Trying to persuade CD to visit JL.

Testimonial for a position as a librarian. Recipient is the author of a great monograph on the Picidae [woodpeckers].

Sends plant specimens. William Borrer will be glad to send seeds.

Pleased to hear through Miss Pennington that CEB-S intends to review Origin in a French journal. Suggests 3d ed. as this will soon appear in French translation. Does not expect perfect agreement on so complex a subject as descent.

Quiz has been sent off to Down.

JBI will leave for Scotland on Monday.

Condolences on death of Charlotte Langton [née Wedgwood].

Is waiting to hear from Lord Tankerville [see 3339].

Quiz arrived safely.

CD’s three sons are in bed with bad colds.

Sends CD ch. 2 of his book [The naturalist on the river Amazons] for suggestions, having accepted CD’s recommendations concerning ch. 1.

Effects of climate on dress in ch. 1 similar to, but independent of, notions expressed by CD in his Journal of researches [p. 381].

On geology, book deals with distribution and theory of deltas of the Amazon.

Sends paper [on ancient Swiss lake-habitations, Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 26–51] for CD’s opinion.

Obliged for the Theophrastus. Will return it.

Announces a meeting of the Society to elect its officers.

Asks how much he owes for his annual subscription to the Society.

Grieved to hear of CD’s illness; begs him not to give moment’s thought to his MS until health has returned.

Plans to exhibit mimetic butterflies at Linnean Society.

Has been in bad health and has just read HWB’s MS in the last two days. Praises the book; assured it will be successful. Offers to write to Murray. Hooker interested in conclusions on colour.

Thanks for note on his Macrauchenia paper [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 7 (1861): 441–3].

Asks for references to descriptions of certain bones found in South America.

Lists four fossil New World monkeys; is CD aware of any others?

Apologises for not answering CD sooner about where he will publish review [of Origin]. Review is to appear in his own journal, but will postpone publishing it until the French translation of 3d ed. appears. Expresses substantial agreement with CD’s views.

Against all predictions his Edinburgh lecture was well received [Evidence as to man’s place in nature (1863)].

Took his old line about problem of infertility of hybrids as a test of CD’s views.

Report [from a newspaper] not quite right about what he said, but they have not refuted his statement that some form of progressive development theory is certainly true, nor that man and the apes come from same stock. Owen has gone in for progressive development in second edition of the Palaeontology [1861].

Thanks for Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63]; will examine some [Edinburgh] Botanic Garden samples in its light.

Huxley visiting Edinburgh and spoke on man’s zoological relations with monkeys [see Man’s place in nature (1863)]. JHB disagrees with his views.

On success of THH’s Edinburgh lectures.

Agrees that THH is right that the hybrid question is a "hiatus" [in the argument for natural selection] but he overrates it. Crossed varieties frequently produce sterile offspring. On this question asks THH to read his Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63]. CD suspects sterility will come to be viewed as a selected character.

Has read CD’s Primula paper.

Regrets to hear that CD and family are victims to the influenza epidemic.