Has completed his MS and sent it to Dallas.

Has ignored Butler’s criticism of natural selection and corrected only his views of Buffon and Goethe.

It would be best to drop EK’s text from book and quote only certain portions of it.

Has received printed sheets from CD. Hopes CD does not intend to delete anything. EK comments on value of his own sketch for Erasmus Darwin.

Hopes CD can excuse article he wrote in response to a review of Grant Allen’s book [The colour-sense (1879)].

Rejects proposal that CD’s sketch appear as a supplement or appendix to his own. Offers alternative suggestions. Proposes title-page for German edition of Erasmus Darwin.

Regards his part only as material from which CD can select for English edition of Erasmus Darwin.

Regrets dropping comment on Erasmus Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

Asks for translation of British plant names.

Asks CD not to mention in introduction that EK’s part has been reduced.

Acquaintances say principal contents of Seward book should be recounted in German edition of Erasmus Darwin.

Will CD check MS for errors?

Thanks for printed sheets and MS. Intends that German version should follow the English, but will add notes to clarify unfamiliar material for German readers.

Thanks for list of plant names.

Has returned corrected sheets [of Erasmus Darwin] to Dallas. [CD’s note forwards this letter to a third person, presumably W. S. Dallas.]

Sends corrections. Printing of German edition has not yet begun.

Charles Reinwald wishes to print only CD’s sketch. French hostility to Germans the reason.

Gustav Jäger and Robert Caspary no longer on title-page of Kosmos.

Shocked by Karl Alberts’ behaviour in dealing with Murray. Will write to ask him what it means. Thanks for arranging matters with Reinwald.

Thanks for English edition [of Erasmus Darwin]. John Murray has not answered letters of German publisher. Questions CD about persons mentioned in book, in order to annotate German edition.

German edition of Erasmus Darwin will not appear until next year.

Pleased by favourable English newspaper reviews of Erasmus Darwin. Charles Reinwald has not yet said whether he wants to use annotations intended for German readers.

What are functions of "yeomen of the armoury" on p. 1? Who is "old Hooker" on p. 34? Needs to explain them in annotations [to Erasmus Darwin].

Thinks CD has no need to reply to Samuel Butler’s hostile article [in the Athenæum]. Offers to reply himself.

Returns [Butler’s] attack, which he forgot to send yesterday.

Birthday greetings.

Regrets Butler’s malicious attack.

Agrees not to reply to Butler.

German edition of Erasmus Darwin delayed because Murray has not sent phototypes and galvanographs.

Two of CD’s articles from Nature to appear in April Kosmos ["Sexual colours in butterflies", Collected papers 2: 220–2, Kosmos 7 (1880): 72–4;

"Fertility of hybrids from the Chinese goose", Collected papers 2: 219–20, Kosmos 7 (1880): 77–8].

Moritz Wagner will begin a series criticising natural selection.

Sends German edition of Erasmus Darwin.

[CD’s notes form part of a draft for 12586.]

No significant reviews of Erasmus Darwin have appeared yet in Germany.

Sends response from a theological opponent.