Has received English edition of Variation. First volume of German edition came three months ago. Comments on book.

Will send copy of recent lectures on human evolution [Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts (1868)]. Gegenbaur much interested in the subject.

Considers Selachius the ancestral form of the fish and hence of all higher vertebrates. Believes their swim-bladder became lung of amphibians.

Mentions cases of hybrid crosses between rabbits and hares producing fertile offspring.

Thanks CD for article by G. H. Lewes ["Mr Darwin’s hypotheses, pt 1", Fortn. Rev. n.s. 3 (1868): 353–73]. Comments on article.

Describes hybridisation experiment carried out on rabbits and hares by Dr Conrad.

Encloses description of Monera

and a phylogenetic table of vertebrates.

Mentions work on Medusae.

The controversy over CD in Germany.

Comments on CD’s health.

Has received gold medal from Dutch Academy of Science for Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren [1869].

His Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts [1868] has been sharply attacked by the clergy.

Thanks CD for comments [on Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts].

Comments on Goethe and Kant as early evolutionists.

Describes birth of his son. Mentions child’s "atavisms".

Comments on experience of being a father.

Discusses possible English edition of Generelle Morphologie. Mentions necessary revisions.

Thanks CD for comment on Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte.

Discusses problem of assigning specific times to origin of classes.

Comments on 5th edition of the Origin [1869];

preparation of second edition of Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte [1870].

The reception of CD’s theory. Mentions support of Pieter Harting and Michael Sars.

EH’s research on calcareous sponges and plans to publish monograph on them.

Thanks CD for assistance concerning sponge specimens. Mentions Englishmen who have sent specimens. J. S. Bowerbank has not answered requests.

Sends articles dealing with sponges and Medusae. Cites passages for CD to read. Suggests passages from Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren [1869].

Describes meeting with Sars and his trip to Norway.

Discusses applicability of evolutionary theory to the question of human origins.

Describes revisions in 2d edition of Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte.

His research on calcareous sponges.

Mentions evolutionary content in Gegenbaur’s Vergleichende Anatomie [2d ed. (1870)].

Received copy of Descent.

Discusses CD’s comments on EH’s work.

Speculates about reception by press and scientists.

Remarks on sexual selection;

on human relationship to catarrhine apes.

Has rejected offer of chair at Vienna.

Compares Jena to Down.

Describes growth of his salary.

Mentions birth of Emma Haeckel.

A. M. Norman’s collection of calcareous sponges is very valuable.

Comments on Die Kalkschwämme [1872].

A Franciscan prior, Padre Buona-Grazia, agrees with human descent.

His trip to Dalmatia.

German reception of Descent.

Mentions current work.

Thanks CD for Origin, 6th ed.

Has declined chair at Strasbourg.

Describes research on calcareous sponges.

Criticises Pangenesis.

Much experiment and observation needed before spontaneous generation will be empirically advanced, but philosophically the matter is clear.

Thinks Ludwig Rütimeyer has attacked EH to satisfy pious opinion in Basel.

Will soon be finished with his monograph Die Kalkschwämme [1872].

Thanks CD for Expression.

Describes work on Die Kalkschwämme and its principal conclusions.

The application of biogenetic law.

Notes variability among calcareous sponges.

Gastrula-like "Gastraea" as ancestor of multicellular animals.

Posits homology between Hydra, Olynthus of calcareous sponges, and initial germ layers of higher animals.

Comments on Lubbock’s Prehistoric times [1865]

and on David Strauss’s Der alte und der neue Glaube [1872].

Thanks CD for comments on Die Kalkschwämme.

Plans trip to Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt.

Discusses work of a Polish translator, Ludwik Masłowski.

On CD’s paper ["Complemental males of certain cirripedes", Collected papers 2: 177–82].

Comments on paper by W. H. Dallinger and J. J. Drysdale ["Life history of a Cercomonad", Mon. Microsc. J. 10 (1873): 53–8].

Discusses origin of life, the Gastraea theory and concept that primary germ layers are homologous in all animals. Notes similar views of E. Ray Lankester ["On the primitive cell-layers of the embryo", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4th ser. 11 (1873): 321–38].

Reception of Darwinism in Germany.

Thanks CD for Descent, 2d ed.

Comments on German edition of CD’s collected works.

Sales of his Anthropogenie [1874] in various countries.

Anticlericalism and progress of Darwinism in Germany.

Discusses his Anthropogenie [1874]. Remarks on the tables.

Has CD received Friedrich von Hellwald’s Culturgeschichte [1875]?

Plans research trip to the Mediterranean.