The recipient is thanked for his "interesting letter".
CD sends an article received from [James Geikie?]. "You will see that it is important to know whether the laminae of slate have ever been bent up-hill."
Believes the conference will be of no value because individuals can only decide for themselves on the truths of science and religion.
Anxious that AG should consider a memorial [for A. R. Wallace]. Makes arrangements to avoid delay.
Thanks for information about cats avoiding certain species of mice.
CD is familiar with cases of prepotency that are so strong that a cross has no effect.
Will CD hold the £90 for JT? Asks him to read enclosed printed letter to W. E. Gladstone which he hopes will attract attention.
Has asked Hooker to sign the Wallace memorial and send it on to THH.
Read splendid lecture by THH on evolution in the Times ["On the application of the laws of evolution to the arrangement of the Vertebrata and more particularly of the Mammalia", Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1880): 649–62].
Thanks for the American pamphlet, which has caused him to write the enclosed extract on "bent and shattered edges of slaty laminae".
Recalls student days at Cambridge and microscope JMH gave him.
Discusses his children, health, and work.
Suggests JT make public his letter to W. E. Gladstone [on results of potato experiments]; thinks post office would object to JT’s plan of distribution.
CD’s sons tell him that Samuel Butler in Unconscious memory states that some passages in Erasmus Darwin were taken from his Evolution, old and new. Their unprejudiced view is that the passages do come from Butler. CD hopes EK will give a clear explanation if he writes on the matter in Kosmos.
CD is taking no public notice of Butler’s attack on himself.
Response to Movement in plants. Setting out to confirm CD’s experiments. Believes plant cell motion, like that of animals, depends on protoplasm more than water.
Has obtained signatures for the memorial. Wonders whether Gladstone would see a deputation and offers to write to Gladstone instead. Asks THH’s advice.
Asks GB to sign certificate for Francis Darwin [candidate for Royal Society].
Article in Shrewsbury newspaper makes him worry about CD’s health.
Sends memorial [for A. R. Wallace] for AG to sign. Asks whether AG will forward it to Owen; CD cannot send it as he has not spoken to him for 20 years.
FD’s abstract ["Physiology of plants", Nature 23 (1880): 178–81] is excellent, and as clear as daylight.
Encloses a memorial for Wallace which he hopes the Duke will read. Asks that he inform Gladstone of the memorial.
Pleased to sign certificate for Francis Darwin.
Has never underrated importance of [plant] physiological studies, especially when carried out as FD has been doing.
Has signed and returned memorial [for Wallace]; does not know where to find Owen.
