked for information to help with his experiments on sense of direction in animals. Has arrived at same results as GHD with blindfolded children. Will GHD let him have his results?