Thanks for advice concerning preparation of soil for experiments. Will order the salts. Asks about burning soil or washing it with acid.
Thanks for invitation. His son [Francis] would like to inspect JHG’s plots.
Thanks for advice concerning preparation of soil for experiments. Will order the salts. Asks about burning soil or washing it with acid.
Thanks for invitation. His son [Francis] would like to inspect JHG’s plots.
Sends autograph.
Sends congratulations and a teapot on the occasion of JT’s engagement.
Is pleased JT is not giving up on the spontaneous generation question. Feels strongly that subject will not be clear until it is understood how J. S. Burdon Sanderson and others succeeded in getting bacteria in infusions they had boiled for a long time.
Congratulates WTT-D on [election of E. Ray Lankester to] Linnean Society.
Mentions visit to Royal Society.
Pleased to see George Bentham looking well.
Discusses use by correspondent of clichés from one of his books.
Thanks for his election as an Honorary Member
Has sent FM’s letter on to Nature ["Brazil kitchen middens, habits of ants, etc.", Nature 13 (1876): 304–5].
Would be grateful for Ceropegia seeds.
Has signed enclosure [Royal Society nomination for McLachlan] with pleasure.
Writes regarding affairs of the Down Friendly Society.
Comments on her new book [A short history of natural science (1876)].
Declines invitation to accompany JJW to Crystal Palace.
Thanks correspondent for present of book [unspecified].
Describes self- and cross-fertilisation experiments.
Asks JHG’s advice on setting up an experiment designed to test whether the cause of variation in cultivated plants lies in different substances absorbed from the soil when absorption is not interfered with by other plants in a state of nature. Can JHG suggest how he can get soil free of all the substances which plants naturally absorb?
Has received seeds of Cecropia peltata from Kew.
Has asked Hermann Müller to send copy of FM’s paper as soon as published.
Asks that the copy of Nature containing letter from Fritz Müller be forwarded to FM [see 10324].
Herbert Spencer invented the term "survival of the fittest". CD used it but found "natural selection" more convenient.
He has often spoken of natural selection’s destruction of individuals which do not come up to "proper standards of structure", which comes to nearly the same thing as RLT’s suggested distinction.
Supports AN’s idea [of a natural history book for children].
Sends his autograph.
Comments on paper by HE [see 10328].
Sends signed enclosure.
FG will hear of germination of peas in a few days.