Returns a letter, which, when it is published, he believes will make readers take up THH’s lectures in a more impartial spirit.
Returns "The Week" [unidentified].
Agrees with THH’s published letter that writer is a man of excellent spirit, but doubts he is a good logician.
Thinks THH’s [Anniversary] Address [to Geological Society, Feb 1862, Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): xl–liv] a wonderful condensed and original summary of palaeontology.
Glad to receive CD’s pat on back for address.
Wants to know what CD thinks of the argument on geological contemporaneity.
On his poor health.
Nearly agrees on contemporaneity, but THH pushes his ideas too far. Would require strong evidence before believing that the so-called Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous strata could be contemporaneous. Thinks THH’s case on advancement of organisation is strong. But he should read Bronn, before publishing again, and say more on other side. Cannot help hoping he is not as right as he seems to be.
The BAAS meeting at Cambridge was exhausting.
Owen came to attack him but was beaten; his paper fell flat.
A "society for propagation of common honesty in all parts of the world" was established at Cambridge [THH’s "Thorough Club"?].
Thanks for a contribution ["On the so-called ""auditory-sac"" of cirripedes", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1863): 115–16; Collected papers 2: 85–7]. Is sending a proof.
This year’s lecture to working men to be devoted to CD’s book.
Sends first three of his Lectures to working men [on our knowledge of the phenomena of organic nature (1863)]. Does not intend them to be widely circulated.
On THH’s Lectures to working men.
Work by Ferdinand J. Cohn on the contractile tissue of plants ["Über contractile Gewebe im Pflanzenreich" Abh. Schlesischen Ges. Vaterl. Cult. 1 (1861)] seems important. CD has come to the conclusion that there must be some substance in plants analogous to the supposed diffused nervous matter in lower animals.
[Part of P.S. missing from original.]
Enthusiastic about Lectures IV and V [Lectures to working men (1863)].
Sends specific comments on fantail pigeon,
sterility of hybrids,
the geological section diagram.
Returns Kingsley’s letter [see ML 1: 225 n.].
Lectures [to working men] would do good if widely circulated.
On sterility, they differ so much there is no use arguing. To get the degree of sterility THH expects in recently formed varieties seems to CD simply hopeless. Has suggested a test experiment to Tegetmeier [two fertile birds paired and unproductive].
CD overwhelmed by THH’s praise.
Agrees with his reservations about species theory but not wholly about sterility and gives his reasons for differing.
On Natural History Review, Hugh Falconer, and R. Owen.
Has written a review [Collected papers 2: 87–92] of H. W. Bates’s paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 495–566].
THH’s efforts to obtain Copley Medal for CD fail. Thanks THH for kind words of sympathy.
On six-fingered men: suspects increase confined to metacarpals and digits. Has asked James Paget to look it up.
It is not carpal or tarsal bones that are increased [in six-fingered men] but generally only the digits and metacarpals.
Pectoral fins of fish and sharks.
Asks THH to check P. M. Roget’s statement that there is a rudiment of a sixth digit in frogs.
[P.S. missing from original.]
A note reminding THH to examine the rudiment of the 6th toe on the hind foot of a Batrachian.
Thanks for "monkey book" [Evidence as to man’s place in nature (1863)].
Must wait till he has finished Lyell [Antiquity of man (1863)].
Has not answered CD’s former letters. Has been ill. Will look up fish business as soon as he is square again.
Two criticisms (one by Henrietta Darwin) of THH’s Lectures [to working men].
Pleads guilty to both criticisms of "Miss Henrietta Minor Rhadamanthus Darwin" [see 3896] of points in his Lectures [to working men].