Expresses gratitude on election to Royal Netherlands Academy.

Not surprised incipient disease in female would make her unattractive to male.

Sorry JJW’s official duties are so heavy.

Thanks GHD for extracts, but says the subject of music is beyond him.

Suggests that GHD deliberate over one or two sentences of his paper on dress ["Developments in dress", Macmillan’s Mag. 22 (1872): 410–16].

Refers to prospective marriage of Amy [Ruck and CD’s son Francis].

"Be so good as to send me Unsere Zeit with Julius Frauenstädt’s article ["Darwin’s Auffassung des geistigen und sittlichen Lebens des Menschen" n.s. 8 (May 1872), 597–605]. I am much obliged for the information."

Wishes to insert R. B. Litchfield’s remarks [into Expression] but will not give them as his own.

Will FD try to persuade A. D. Bartlett to show a live snake to a porcupine and observe whether the porcupine rattles the quills on its tail? [See 8333.]

Is sorry JDH cannot come to Down.

Hopes the House of Lords "pitch into the accursed fellow" [Ayrton].

Comments on drawings of hostile dog and affectionate dog.

Sends small gift of money.

Sends £35 as his subscription towards the building of a vicarage.

Agrees to contribute £10 towards a new road in the area of Beckenham, although he doubts whether the road will be of much use to him.

Comments on drawing of dog. Will get it engraved [see Expression, pp. 52, 53].

Will send MS of Expression to printers next week.

Thanks for his election to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Has signed the memorial by men of science with real pleasure. Fears it may be too severe. He told Lady Derby about JDH’s troubles. She said she would tell Lord Derby what he had said.

Would be impractical to have FCD check references to physiology in proofs [of Expression]. William Bowman has checked chapter on weeping.

Invites FCD to visit Down when he comes to England in July.

CD wants no more alterations than are necessary [to proofs of Expression]. Warns LD that "any alteration seems at first an improvement".

Overjoyed at the way the newspapers have taken up JDH’s case. The memorial has done great good this way, whatever the wretched Government does. It is enough to make one a Tory. JDH has done a service to all men of science by showing governments that they cannot be trampled on.

Discusses JD’s crossing experiments with Pelargonium; notes that his conclusions on male prepotence oppose those of Gärtner. Suggests that his observations on differences in fertility of certain varieties of Pelargonium crossed with certain other varieties be communicated to the Linnean Society.

Comments on Brace’s work [The dangerous classes of New York (1872)].

CD cannot improve style [of Expression] without great changes. "I am sick of the subject, and myself, and the world".

Discussion of the charge made for the plates [for Expression].