No summary available.

No summary available.

JT’s tube [of boiled infusion] dated 16 Oct was clear on 19th; on the 20th it was muddy and contained many bacteria in living movement.

Asks whether he may send two or three other tubes [of boiled infusions] to be placed in the open and observed for him.

Asks JT to send the tubes [of boiled infusions]. Frank Darwin will do his best. Asks for full instructions.

Tells CD of his engagement to Louisa, eldest daughter of Lord Claud Hamilton.

His investigations [into spontaneous generation] continue. He will deal with Bastian’s work [The modes of origin of lowest organisms (1871)].

The medical journals see that the end of the nonsense they have so long countenanced is nigh.

Sends congratulations and a teapot on the occasion of JT’s engagement.

Is pleased JT is not giving up on the spontaneous generation question. Feels strongly that subject will not be clear until it is understood how J. S. Burdon Sanderson and others succeeded in getting bacteria in infusions they had boiled for a long time.

JT will not quit the subject [of spontaneous generation] until light is let in on every cranny of the question.

The teapot is exquisite. Louisa says to say "the gift is worthy of the giver. Nothing higher can be said."

CD has quite given up the marine theory [of Glen Roy] and has accepted glacier lakes. "Nothing makes me gnash my teeth so much as that confounded paper of mine." It is a lesson "never in science to infer one explanation is right because no other one seems possible".

Has read JT’s address ["Science and man", The Times, 2 October 1877, p. 8]. What JT says about CD honours and pleases him. JT’s short character of Faraday is beautiful.

Has observed, perhaps erroneously, that certain plants were excited to movement by a prolonged high note on the bassoon. Would now like to try a siren and asks JT to bring one from the Royal Institution.

Will provide the siren.

Returns the siren; the plants "ill luck to them, are not sensitive to aerial vibrations". Is ashamed of his blunder.

Has been asked to contribute to W. K. Clifford memorial fund. Asks JT’s advice on how much the committee hopes to raise. Would like to give handsomely but feels bound "with such a lot of children, not to be extravagant".

Thanks JT for his information. Sends £50 to the W. K. Clifford memorial fund.

Sends W. K. Clifford subscription.

Has been unwell and hardly able to do anything. Has seen Andrew Clark.

Asks JT to support Albert Dicey for the Athenaeum.

Happy to vote for Albert Venn Dicey’s membership of the Athenaeum Club.

CD is "as ignorant of mechanics as a pig", but glaciers have interested him greatly. Hopes to hear that JT’s experiments with ice will explain the freezing together of ice below the freezing point.