AD is aware of revolutionary character of his pamphlet [Ursprung der Wirbelthiere]. Authorities will not agree with him. Carl Gegenbaur and Ernst Haeckel are opposed. Younger biologists are disposed to accept his views. All he can expect is to put a stop to "the Amphioxus–Ascidian affair, and to open a road for speculation and for investigation on the side of the Annelid-homology".

Regrets he is too busy to accept CD’s invitation to visit Down, but could only thank him again for saving the Zoological Station from shipwreck.

Thanks AD for the handsome Annual Report of the Zoological Station (1878). Rejoices at its success and its great service to science.

Sends birthday greetings

and the good news of a subvention for the Zoological Station received from the German government. There are now 20 naturalists working at the Station.

Thanks AD and the naturalists at the Station for their birthday congratulations.

CD has been awarded the Bressa prize of the Accademia delle Scienze in Turin, and it occurs to him that if the Station wanted some apparatus costing about £100, he would like to pay for it.

Thanks CD for his offer. Suggests it be used to start a fund to pay travel expenses of English naturalists who want to come to the Station.

Leaves decision as to use of his gift to AD.

Thanks CD for his cheque for £100. Has told Secretary of BAAS Committee [for the Station], so that he may report it. [See O. J. R. Howarth, The British Association (1931), pp. 196–7.]

Belated birthday greetings

and reminiscences of CD’s help to the Station, which continues to prosper. A recent innovation is the establishment of the Zoologische Jahresbericht edited by J. V. Carus.

AD exaggerates what CD has done for science.

On the Zoological Yearbook, CD thinks it would be an excellent plan to give an account of zoological publications from all countries in a single work.

Birthday congratulations from the Naples Zoological Station. A new physiological department will be constructed. Describes work in progress at the Station.

Sends his paper on teleosteans.

Heard R. Owen read a paper at York [meeting of BAAS]. Owen had views similar to AD’s, but seemed not to be aware of work of others.

Thanks for AD’s letter.

Owen has published a paper on the brain in relation to the mouth ["On the homology of the conario-hypophysial tract", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 16 (1881–2): 131–49]. CD cannot avoid suspicion that the original idea was borrowed from AD.

F. M. Balfour very ill. His death would be a great loss.

Thanks AD for his paper on "Morphology of the Arthropoda" [Rep. BAAS 37 (1867) pt 2: 82], a deeply interesting subject.

Suggests he examine specimens of Scalpellum.

Fritz Müller thinks CD is mistaken, but CD cannot persuade himself he was wrong in his observations on Balanidae [Living Cirripedia 2: 105].

Pleased by CD’s letter; his object was to apply CD’s principles to the reform of zoology. When this is done, it is wonderful to see how improved one’s understanding of the Crustacea (Arthropoda) becomes. Cites examples.

Thanks AD for his work. CD regrets he is not a better German scholar, but he must endeavour to understand AD’s views.

He has gone through the whole embryology of the Crustacea and has arrived at a pretty well-established genealogy of the whole class; has even tried to write a history of the whole tribe. Finds he cannot adopt the old separation of Orders in the Class; the limits between them are indistinct.

Would like to study embryology of Limulus. Asks CD’s help in obtaining a female specimen.

Outlines his proposal to establish a marine zoological station.

The Zoological Garden has only one old adult male of Limulus. When there were females, eggs were never observed.

Encloses a separate letter [formerly 7071] about AD’s scheme [for a zoological station].

Suggests AD be cautious [in his work]. "Caution is almost the soul of science."

Thanks CD for his support and for his cautionary advice.

Will send his work on embryology of arthropods as soon as it is finished [Bau und Entwicklung der Arthropoden (1870)].

Thanks CD for Variation.

From his work on insect embryology he sees a great parallelism between insect and vertebrate embryology.

The zoological station is slowly advancing.

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.