Thanks THF for information from Colonial Office on population statistics showing the inhabitants of some areas are far from becoming sterile.

Comments on his examination of slides [of milk casein?] sent by CD.

Surprised by CD’s finding that a drop of one per cent hydrochloric acid stops digestion of albumen by Drosera.

Orders a copy of Dassen 1837, Onderzoek aangaande de bladbewegingen (research on leaf movements), published in Tijdschrift voor Natuurlijke Geschiedenis en Physiologie IV p. 106.

CD cannot come to London to sit for photograph. Sends one taken by son [Leonard], which family considers the best likeness. CD would be glad to give a sitting at Down.

Asks for a specimen of Pinguicula.

Invites FG to visit.

"With kind regards, & many thanks for Prof. Steenstrup’s Photograph, which is most highly valued by C. Darwin"

Kind to send seeds of Aquilegia Brodii. Gives news on her sons. Glad of recent rain to help the hay.

Returns and sends comments on Clarke Hawkshaw’s essay ‘The persistence of forms of life in the depths of the sea’.

On the "doubtful & obscure" subject of marriage of cousins, CD believes, that judging from the analogy of animals, no direct evil would follow from their marriage. He would, however, expect the offspring of unrelated parents to be somewhat superior in size and vigour. The injury from the increase of any bad tendency common to the family seems to CD more to be feared than mere consanguinity; "the good effects of crossing distinct families I look at as great & undoubted".

Thanks for facts on inheritance

Thinks CST’s paper (C. S. Tomes 1874) about the enamel on the teeth of the armadillo is most remarkable.

Encloses a statement and circular he has been asked to send to JL.

Thanks for JWS’s updatings to his Darwinian bibliography and regrets he is a poor German scholar.

Statistics showing rate of decline of population in Sandwich Islands, 1832–72.

On the extinction of populations. [See Descent, 2d ed., p. 183.]

Extract from the Honolulu Gazette on the decreasing population of the Sandwich Islands.

Observations on Coronilla.

Inherited dental abnormalities in man. [Enclosed are proofs of pp. 113–16 from J. Tomes, A system of dental surgery, 2d ed. (1873).]

LD has misplaced some figures on which he was to work.

Answers questions about chemistry (see 9202).