Origin is finished.

Asks for names of foreign speculative naturalists.

Hopes THH will think he is on right road despite errors.

THH’s letter about the Origin makes CD feel like a Catholic who has received extreme unction. Can now sing nunc dimittis. Had determined to abide by judgment of Lyell, Hooker, and THH.

Problem of how variations arise at all troubles him also.

Rejoices over THH’s lecture ["On species and races, and their origin", 10 Feb 1860, Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 195–200] to be given at Royal Institution. Offers pigeon illustrations.

Adam Sedgwick has sent a "slashing" letter [2548] about Origin.

Sends references for materials useful for THH’s lecture.

Breeding and crossing. Pigeon fanciers.

Responses to Origin: A. C. Ramsay, Charles Kingsley, Quatrefages de Bréau.

Thanks for THH’s review of Origin in Macmillan’s Magazine ["Time and life: Mr Darwin’s Origin of Species", 1 (1859–60): 142–8]. Reception of natural selection will depend on whether it explains the recognised laws in the several fields of natural history.

Domestic variation.

Sends anecdotes and drawings of pigeons for Royal Institution lecture. Offers parts on hybridisation and pigeons from his MS (if THH has patience to read them).

Has heard George Busk is converted.

Will bring materials for Royal Institution lecture [when he comes to London].

Plans to bring out separate detailed volumes [on his theory], starting with domestic variation.

Henry Holland and others have attacked his reasoning from analogy to one primordial created form – by which CD means only that we know nothing of how life originated. The reasoning seems probable to him, so he has kept it in.

Delighted with Times review [26 Dec 1859]. Puzzled by author, suspects THH, but publication in Times makes it unlikely. Sorry for Owen.

Has finished ACR’s article ["The old glaciers of Switzerland and N. Wales" in Peaks, passes, and glaciers, ed. J. Ball (1859)]. Asks the authority for glacial drifts in Siberia. Wishes ACR would examine the Glen Roy parallel roads and settle the problem.

Asks if it is certain that traces of organic remains have been found in Long Mynd beds.

Thanks for answer to queries.

Expresses intention of reporting observations of traces of life in the Long Mynd beds and asks permission to cite ACR on his recent discovery of fossils in the Laurentian marbles of Canada.

Urges ACR’s investigation of Glen Roy problems.

Offers to send Ascidia specimens of Beagle voyage. Describes some of them.

Hopes THH will review his book [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1] which has been published for a year with no notice taken of it except briefly by Dana.

Discusses Limulus-like larva. "I have become a man of one idea.– cirripedes morning & night."

Responds to THH’s questioning of his observations on cirripede anatomy with extensive discussion of what he observed. Admits his elementary knowledge of microscopical structures but seriously doubts he has erred. Cement glands, ovarian tubes, etc.

THH’s catalogue [THH and R. Etheridge, A catalogue of the collection of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology (1865), part published in 1857] best résumé he has seen of science of natural history. On classification he is not quite sure that he wholly goes along with THH. Encloses a few criticisms of THH’s preface.[enclosure survives as copy only].