CD would prefer not to be a witness in court. In any case CD’s opinion is strongly opposed to that of CB and Annie Besant. Has read only notices of their book [Charles Knowlton, Fruits of philosophy, with preface by the publishers A. Besant and C. Bradlaugh (1877)] but believes artificial checks to the natural rate of human increase are very undesirable and that the use of artificial means to prevent conception would soon destroy chastity and, ultimately, the family.

Asks FD to forward some eczema mixture to Southampton for him

and to hunt out notes on earthworm activity at Beaulieu Abbey.

CD cannot see the Emperor of Brazil because he is in Southampton, but he sends sincere respects for the Emperor’s role in assisting science.

Sends a query he would like GHD to put to Clerk Maxwell: why does a sponged leaf dry more rapidly, although sponging cannot remove the waxy bloom from the minute pores through which it is secreted?

Is very glad to hear about tides in the earth.

Asks permission for French translation [of "Biographical sketch of an infant"].

As AE hardly admits evolution, they view all subjects differently.

Thanks for review. Fears "we must agree to differ".

Health weak. Not worth TM’s time to visit.

Discusses inheritance.

Has WP heard of Douglas Spalding’s experiments of blindfolding chickens ["Instinct – with original observations on young animals", Rep. BAAS 42 (1872): 141–3]?

Thanks for offprints [of "Sketch of an infant", Collected papers 2: 191–200]. Several Germans have asked permission to translate it.

Writes as a trustee of Down Friendly Society about withdrawing some funds.

Comments on paper by Francis Darwin ["Glandular hairs of the common teasel", Q. J. Microsc. Sci. 17 (1877): 169–74, 245–72].

Writes as a trustee of the Down Friendly Society to ask whether the Bank will act as their agent in withdrawing funds from the National Debt Office.

Makes suggestions regarding statement on potato experiments to be published in Daily News.

Comments on JC’s paper ["On the tidal retardation argument for the age of the earth", Rep. BAAS (1876): 88–9].

Obliged for essay on plants of Greece.

Thinks most monkeys would become habituated to alcohol if they could get it.

Encloses his marriage present, which he fears Sara [Darwin née Sedgwick] will think "atrociously unsentimental", but he hopes useful.

Is glad to hear R. B. Litchfield is better.

Discusses William Darwin’s engagement to Sara Sedgwick.

Thanks GdeS for communicating his discovery. It is especially important at a time when several naturalists have declared that development occurs quite suddenly at intervals. Joseph Le Conte in N. America urges that even new families and orders are developed within an extremely short period.

Has read JT’s address ["Science and man", The Times, 2 October 1877, p. 8]. What JT says about CD honours and pleases him. JT’s short character of Faraday is beautiful.