Proofs arrived and Francis is correcting them. Tells Emma Darwin that Amy is delighted about the azaleas. The Ruck family very much like Isabella Bird’s Six months in the Sandwich Islands.

JM proposes to print 1000 copies [of Insectivorous plants].

Will send corrected proofs [of Insectivorous plants].

JM agrees to raise number of first printing [of Insectivorous plants] to 1250 if CD will wait for his share of profits until sales reach 750 or 800.

EBT’s brother, Alfred Tylor, wishes to visit CD with George Young.

AT’s "pluvial period" theory.

Informs CD that Lyon Playfair would introduce the bill in the House of Commons, and that Lord Cardwell and Lord Shaftesbury had agreed to support it, the former introducing the bill in the House of Lords.

Writes about a white rabbit which is turning fawn-coloured,

and about Scottish education.

Further discussion of the introduction of a bill by Lyon Playfair on animal experimentation.

Notes absence of material on fossil coral reefs in CD’s 2d edition [Coral reefs (1874)]. Has been collecting specimens from a fossil reef near his home for four years; gave many to Oxford.

A letter introducing T. F. Burgers, President of the Transvaal Republic.

Would like to call on CD if convenient.

Sends his paper to show his priority over John Le Couteur. Claims discovery of the "law of development" of cereals.

Lyon Playfair’s bill [on vivisection] is unacceptable to all teachers of physiology. It prohibits dissections for demonstrations to students. He will have to repudiate it. Asks CD’s advice.

Insists that he, not Le Couteur, was the first to recognise and exploit variation within wheat varieties. Disturbed he was not acknowledged in Variation.

The Government has decided to hold a Royal Commission on vivisection with Lord Cardwell as chairman.

Believes Lyon Playfair has been led to compromise too far on bill about animal experimentation as a result of pressure from men wishing to suppress science. A full enquiry is to take place. [See 9987.] Suggests that CD send Playfair Huxley’s letter on the subject.

Replies to CD’s various questions and suggestions concerning publication plans for Insectivorous plants.

The insect-capturing Araujia has been forwarded from Portugal.

He discovers Apocynum is not in the same family, and he has misquoted [John Leonard Knapp’s Journal of a naturalist (1829)]; Apocynum captures by stamens, not stigma.

Sends seeds of Portuguese Drosera.

A set of electros of the woodcuts to Variation was sent to an Italian publisher in 1869, but no reply or payment has been made since then.

The Vivisection Bill was defeated because it was repudiated by one of its own fathers: J. S. Burdon Sanderson.