Thanks for Insectivorous plants.

Intrigued by the analogy between fairy-rings and annular skin diseases, e.g., herpes and psoriasis.

Encloses copy of description of an outgrown stump. Refers to letter [missing] in which CD reports on a case of amputation. Would like to check J. Simpson’s cases before thinking everything is settled.

Instructs CD that his son [William] should take a holiday following his concussion.

Thanks JP for his kindness, but unfortunately the [unspecified] case is of no use to him.

Returns an "old book" [? Baeta, Comparative view of the theories and practice of Drs Cullen, Brown and Darwin (1800); see Erasmus Darwin, p. 107]. Glad to see that Dr Erasmus Darwin’s views on fever were attended to.

Fears his life of Dr Darwin will be a poor affair. "Never again will I be tempted out of my proper work."

Regrets that he cannot send the promised volume [Biographie médicale, 7 vols, 1820–5, biographical appendix to Dictionaire des sciences medicales]. Offers to have his son make an abstract of the biography [of Erasmus Darwin].

Thanks for Erasmus Darwin. It is a rare life and an unmatched illustration of the transmission of intellectual strength.

Sends a copy of his lecture Elemental pathology: an address on elemental pathology delivered in the pathological section of the British Medical Association (Paget 1880).

Surprising thought that diseases of plants should illustrate human pathology.

Will recommend A. B. Frank’s article in a German encyclopedia, on diseases of plants, to Francis Darwin.

Gives JP a good case of regeneration in plants – the radicle of the common bean. That plants have little power of regeneration is not difficult to understand by anyone who believes in Pangenesis, "if such a man exists … There is reason to think that my imaginary gemmules have small power of passing from cell to cell."

Refers to early experiments in which he tried to produce galls in plants by injecting poisons.

Thanks CD for his note and his new book [Movement in plants].

Makes him feel "we must go beyond plants for a really elemental pathology".

Wishes he knew enough about crystals to work at them.

Perhaps you would like to see a very small “tumour” on a lateral branch of the Silver Fur, caused by an Œstrum, as stated (with references) in my Power of Movement in Plants. These tumours are sometimes almost as big as a child’s head. At what age they emit the upright shoot, I do not know.

Asks CD to lunch to meet the Prince of Wales.

Is honoured by, and accepts JP’s invitation for 3 August.

Thanks for Earthworms. Is going to Nice for a few weeks to recuperate.

Is delighted with JP’s article on vivisection ["Vivisection: its pains and its uses, No. 1", Nineteenth Century 10 (1881): 920–30]. CD is "boiling over with indignation on the subject".

Thanks JP for bearing in mind his strong wish to learn any facts on inheritance at corresponding ages, and on correlation of growth.

JP’s case of teeth affected by syphilitic parents seems very curious. Would like to hear a few particulars when they meet.

Forwards a book [Horace Dobell, Lectures on the germs and vestiges of disease (1861)] and a genealogical table at the author’s request.

Sends two [unidentified] papers on inheritance of medical malformations. Suggests that besides the inheritance of specific variations, the tendency to show variations in the same organ system (stomach, nervous, etc.) may also be inherited.

Asks JP to remember him if anything occurs to him "in regard to inheritance at corresponding or rather earlier ages". Sends JP a few examples for his "Chronometry of life". CD is sure he often met with striking facts but he disregarded them. "Deviations alone would have struck me."

Effects of different climates on breeding periods.

Sends a sentence, quoting JP, on inherited peculiarities in eye-brows. Asks whether he may use it in his chapter on inheritance [Variation, ch. 12].