Discusses revisions for Variation, 2d ed.
Discusses experiments involving graft-hybrids.
Alludes to Pangenesis.
Describes experiments designed to produce graft-hybrid. Has achieved adhesion in great majority of experiments. Too early to tell what ultimate success will be.
Comments on GJR’s experiments.
Looks forward to reading CD’s statements about reflex action in Insectivorous plants.
Has prepared paper ["Physiology of the nervous system of Medusae", Rep. BAAS (1876): 158–63] in which he insists on occurrence of reflex action in absence of nerves. Would like to cite CD’s authority for occurrence of reflex action in plants.
Will propose GJR for membership in Linnean Society.
Discusses GJR’s grafting experiments.
Sends specimens of grafted potatoes. Describes grafting experiments designed to prove possibility of graft-hybrids, and thus, Pangenesis.
CD is circulating certificate proposing GJR for membership in Linnean Society.
Discusses hybrid potatoes from Germany.
Mentions his appearance before Vivisection Commission.
Discusses his plans for planting and observing the carrots sent by GJR.
Mentions views of J. S. Burdon Sanderson on graft-hybrids.
Comments on GJR’s paper ["Instinct and acquisition", Nature 12 (1875): 553–4].
[Letter incorrectly dated "Thursday 8th" by CD.] [!? shd be note not synopsis]
Carrots have arrived; CD has potted them.
Sends successful graft-hybrid of red and white carrot.
CD should correct passage in Variation explaining deformation of sternum in fowls [Variation, 2d ed., 1: 287–8].
Chapter in Variation on Pangenesis is admirable.
Suggests skin-grafting experiment on birds.
Discusses case of Edwin Ray Lankester; it has aroused his indignation.
Asks to borrow Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (1865) [and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (1869)].
Has not been neglecting Pangenesis for Medusae.
Sends books.
Discusses GJR’s Pangenesis experiments; views of Galton on the theory.
Thanks for copy of 2d ed. of Variation.
Mentions receiving GJR’s paper on Medusae [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 12 (1876): 524–31].
Will call on GJR in London.
Trip to London delayed.
Will call tomorrow morning.
Congratulates GJR on lecture ["The physiology of the nervous system of Medusa", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 8 (1875–8): 166–77].
Encloses essay by Haeckel criticising Pangenesis [Die Perigenesis der Plastidule (1876)]. Discusses Haeckel’s theory of inheritance.
Asks about the Physiological Society.
Describes discovery by his son [Francis Darwin] of protoplasmic filaments extending from small glands in the leaves of Dipsacus [see Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 26 (1877): 4–8].