Sends information about Pliocene fauna of the "Forest Bed" of the Norfolk coast.

A genus described as extinct by Owen is found by E. A. I. H. Lartet to exist in Russia.

Edouard Suess attributes to Oswald Heer and HF the generalisation "That the time during which a new species is formed, is (as a rule) very short in comparison with the time during which it persistently presents the same peculiar specific characters". [Edouard Suess, "Über die Verschiedenheit und die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiären Landfaunen in der Niederung von Wien", Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (Math-naturw. Klasse) 47 (1863): 306–31.] [See 4277.]

HF will send E. Suess’s paper [Edouard Suess, "Über die Verschiedenheit und die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiären Landfaunen in der Niederung von Wien", Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (Math–nat. Klasse) 47 (1863): 306–31] which deals directly with natural selection.

Is having E. Suess’s essay [see 4284] translated; will forward it as soon as it is done.

Returns a letter wrongly addressed by CD [4361].

Council of the Royal Society have awarded CD the Copley Medal.

Hopes CD will be able to receive the Copley Medal in person. HF sees it as doubly significant in recognising CD’s work and as a protest against the profession of religious as opposed to scientific faith.

Is sure that any of CD’s friends would be proud to accept the medal on his behalf.

The [Royal Society] President’s address is in the Reader [4 (1864): 708–9], but one or two sentences have been omitted.