Is elated by his work on the alteration in the earth’s axis and the displacement of the poles. [See 10689.]

Writes of his "geo-mathematical" work.

His paper on the alterations of the poles and changes in level of continents is in shape.

Sends Cambridge news.

Greatly excited by the astronomical implications of his work.

Comments on an address by William Thomson (‘On the rigidity of the earth’?), which is about the same problem that GHD is working on. Is confident Thomson has overlooked some points.

Sends W. Thomson’s complimentary opinion of his paper "On the influence of geological changes on the earth’s axis" [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 167 (1877): 271–312].

Has heard CD is about to be proposed again for the Académie Française, but Huxley is proposed at the same time and may succeed against CD "as being more orthodox!"

Cambridge University will offer CD an honorary degree.

Writes in detail about Cambridge offer of the honorary LL.D.

Loss of water from leaf surfaces; action of a still air layer.

Proposal for CD’s LL.D.

Writes again about arrangements for the honorary degree ceremony.

Has been working on tides, which he is almost certain have altered the obliquity of the ecliptic.

Will look for worm-castings in the cloisters,

and will send CD items from the Cambridge papers on the honorary degree.

Has hit on a possible fallacy in W. Thomson’s theory of secular cooling of the earth.

Asks CD if he would like to sign GHD’s Royal Society proposal for membership.

Has been reading Samuel Haughton on geological time ["Notes on physical geology, no. III", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 26 (1877): 534–46]. It is utter rubbish. Asks whether CD thinks GHD should write a critical note on the subject [see Nature 17 (1878): 509–10].

Recounts some figures relating deaf-mutism and consanguineous marriages.

GHD has failed to be elected to the Royal Society.

Is frustrated to see, from a paragraph in Nature [18 (1878): 242], that Charles Lagrange has got hold of the same sort of ideas as he has.

Erasmus is unwell.

Refers to Charles Lagrange, who is working on the same subject as GHD, but in a fundamentally different way.

Sends drawings of specimens [of Thalia] CD requested.

Recounts the experiments on Fechner’s law he has found in Helmholz; they are on the smallest perceptible differences of illumination. Describes how to test whether plants’ responses to lights are in accordance with it.

Encloses William Thomson’s report on GHD’s paper. Some of it was written in Rayleigh’s hand.