Sends a copy of the draft vivisection bill [see 9933] and hopes that it may be approved of and supported by the Government.

CD is delighted to hear that JSBS’s exertions and labour will probably be rewarded by success. He has had a note from Playfair who, like Lubbock, thinks the title and preamble [of the proposed bill] "had better wear a more humanitarian aspect".

August Weismann is interested in JJW’s experiments on birds and the caterpillars they eat.

Comments on AW’s work [Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie, vol. 1 (1875)].

On seasonal dimorphism in Lepidoptera in relation to sexual selection.

Discusses evolutionary reversion.

Comments on birds’ avoiding brightly coloured caterpillars. Offers references on subject.

Alpheus Hyatt says Franz Hilgendorf mistaken [about Planorbis multiformis].

Quotes from letter from J. J. Weir on birds’ rejection of brightly-coloured caterpillars.