Describes a patient’s ears with peculiar tufts of hair in places where he has never seen them before. Encloses sketch.

On a humming-bird Sphinx moth which tried to extract nectar from flowers on wallpaper. [See Descent, 2d ed., p. 317.]

Hopes Drosophyllum was all right.

Opinion of Council of Royal Society [on Presidency] is twelve for JDH, five for Duke of Devonshire, and G. B. Airy for William Spottiswoode.

Has sent phyllotaxy paper to G. G. Stokes with the letter from CD to show credentials.

Will not have time to read new Sachs edition CD offered.

Thanks for CD’s sponsorship of paper [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 21 (1873): 176–9].

On a correction JVC thinks should be made in Variation on vertebrae of ducks.

Popular Edition [6th] of Origin has sold out 3000 copies. Asks CD whether he has found any errors that should be corrected.

The Naples Zoological Station and its library are growing fast. His life is a constant battle with the municipality, but has managed to make a little progress on vertebrate ancestry and morphology. His views get further away from what is generally accepted.

Translation of some of his annotations in Dutch edition of Expression.

A new [German] edition of Expression is to be done. Has CD anything to add or alter?

JVC cites an article on cessation of breathing during mental concentration that supports Gratiolet as quoted in Expression, p. 179.

Sends a paper on evolution by his friend J. D. MacDonald ["Distribution of Invertebrata", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 21 (1872–3): 218–23] for CD’s perusal before dispatching it to the Royal Society.