Affirms his belief in an impassable spiritual gulf between man and the lower creatures.
Affirms his belief in an impassable spiritual gulf between man and the lower creatures.
GHD’s corrections seem very good. Murray hopes there will be few corrections in Descent. CD assured him no changes have been made merely for improving style.
Wants very much to hear about "the terrible cousin affair".
Requests permission to call briefly to discuss Drosera.
Approves of proof [of subscription appeal for Dohrn’s Naples station]. Suggests names.
No summary available.
Will subscribe £25 towards F. A. Dohrn’s Zoological Station at Naples.
JDH has not replied to Asa Gray's letters earlier as he has been busy with Linnean & Royal Society business & there has been illness in the family, including whooping cough & measles. Mentions his 'presidential Soiree', which was very well attended, including by Charles Darwin. Also mentions selecting new candidates for the Royal Society. Explains his reasons for declining further offers of knighthood, at this point he feels he can only accept an offer of K.C.B. [Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath] as recognition of his Presidency of the Royal Society. Has received Paris Lambertii[sic] & Abies Alba & hopes Gray has got the Thistles. Comments that one Miss Kingsley is very engaging, that his sister Bessy [Elizabeth] is melancholic, that he likes one Mr Eliott, & asks about Gray's duties as a member of the Smithsonian Institution Board. Discusses George Bentham distancing himself from the Linnean Society & its resultant decline. [George] Allman will be the next President of the Linnean Society. JDH describes his busy schedule on Royal Society Council meeting days. Whilst he is away [Sir Richard] Strachey & [Sir Andrew Crombie] Ramsay will take the Chair. Thanks Gray for a postal order & apologises for not thanking Ross for some apples. Mentions Mrs Gray's fall & recovery. Tyndale wants JDH to take Presidency of the British Association at Belfast, his inaugural address will be on insectivorous plants: the effect of Carbonate of Ammonia on Nepenthes, specifically on glands in the pitcher. Promises to send Gray 'the Wedgewood medallion'. Explains that a Miss James referred to a portrait of Linnaeus but it was not by Flaxman who worked very little for Wedgewood.
No summary available.
Purpose of experiments was to determine digestive activity of liquids containing pepsin. Gives required amounts of hydrochloric, propionic, butyric and valerianic acids. Describes experiment and gives results. Also experimented on digestive activity of butyric acid at greater temperatures than the termperature of the body.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Letter on mourning paper, offering condolences on the death of ARW's son Bertie (Herbert Spencer Wallace). Possible Spiritualist contact with Bertie through her, her sister or the medium Mrs Guppy; enclosing a transcription in an other hand, signed "Janie", of an alleged conversation held on April 25 and 26, with spirits, about Bertie; including the claim that he was now in the care of his Uncle Herbert. Annotated in pencil [in ARW's hand] "A B Buckley (Fisher)".
Has received circulars, and contributions from Lyell and George Busk [for Naples biological station].
Asks CD’s support for his application for the Chair of Geology at Oxford.
Bullfinches’ instinctive capacity for removing nectaries from cowslips.
Sends cherry blossoms damaged by birds in response to CD’s letter in Nature ["Flowers of the primrose", Collected papers 2: 183–4].
Further particulars on pea-fowl.
Thanks for letter relating to domesticated bullfinches’ instinctively cutting off cowslips [see 9430]. Suggests observing whether the birds swallow any part of flower or particular parts.
Thanks for recent edition of CD’s Journal of researches.
[Letter in French, transcript available in French and English]. JDH writes that he is sending Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] a corrected copy of the [KEW ANNUAL] REPORT & leaves it to WTTD's discretion when it is ready to send to the printers. JDH & his party travelled to Nimes by rail via the mountains from Clermont Ferrand & JDH was impressed by the basalt landscape, which he describes. The vegetation is not more advanced than in England but the trees coming into leaf were attractive. JDH wonders why there is so much variation in the colour of different species' young leaves but not their mature foliage. In the southern valleys JDH saw olive, wild chestnut & evergreen oak. JDH praises the Jardine de Plantes, Paris, which [Joseph] Decaisne showed them. JDH discusses [Adolphe] Brogniart's views on palaeobotany; his opinion that [William] Williamson's theories are superior to [William] Caruthers' & his belief that there are no Polypodiaceae fossils in the coal beds. The party will next visit [Jules Emile] Planchon in Montpellier then go to Pont du Gard, Arles, Cannes, to see Mr [Gustave-Adolph] Thuret in Antibes & [Daniel] Hanbury in Menton. There is an addenda to the letter, written in English, under date 30 [Apr 1874] in which JDH reiterates the places they have visited & reports that he read about the resignation of G. Russell in GALIGNANI'S MESSENGER & that he himself is still mildly ill with a cough.