"I have received a very large box full of beautiful tea from Russia yesterday … my life is as regular & monotonous as a clock.

I make sure, but wofully slow progress, with my new book."

Asks VOK to translate a passage from Franz Körte, Die Streich-, Zug- oder Wander-Heuschrecke [1828], p. 33.

Deplores the "fearful piece of tyranny" that is obstructing publication of Descent in Russia.

Interested in W. Hepworth Dixon’s Free Russia, but does not know "whether he is to be trusted".

VOK’s hard work in palaeontology will prepare him for future original investigations.

Thanks VOK for sending F. Körte’s book [Die Streich-, Zug- oder Wander-Heuschrecke (1828)]. The passage CD wrote about [see 7735] must occur in the second edition. If VOK ever comes upon the 1829 edition, it would be of use to him.

Agrees that the Versailles army has been savagely brutal [in siege of Paris], but thinks the "Communists [Communards] have made themselves everlastingly infamous".

Sends proofs and details [concerning VOK’s Russian translation of Expression (1872)].

Cost of plates [for Expression] is greater than expected: £75 per 1000 copies.

CD sends schedule for VOK’s visit to Down.

Sends proof-sheets [of Expression].

Is unwell and must stop work and leave home for a time.

VOK’s paper ["Osteology of Hyopotamidae", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 21 (1872–3): 147–65] appears a very valuable one.

Discusses work of VOK’s brother [Alexander] on Sagitta and the ascidians.

Has ordered James Clerk Maxwell’s book [On the stability of the motion of Saturn’s rings (1859)] as a present for Sofya Kovalevsky.

Moritz Wagner is going to attack selection theory in his new book on his travels in America [Naturwissenschaftliche Reisen im tropischen Amerika (1870)].

K. G. Semper may attack CD’s theory of coral islands.

Describes his brother Alexander’s discovery of male of Bonellia, a striking example of dimorphism. Encloses a plate with notes on his brother’s work.

The difficulty his wife, Sofya Kovalevsky, has had as a woman in being admitted to Berlin University. Kirchow [Gustav Robert Kirchhoff], at Heidelberg, has taken an interest in her.

Plans to visit Down in a week.

Wishes to visit Down.

Will order the first set of casts from Murray.

Thanks CD for a book for his wife from the Royal Society Library.

His brother [Alexander] is delighted at being referred to in CD’s work [Descent 1: 205].

Requests a copy of [Living] Cirripedia to send to his brother, Alexander, who is working in Naples and wishes to verify CD’s discovery of complementary males.

Thanks for Cirripedia. Sorry CD has had to buy the books.

Forwards Alexander Kovalevsky’s letter [7326] with the information on the vertebrate character of ascidian larvae.

Leaving England.

Asks CD to send four sheets [of Descent proofs].

Sofya Kovalevsky not admitted to University in Berlin.

Translating the four sheets CD sent. When will book [Descent] be printed?

Alexander [Kovalevsky] has gone to the Red Sea to study corals.

Will work on live Scalpellum at Naples in spring.

Bemoans England’s Prussian sympathies. Paris will fall without bombardment.