Thanks for AD’s letter.

Owen has published a paper on the brain in relation to the mouth ["On the homology of the conario-hypophysial tract", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 16 (1881–2): 131–49]. CD cannot avoid suspicion that the original idea was borrowed from AD.

F. M. Balfour very ill. His death would be a great loss.

Agrees with TLB’s views regarding the constitution of the proposed Science Defence Association.

Thanks JC for the gift of his book [A primer of art (1882)]. Wishes JC could explain why certain lines and figures give pleasure.

Comments on Huxley’s essays on Priestley and [animal] automatism [Science and culture and other essays (1881)].

JC’s portrait [of CD] is much admired.

Offering to send a copy of Kosmos containing a short review of her Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881).

CD’s observations on the geology of S. Africa, which he considers of no value, were published in Volcanic islands.

Asks HWB to sign and return F.R.S. certificate for Raphael Meldola; if he objects to signing, CD will not mention the fact. [Meldola elected F.R.S., June 1886.]

CD thanks MS and his fellow German students for their kind birthday wishes.

Has heard that Brown is collecting subscriptions for Mrs George Cupples and so he encloses £40.

His Dytiscus fact interesting. Indispensable to know name of shell. Case worth communicating to Nature. [See "On the dispersal of freshwater bivalves", Nature 6 April 1882, pp. 529–30.]

Has rarely read anything more interesting than WO’s introduction to his Aristotle translation. Had no notion what a wonderful man Aristotle was. Linnaeus and Cuvier were mere schoolboys compared to him. His ignorance on some points, as on muscles and the means of movement, is curious.

Instructs engraver on illustrations for his paper ["The action of carbonate of ammonia on the roots of certain plants", Collected papers 2: 236–56].

Slab with fossil annelid tracks safely arrived.

RM’s application to the Royal Society.

Asks correspondent to suspend an enclosed certificate.

Has sent last week’s Nature wth J. S. Newberry’s paper ["Hypothetical high tides", Nature 25 (1882): 357–8]. CD thinks Newberry is right. This week’s issue has a letter against Newberry by Charles Callaway ["Letters to the editor: hypothetical high tides", Nature 25 (1882): 385].

The Archbishop of Canterbury has launched a series by scientists in the Contemporary Review on what is known and what is theoretical in science. [The series appears to have begun with an article by Robert S. Ball, "The boundaries of astronomy", 41 (1882): 923–41]. CD was asked to participate, but refused.

Asks further questions about shell attached to beetle’s leg.

CD cannot answer his question concerning the death of earthworms. The usual cause is through parasitic larva of a fly. Worms are susceptible to certain poisons from plants.

Glad his book [Earthworms] has interested HHL.

Cannot find in his library the translation made by Walter Elliot of a Persian tract on pigeons by Sayzid Mohammed Musari.

Comments on James Geikie’s ["Intercrossing of erratics", Scottish Naturalist 6 (1882): 193–200, 241–54]. Believes JG underrates importance of floating ice in explaining drift deposits.

Comments on origin of life and natural theology.

Recommends William Graham’s The creed of science [1881].