Parallel quotations from Benjamin Franklin and Descent about absorption of heat by different colours; applies to winter and summer plumage of birds.

Reasoning power in dogs.

Cost of plates [for Expression] is very high and will make "a terrible hole in the profits".

Sends a paper in which he has applied CD’s theory of natural selection to the explanation of the mortality rate of new-born infants ["Die Kindersterblickeit", J. Kinderkrankheiten (1872)].

Offers observations on expression in Australian dogs, since he knows CD plans to publish on the subject.

Has ordered printing of 2000 sets of illustrations [for Expression] for Murray’s and informed D. Appleton of price per thousand. Has answered letter from Eduard Koch [of Schweizerbart]. Has also arranged for index.

Has reported on the Naples Zoological Station to BAAS meeting at Brighton. Hopes to open it in January. Is at work building up the library by contributions from publishers and naturalists.

Deplores Wallace’s "drifting away" and his association with such men as H. C. Bastian.

Disbelieves in ascidians as our ancestors. Has a substitute he is sure will please CD.

Wishes to have Dutch publication rights for a translation of Expression.

Sutton says monkeys often vomit, but cannot say whether they do it voluntarily.

Cost of impression of the heliotype plates [for Expression] is so high that he asks CD to consider having a set photographed onto wood and then engraved. Index [for Expression] is in hand.

Doubts reported cases of homing instinct in dogs.

Informs CD that he has forwarded some oils and opium.

Defers to CD and has ordered 2000 sets of impressions from heliotype plates [for Expression] for Murray’s and 3000 sets for Appleton. Also has directed printer to send Appleton a set of stereotype plates of the work and the woodcuts.

Will call on CD next year, when he will have worked out the embryology of Amphioxus; he believes it is not primitive but a degenerate form of fish. He believes the true ancestors of vertebrates are annelids.

Has entered a newspaper controversy with W. P. Lyon [Homo versus Darwin (1872)] who ascribes to CD the saying "natural selection is a kind of god that never slumbers nor sleeps". FWH does not believe CD made this statement.

Encloses letter and cheque [from John Scott].

Again in thick of Ayrton matter. Tyndall and Huxley have shown themselves equal to the occasion in grasp of subject, tenacity of purpose, independence, and good-will.

Discusses ideas on the development of language; agrees with CD that it is a process governed by unconscious selection; he considers it analogous to unconscious selection of domestic animals by savages. Remarks on the differing views of Max Müller and W. D. Whitney regarding the origin of language and its development. Comments on the extent to which unintentional effects can be ascribed directly to the agency of free intelligent wills.

Report about six-toed cats; trait persistent for three generations.

He became entrapped in the W. Lyon controversy by defending CD against Frederic Bateman of Norwich.

As a religious man, FWH wants to apologise for the attacks CD has suffered in the name of religion.

Further reflections upon Bastian’s book [The beginnings of life (1872)].

ARW’s prospects for Directorship at Bethnal Green Museum.

No summary available.