Thanks for sending the impressions of the gems, but, because CD is ignorant of archaeology, the recipient should not send one for inspection.
All who battle in the cause of evolution do good service.
Has no questions about the natural history of Bermuda.
Discusses chemical tests for the detection of glucose and cane-sugar in solution.
Clarifies a passage [in Coral reefs, 2d ed. (1874)], which JVC had questioned.
RLT’s two articles in Spectator [4 Mar and 25 Mar 1876] greatly honour CD.
Tait has made a good point about "Survival of the Fittest".
Dr Rudinger’s extensive inquiries show that all eminent German surgeons are unanimous about non-growth of extra digit after amputation.
J. Kollmann has written regretting CD has given up atavism and extra digits [in 2d ed. of Variation]; gives new evidence of a rudimentary sixth digit in batrachians.
Cat born tailless as a consequence of a spina bifida.
NL has written an essay Toldot adam (Lewy 1874, privately printed in book form as Lewy [1875]) to convince his people of the truth of CD’s theory.
Regrowth of amputated digits is a capacity possessed by the new-born but rapidly lost.
Encloses letter printed in the Toronto Globe about the discovery on Prince Edward Island of a skeleton of a tailed man.
Thanks AB for his paper on the Norwegian flora ["Forsög til en Theori om Invandringen af Norges Flora", Nyt Mag. Naturvidensk. 21 (1876): 279–362]. Appears to CD to be the most important contribution towards understanding the present distribution of plants since Edward Forbes’s essay on the effects of the glacial period ["On the connexion between the distribution of existing fauna and flora of the British Isles and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. Engl. & Wales 1 (1846): 336–432].
James Paget’s scepticism about regrowth of digits. Suggests RLT experiment with amputation of digits, both extra and normal, of kittens and fowls. Fears they will fail to regrow, but, if regrowth is proved, it will be an important discovery.
Has had doctoral student [Alexander Fraustadt] working on the physiology and chemistry (i.e., chlorophyll and starch distribution) and comparative anatomy of Dionaea.
Thanks FJC for paper by Alexander Fraustadt ["Vegetative Organe von Dionaea", Ell. Beitr. Biol. Pfl. 2 (1877): 27–64].
Mentions paper by A. W. Bennett ["Glands of carnivorous plants", Mon. Microsc. J. 15 (1876): 1–5].
No summary available.
No summary available.
JDH has invited Judge Hastings & family to lunch. JDH currently working on GENERA PLANTARUM & proofs of FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA, with the sub-par help of Baker. JDH sending Asa Gray a copy of his [SCIENCE] PRIMER[: BOTANY] for critique. Looks forward to seeing the synoptic sample of Gray's FLORA BOREALIS AMERICANA. JDH would like to visit Gray but cannot leave his family with nobody to care for them. Thinks he must marry again. His daughter, Harriet [Anne Hooker] is ill & has been staying with the Munros near Taunton & her aunt, JDH's sister, in Torquay. Mentions Tyndall's marriage: ceremony performed by Dean Stanley, hopes the new Mrs Tyndall will be a good influence. Lady Augusta died the day after the wedding & the flowers JDH sent for the wedding became wreaths for a coffin. [Sir E. Ray] Lankester has been voted into the Linnean Society despite Carruther's opposition. Comments on George Allman as president of the Linnean Society & his own wish to resign the Vice President-ship. Mentions sending ROYAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS & clavis of Nyctago[?] to Gray. Reports on the progress of getting the new Herbarium building approved & constructed. It transpires the site & present herbarium house belong to RBG Kew having been sold by King George IV, meaning subsequent monarchs William IV & Queen Victoria never actually owned Hanover House. The existing building will become a library, as originally intended by Joseph Banks, & an extension built for the herbarium. JDH is called away to work on the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE.