Insists that EK take the profits from the English edition of Erasmus Darwin. EK’s essay is the valuable part of the book; CD’s is mainly gossip.

Thanks CD for copy of Movement in plants. It will be reviewed in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 258–71] by Hermann Müller.

Kosmos will probably cease publication. Publisher has decided to sell.

Fritz Müller has suffered from flood.

Müller’s latest letter contains a polemic against Wagner’s migration theory,

and some interesting observations on Crustacea.

Bad news about Kosmos [ceasing publication].

Fritz Müller’s losses [in a flood]; "I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world."

EK’s astonishing account of crustacean that repairs its legs in an ancestral form seems to support Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends.

Comments on Pangenesis. Quotes long passage from article by Fritz Müller concerning regeneration of lost members among crustaceans.

Kosmos has been sold to Eduard Koch in Stuttgart; will be converted into a weekly. Science will be de-emphasised. Krause seeking new publisher to continue on old basis.

Gustav Jäger injured in train accident.

Would like to reply to Samuel Butler’s Unconscious memory [1880] in Kosmos.

CD is pleased that EK will answer Butler. Thinks Butler is half insane.

CD’s sons tell him that Samuel Butler in Unconscious memory states that some passages in Erasmus Darwin were taken from his Evolution, old and new. Their unprejudiced view is that the passages do come from Butler. CD hopes EK will give a clear explanation if he writes on the matter in Kosmos.

CD is taking no public notice of Butler’s attack on himself.

Encloses reply to Butler [Kosmos 8 (1881): 321–2]. Has also written a reply intended for English reader. Will have it translated for Popular Science Review if CD thinks suitable.

Report of Jäger accident was an error.

Kosmos has been purchased by Eduard Koch in Stuttgart and will continue as in the past.

CD is pleased with EK’s account in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 321–2] of the Buffon and Coleridge passage [cited by Samuel Butler, see 12939, 12969]. Would like a translation published in England, but Butler seeks notoriety and would make unscrupulous use of it. Will ask advice. Thinks EK’s letter to Popular Science Monthly, just received, an excellent reply to Butler.

CD may choose where to publish EK’s reply to Butler. Would prefer Athenæum. Thinks it better that CD not reply himself.

All his advisers agree that CD ought not to take notice of Butler’s attack.

F. M. Balfour has offered to translate EK’s reply to Butler and to send it to Nature. [The letter was published in Nature 23 (1881): 288.]

Has written to Balfour concerning the Butler affair.

Sends copy of Nature in which EK’s letter, translated by Balfour, is printed. Thanks him. Now feels easy.

G. J. Romanes’ language in his review of Butler’s book [Unconscious memory] is perhaps too strong. Butler’s vanity is a "real psychological curiosity".

Butler’s reply to EK is a renewed attack on CD. Urges EK not to answer it. His last letter contains everything necessary. Asks EK for dates of CD’s letter asking EK’s permission to publish a translation of his article [on Erasmus Darwin] and of the letter in which he told EK that Butler’s book had been advertised.

Birthday greetings.

Thinks it best not to reply further to Butler. Has read G. J. Romanes’ article with great pleasure. Romanes is right to ridicule Butler. Quotes passages about Butler from CD letters. Has received letter from F. M. Balfour urging him not to reply to Butler.

Sends his review of Movement in plants from Die Gartenlaube.

Comments on the future prospects of Kosmos.

Comments on review of Samuel Butler’s Unconscious memory by Romanes in Nature [23 (1880–1): 285–7] and Romanes’ reply to Butler [pp. 335–6].

Asks whether he might have a chapter of Earthworms to print in Kosmos.

Thanks EK for his article [on CD’s Movement in plants].

Admires EK’s wide interest in science. Would like to send him something to publish in Kosmos.

Fears his new book [Earthworms] will hardly do, but will send sheets when printed so that EK can decide whether any chapter or a part of one will serve. Victor Carus’s consent would be needed for publication in Kosmos, and CD will ask for it.

Publication of Earthworms delayed, but will send sheets to EK when he receives them [so that he can decide about publishing extracts in Kosmos].

Thanks for "Die Gegenwart".

"’Instinct’ of plants" is a most puzzling problem.

Does not see how mind can be defined "if we subtract consciousness".