Expresses his grief upon hearing of the death of THH’s young son. Recalls his own bitter loss of a child.

It is strange that Agassiz, who is for the "sanctity of species", should favour Pallas’s view of hybrid origin of domestic dog.

CL has not meant to advocate successive creation of types but to question assumption that all mammals descended from single stock. Why should a Triassic reptile or bird not move towards mammalian form because an ancestral marsupial has appeared? Believes recent appearance of rodents and bats in Australia explains their lack of development.

Can CD supply a reference on plant extinction on St Helena?

Believes marsupials better adapted for surviving drought in Australia than higher mammals.

Will not press argument about lack of development of mammalian forms on islands, but CD should note objection.

Does CD’s belief in multiple origin of dogs affect faith in single primates in different regions?

Does time lapse between putative independently descended mammalian forms mean first form will "keep down" later incipient one? Thus Homo sapiens has prevented improvement of other anthropomorphs; bats and rodents on islands would prevent improvement of lower forms into mammalian.

No summary available.

Thanks for his letter. Any astronomical observations can be recorded on a plane or spherical surface. 108 equal cubes will exactly fill the coffer in the king's chamber of the Great Pyramid.

According to JH's instructions, portrait of late Robert Stephenson will be sent to 37 Tavistock Place. Thanks for JH's approval of paper on color blindness by CM's friend Mr. Pole. Would Pole be eligible for R.S.L. membership?

Criticizes point in [recipient's] scheme for issuing bank notes.