Heavily correcting sheets for Coral reefs, 2d ed. [1874]. Offers to pay extra printer’s charges.

Asks for THH’s description of brain and skull [of man and apes] for 2d ed. of Descent [supplement to ch. 7].

Asks about Dohrn affair and contributions for Naples station. Doubts subscriptions will be successful.

FEA has expressed CD’s views on the moral sense with remarkable clearness and correctness; his eulogy is magnificent ["Darwin’s theory of conscience and its relation to scientific ethics", Index 12 Mar 1874]. Cannot give a judgment on the essay because he has had "no practice in following abstract and abstruse reasoning".

CD does not see how morality can be "objective and universal". No one would call the maternal bond in lower animals a "moral obligation". When a social animal "becomes in some slight incipient degree" a moral creature "capable of approving or disapproving of its own conduct" do not such obligations remain of a so-called instinctive nature rather than becoming at once moral obligations?

Thanks for the careful experiments, particularly on organic acids.

Regrets he cannot visit Oxford.

Comments on sketches in letter from JP [9360].

Confirms receipt of a book that had been lost by the Post Office (Vol. 1 Der Darwinismus und die Naturforschung Newtons und Cuviers (Darwinism and the natural researches of Newton and Cuvier; Wigand 1874–7).

Petition to protect gigantic tortoises on the Mascarene.

Thanks for JL’s willingness to sell land.

Regrets that a cut [for Descent] does not do justice to TWW’s original drawing and if it cannot be improved then CD will have to omit it. [Refers to fig. 60 in Descent (1874).]

Has finished corrections for 2d edition of Descent – "as hard work as I have ever had in my life". Estimates it is 40 pages longer than 1st edition.

Wants some plants for observation and for experimentation on their powers of movement.

Asks WTT-D to make observations on plants with sensitive stamens or pistil.

Subscribes to a reprint of Pieter Boddaert’s Table des planches enluminéez d’histoire naturelle [check ‘éez’!?] [1874].

Many thanks for Boddaert [see 9389].

Comments on J. T. Moggridge’s article on the fertilisation of Fumaria capreolata [Nature 9 (1874): 423].

C. V. Riley’s case of Pronuba moth and the fertilisation of Yucca, is the most wonderful case of fertilisation ever published [Am. Nat. 7 (1873): 619–23].

Circular requesting recipients to sign an enclosed [missing] statement [relating to appeal for Naples Zoological Station] if they approve of it.

Discusses illustrations for 2d edition of Descent.

"My nephew [Henry Parker] got into the Athenaeum with splendid success."

Encloses a statement and circular he has been asked to send to JL.

Is glad to have Descent cheaper and sold more largely, but would be sorry to see it printed like the Origin. "The closeness of the lines is the great fault." Fears book might be very thick. "I hear scores of people complaining of the heavy and thick books which you publish."

Delighted to hear about Coronilla. Urges publication ["Fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers– Coronilla", Nature 10 (1874): 169–70].