Offers to send Ascidia specimens of Beagle voyage. Describes some of them.

Hopes THH will review his book [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1] which has been published for a year with no notice taken of it except briefly by Dana.

Discusses Limulus-like larva. "I have become a man of one idea.– cirripedes morning & night."

Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.

CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.

THH’s catalogue [THH and R. Etheridge, A catalogue of the collection of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology (1865), part published in 1857] best résumé he has seen of science of natural history. On classification he is not quite sure that he wholly goes along with THH. Encloses a few criticisms of THH’s preface.[enclosure survives as copy only].

Murray has sold out Origin; wants a new edition immediately.

Asks THH to check whether Geoffroy de St Hilaire is correct [form of name].

Would be grateful for THH’s impressions on the truth of natural selection.

Sends enclosure [unspecified].

Reminds THH to mention [German] translation [of Origin] when he writes to R. A. von Kölliker.

Relates anecdote concerning the blind Henry Fawcett and the Bishop of Oxford; Fawcett proclaimed, within the other’s hearing, that the Bishop had not read the Origin.

Invites Mrs Huxley and the children to spend a fortnight at Down.

MS of Chauncey Wright’s review has not yet arrived.

[P.S. missing from original.]

Returns a letter, which, when it is published, he believes will make readers take up THH’s lectures in a more impartial spirit.

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.]

Apologises for passing on what he agrees were offensive remarks in V. Lushington’s letter. Has told VL he had no right to make them. Asks THH to make allowance for red-hot disciples defending the master.

Delighted with THH’s review [in Academy (1869)] of Haeckel’s [Natürliche] Schöpfungsgeschichte [1868],

but groans about THH’s view of rudimentary organs. Cites Origin and Variation.

Affected by THH’s letter – will send a copy to the other 17 friends. Hopes for his and public’s sake his health will improve.

Thanks THH and Hooker for defending George Darwin against Mivart’s libel.

CD has written to Mivart to say that he will never hold any communication with him in future.

Is alarmed by the petitions against vivisection that are being circulated. Believes there is scope for reasonable legislation and would like to see eminent physiologists prepare a petition so that the science could be protected and animals saved from needless suffering.

Sends suggestions for observations on glacial phenomena that might be made on the [Polar] expedition [of H. M. S. Alert and Discovery, 1875–6].

CD believes Playfair’s bill would not restrict demonstrations under anaesthetic.

Expresses his delight with and admiration for THH’s "Coming of age [of The origin of species]" in Nature [22 (1880): 1–4].

CD has offered Ernst Haeckel £100 but does not know where to get further aid. Sorry to hear about Du Bois-Reymond, but is not in the least surprised about R. Virchow.