Potatoes [from Torbitt experiment] sent him for eating were very poor. Those for seed produced abundantly, but have not resisted disease better than other kinds that Payne [his gardener] has grown.

Sends article on dimorphism in Oxalis violacea [Am. Nat. 16 (1882): 13–19].

Encloses an extract (from the Bayswater Chronicle [missing]), which is part of an ongoing disagreement in which JFS is involved.

Has read some references to CD’s hypothesis on music and offers a MS by himself which deals with the subject.

Has ordered a tin of Somerset Mixture snuff for CD.

The Secretary to the First Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Works thanks CD for providing the funds for a new edition of Steudel’s Nomenclator [Index Kewensis].

Sends a translation of Aristotle’s De partibus animalium and imagines that if the old teleologist were alive CD would convince him of his errors.

Thanks WO for gift of his translation [Aristotle’s De partibus animalium]. Suspects the introduction would interest him more than the text "notwithstanding that he [Aristotle] was such a wonderful old fellow".

Trying to get some Darwinians into the Institut de France.

Politics at Kew led to a letter of thanks to CD from the First Commissioner for his gift.

Thanks for Earthworms.

Sends preferred address.

Prefers to make the present of microscope at once [to Grant Allen].

CD sends cheque for £250 [see 13620].

Has just read CD’s book on worms and is finding tower-like worm-casts, as CD described, in Alpes-Maritimes. Relates case of garden worms and moles.

Suggests that the tendency of the left arm to move with the right leg (and vice versa) during walking is a rudiment of quadrupedal locomotion and thus bears on the descent of man.

Asks GHD to send a copy of his "paper on the moon" [probably Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 171 (1880): 713–891] to V. O. Kovalevsky.

Asking the lord mayor of London to call a public meeting concerning the persecution of the Jews in Russia.

Thanks JM for copy of Quarterly Review, with article on his worm book [Henry Wace, "Darwin on earthworms", Q. Rev. 153 (1882): 179–202].

Writer will change his mind on evolution. CD cannot think of any young worker in biology who is not convinced of the truth of evolution, though many believe that natural selection has not done much.

Returns CD’s letter concerning testimonial fund for Grant Allen.

JS is proposing to write a detailed history of the polled Aberdeen breed of cattle [James Macdonald and James Sinclair, History of polled Aberdeen or Angus cattle (1882)] and would be grateful for any instances of hornless breeds known to CD; in particular asks his opinion on the cause of the peculiarity.

Sends a letter [missing] from a Mr Moorhouse on lapwing behaviour that makes earthworms rise to surface.