Information on Cyclamen and other plants.
Identification of some plants.
"Bloom".
Encloses article on local immunity to tuberculosis. Has he interpreted CD’s views correctly? Believes the immunity notable in areas like Iceland or mountain areas is due to local conditions, not natural selection. Describes his sanatorium in mountains of Silesia and medical criticism of his work.
Answers to queries are being sent.
Enclosure 1: statistics on puppies bred by Rayner in 1873.
Enclosure 2 from W. N. Massey: number of males or females raised depends entirely on preference of greyhound breeders.
Enclosure 3 from E. L. Williams: breeders prefer to destroy bitch pups.
Enclosure 4: Thomas Morse answers CD’s three queries, transmitted by GC: (1) in deerhounds, females predominate, three to one; (2) in all but cattle, females are less worth preserving; (3) TM rears all the young.
Enclosure 5: John Wright responds to CD’s queries about proportion of sexes in births of horses, cattle, and dogs.
Enclosure 6: G. W. Hickman cannot give reliable answers to CD’s queries on proportion of sexes born [in greyhounds?].
Has found the skull of the horned cock.
With regard to CD’s suggestion about the possibility of producing a pigeon breed with differently coloured sexes, WBT reports the results of crossing blue and silver dragons; the silver offspring are almost always hens.
Would like the latest edition of the Origin.
Encloses notes on volume one [of Descent].
Encloses a photograph showing the bleaching effect of the sun’s rays on dun feathers in pigeons.
Writes as a trustee of the Down Friendly Society. Hopes the Society will soon be permitted to distribute its surplus funds, as there is agitation to dissolve the club and divide its assets.
Has read Krause’s "Life of Erasmus Darwin" [Kosmos 4 (1879): 397–424]; thinks it very interesting to anyone interested in "Darwinismus" – everybody.
Sends photographs of general paralytics. Expressions of exaltation of [these?] patients do not come out well in the photographs.
Is experimenting with idiots under his care. Has been unable to produce a blush in any one of them.
Describes the wedding party given for herself and Richard Buckley Litchfield at the Working Men’s College in London.
Promises answers to CD queries on dogs.
Enclosure 1: G. A. Graham responds to CD’s questions (transmitted by GC) on greyhound breeding and proportion of sexes reared.
Enclosure 2: J. W. Robertson’s general rule has been to preserve male deerhound puppies in preference to females.
Enclosure 3: Proportion of sexes in dog litters [for Descent, 2d ed.] from W. Forbes.
GHD’s article will not do. It is too long and the denial seems weak and confused; also, it ought to be in the form of a letter to the editor. Encloses draft of the sort of letter of denial he thinks GHD should write.
Thanks JDH for his and Huxley’s countering of the false attack on George [Darwin] by Mivart. Encloses a note to Mivart on which he asks JDH’s opinion.
Sends reference to Codrington paper on gravels ["The superficial deposits of the south of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 26 (1870): 3–28]. Comments on local gravels in railway cutting and the violent agency of their removal from hills.
Errata slip forInsectivorous plants
Letter enclosing decree from the Accademia dei Lincei, with signatures dated 2 and 16 July 1875.
The Royal Society have not accepted R. L. Tait’s paper on insectivorous plants; it will be returned to CD, who submitted it.
Discusses geographic distribution of tuberculosis and possible explanations for disease-free areas and populations.
Does not think a local population with some distinct physiological character can properly be designated as a race. Thinks local conditions, not natural selection, responsible for such characters. Ernst Haeckel agrees. Asks CD’s opinion.
Does not think that publishing his letters as advertisement [for potato experiments] would help JT’s cause, so CD cannot give permission.
Regrets that he has neither the time nor health to undertake crossing experiments with JT’s specimens. Discusses crossing varieties.
Observations on pollinia of Orchis maculata
and on Primula elatior. [On latter, see Forms of flowers, p. 34.]
Sends £25 subscription, though he is not a churchman.
Dimorphism and cleistogamy in Hottonia.
AG wants new, unambiguous term for what is now referred to as "dimorphism", "dioecio-dimorphism", or "heterostyly"; proposes "heterogone".
Sends an excerpt from Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club 2 (June 1871) on Hottonia inflata.
