THN, a medium with a gift to cure occult diseases, outlines a course of treatment to remedy CD’s ailments.

Thanks CD for his encouraging letter. Replies to CD’s points. Thinks more attention should be given to the origin and growth of sexual shame.

Invites [WKP] to lunch.

CD will visit tomorrow.

Instructs FD to make some observations on movement in Trifolium and Impatiens. Sends some seeds to be sown.

CD hopes his book [Movement in plants] will be worth the effort WTT-D has put into getting plants for him; fears he has achieved little.

Horse chestnut roots have not acted at all well.

Suggests experiment to detect salts deposited on surface of leaves.

Wants FD to have another go at horse-chestnut radicles.

Asks whether he may call to discuss a chemico-physiological point.

Many thnks for the pelargonium letter.

Sends revises [of his Notes by a naturalist on the "Challenger", 1872–6 (1879)] and asks permission to dedicate it to CD.

He has had no success with horse or Spanish chestnuts.

CD sends his preface [to RM’s translation of August Weismann, Studies in the theory of descent (1882); Collected papers 2: 280–1].

Thanks for preface. When RM’s translation is complete, would like CD to expand it slightly to refer to overlap between Weismann’s observations and CD’s theories.

Regrets he cannot compare his work with Weismann’s in his preface as he feels “an author is never a fit judge of his own work”. [Appended note explains that RM wished CD’s work to be fully acknowledged, which was frequently not the case in continental writings.]

Thanks for HNM’s offer to dedicate book [Notes by a naturalist on the "Challenger" (1879)].

Discusses views of Moritz Wagner on modification of species. Two different cases: one in which a species is modified in the same country and cases in which a species splits. Glad CGS is taking up subject.

Sends report on annual trade sale [missing]. New printings of Journal of researches and Descent are needed.

CD disappointed in Pusey’s sermon against evolution [Un-science, not science, adverse to faith (1878), sermon read by H. P. Liddon at St Mary’s, Oxford, on 3 Nov 1878]. Does not agree that religion and science can be kept as distant as Pusey desires. Geology and biology must deal with history of earth and of man. But that is no reason for bitter hostility.

Thanks for his translation of [Anton] Kerner [Flowers and their unbidden guests: the translation revised and edited by W. Ogle (1878)].