Invites JF to Down.

Thanks EK for two articles about Erasmus Darwin.

Does not think it right that he should receive Kosmos free. Asks for a bill for subscription.

Has not heard from J. Murray if there is any profit on Erasmus Darwin, but "vehementer dubito".

An extract from a life of Kepler about the motions of Mars.

Thanks for sending him a copy of the striking passage from Kepler.

Insists that EK take the profits from the English edition of Erasmus Darwin. EK’s essay is the valuable part of the book; CD’s is mainly gossip.

Bad news about Kosmos [ceasing publication].

Fritz Müller’s losses [in a flood]; "I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world."

EK’s astonishing account of crustacean that repairs its legs in an ancestral form seems to support Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends.

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.

CD is pleased with EK’s account in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 321–2] of the Buffon and Coleridge passage [cited by Samuel Butler, see 12939, 12969]. Would like a translation published in England, but Butler seeks notoriety and would make unscrupulous use of it. Will ask advice. Thinks EK’s letter to Popular Science Monthly, just received, an excellent reply to Butler.

Sends copy of Nature in which EK’s letter, translated by Balfour, is printed. Thanks him. Now feels easy.

G. J. Romanes’ language in his review of Butler’s book [Unconscious memory] is perhaps too strong. Butler’s vanity is a "real psychological curiosity".

Butler’s reply to EK is a renewed attack on CD. Urges EK not to answer it. His last letter contains everything necessary. Asks EK for dates of CD’s letter asking EK’s permission to publish a translation of his article [on Erasmus Darwin] and of the letter in which he told EK that Butler’s book had been advertised.

Thanks EK for his article [on CD’s Movement in plants].

Admires EK’s wide interest in science. Would like to send him something to publish in Kosmos.

Fears his new book [Earthworms] will hardly do, but will send sheets when printed so that EK can decide whether any chapter or a part of one will serve. Victor Carus’s consent would be needed for publication in Kosmos, and CD will ask for it.

Publication of Earthworms delayed, but will send sheets to EK when he receives them [so that he can decide about publishing extracts in Kosmos].

Thanks for "Die Gegenwart".

"’Instinct’ of plants" is a most puzzling problem.

Does not see how mind can be defined "if we subtract consciousness".

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.]

Will send shell by post to British Museum. Will prepare article for Nature [see 13696].

Shell smashed by careless servant. May have been Cyclas cornea. Will send letter to Nature.

Will send letter to Nature about shell [attached to beetle]. Will use old name of Cyclas.

Forwards letter from W. B. Dawkins. The bones, though not themselves interesting, may indicate the work of prehistoric man.

Has read and enjoyed the Kant that FPC sent.

Returns P. C. Despine [?Psychologie naturelle (1868)].

Discusses flora of Sandwich Isles. "There is nothing I shd enjoy so much as to visit California, but I am growing old & my health is weak".

CD writes for Emma, who is ill.

Delighted with FPC’s "most just" article [in Echo?]. Sends £1 subscription.

Thanks for telling CD about the Fraser’s Magazine article [F. W. Farrar, "Hereditary genius (by F. Galton)", n.s. 2 (1870): 251–65].

CD wrote as Justice of Peace for Kent to the Home Secretary about Holder’s case.

Tropaeolum transmits every shade of colour if self-fertilised for six or seven generations.