F. M. Balfour wants to experiment on Pangenesis. Asks FG to recommend coloured rabbits that breed true.

Comments on FG’s article ["Hereditary improvement", Fraser’s Mag. 87 (1873): 116–30]. Finds it "the sole feasible, yet I fear utopian, plan of procedure in improving the human race".

Thanks for rabbits for Balfour.

Mentions reading W. R. Greg’s Enigmas [of life (1872)].

Comments about questionnaire CD completed for FG [for Galton’s English men of science (1874)].

Describes his early interest in collecting and his education.

Asks about determining the mean heights of two groups of men.

Reports an incident of his "hereditary" habit of dozing, head in hand, such that he scratches his nose.

Invites FG to visit.

Agrees to write to William Ogle [about twins with crooked fingers].

Describes growth of sweetpeas for experiment.

Thanks FG for issues of Revue [Scientifique vol. 7, containing lectures by Claude Bernard].

Ogle says twins [with crooked fingers] are his sisters.

Recommends book by M. A. Puvis [De la dégénération des variétés de végétaux (1837)].

Has heard that FG will write on inheritance. Huxley does not believe in E. G. Balbiani’s views on subject.

In London yesterday for Vivisection Commission.

Is revising his chapter on Pangenesis [in Variation, 2d ed.] to allow that gemmules probably multiply in the reproductive organs.

Notes examples of inheritance of acquired characteristics cited by Brown-Séquard.

Doubts that double parentage is necessary for complex organisations.

Comments on FG’s paper ["A theory of heredity"]. Finds essay difficult to understand. Objects that FG’s theory conflicts with phenomenon of use and disuse. Conflicts also with rarity of bud-variations in nature.

Says he has ordered FG’s article ["The history of twins", Fraser’s Mag. 92 (1875): 566–76; revised in J. Anthropol. Inst. 5 (1876): 391–406].

Comments on FG’s paper ["The history of twins"].

CD is "in a passion with the Spectator who always muddles".

Mentions revisions [in Variation, 2d ed.].

Argues with FG’s theory of heredity, defending Pangenesis: "I cannot doubt that every unit of the hybrid is hybridised and sends forth hybridised gemmules."

Thanks FG for his report [on the statistical validity of CD’s experiments; see Cross and self-fertilisation, pp. 16–18]. Discusses FG’s comments, his own experiments, and the means by which the results may be analysed.

Sends signed enclosure.

FG will hear of germination of peas in a few days.

Has received French essay on effects of conscription on [decreasing] height of men, due to unfit left at home to propagate race. Would FG care to see it?

Can FG come to lunch on Sunday? George Darwin wants to meet him.

Sends enclosure regarding inherited handwriting from Life, letters, and journals of George Ticknor [ed. G. S. Hillard (1876)].

Can FG come to lunch on Monday?

Sorry FG has not been well and is soon going abroad.

Describes plans to publish English edition of Krause’s work on Erasmus Darwin.

Will correct Anna Seward’s calumnies [in Memoirs of the life of Dr Darwin (1804)].

Asks about family letters.

Doubts some stories about Erasmus Darwin [in Christiana C. Hankin, ed., Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck (1858)].

Thanks FG for an extract [about Dr Erasmus Darwin?].