Thanks for answers to questions [in 12032].
Has ordered the new book by Butler [Evolution, old and new (1879)]. It may make EK’s own essay superfluous.
Thanks for answers to questions [in 12032].
Has ordered the new book by Butler [Evolution, old and new (1879)]. It may make EK’s own essay superfluous.
Sends some queries connected with his writing of the biographical preface to Erasmus Darwin.
Sends an ammonite from the Upper Lias, which has Balanus-like bodies on surface. He wants CD’s interpretation. Discusses possible function of aptychi, siphuncular tube, and operculum in ammonites.
Sends newspaper cutting referring to CD.
Wants some Sunday tickets for the Zoological Garden.
Wants information on the use of reason by animals.
Has searched to no avail for 17th- and 18th-century wills to learn how Elston Hall was acquired by Robert Darwin rather than by William Darwin, even though Robert was the younger son.
Samuel Butler seems not even to have read works of Erasmus Darwin. Quotes only passages quoted by other authors. Thorough account now more necessary than ever.
CD’s preliminary notice should be incorporated in German edition completely unchanged, though some annotation is needed to explain matters unfamiliar to German readers.
Would like to have article by CD for Kosmos.
Refers EJC to papers by G. J. Romanes ["Animal intelligence", Nineteenth Century 4 (1878): 653–72] and William James ["Brute and human intellect", J. Speculative Philos. 12 (1878): 236–76] on the mind of animals.
Has GA seen an article on GA’s Colour-sense by a great man, J. R. L. Delboeuf, in Revue Scientifique 24 May 1879? It has pleased CD greatly.
CD’s preface [for Erasmus Darwin] is delayed by his sitting for a portrait.
Explains to EK why he feels unable to contribute articles to Kosmos.
CD’s works have opened a new world for him.
Sends a case of inheritance: a fingernail biting habit has persisted for four generations in a Viennese lawyer’s family.
Will attempt to copy the drawing of Elston Hall [Erasmus Darwin, p. 3]. Does not remember the highway robber story [ibid., pp. 64–5].
Reports on Joseph Prestwich’s paper, "On the origin of the parallel roads of Lochaber" [read 1 May 1879]. Strongly recommends that the paper be published in Philosophical Transactions [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 170 (1880): 663–726].
Encloses a family document [another letter from F. S. Darwin to R. W. Darwin?].
Asks whether RD has ever heard a story about their grandfather and a highway robber.
Fungus is an Aecidium. Porliera, Anthuriums and Aroids will hopefully sprout if weather gets hot. Sachs has changed his ideas about the cause of heliotropism. Describes men he is sharing a lab with.
Thanks for postcard informing him of Delboeuf’s review of his book; he had already seen review.
Will be glad to draw Elston Hall for CD.
Gives some details of Sir Brook Boothby.
Speaks of the delight of having met CD.
Hopes William Darwin may be able to visit Worthing.
CD’s sister-in-law, S. E. Wedgwood, is willing to refund £10 of the money paid for her land if the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will write saying she ought to do so, or if a qualified surveyor proves that the first measurement was wrong.