An awful row at the Linnean Society. William Carruthers and Co. packed a meeting to throw out a decision of the Council. He was beaten by one vote (more than two-thirds majority needed).

Spent two hours with Lyell talking about Thomas Belt’s book [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)]: "the tropical old Glaciers beat the seance I do think".

Lyell agrees that the glacial epoch is the great geological crux of the day. Lowering of the ocean level must also be investigated.

Curious about A. C. Ramsay’s paper coming at Royal Society on 29th ["On the comparative value of certain geological ages", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 22 (1874): 145–8].

Huxley’s new book [? Critiques and addresses (1873)].

Russian Expression has sold nearly 2000 copies.

Plans to come to England to study collections of vertebrate fossils from the Chalk. This will complement his work in the south of France.

Would like recipient to ask inmates whether they are offspring of cousin marriages.

Is glad to hear of new German edition of Descent, but owing to his extensive revisions, corrected sheets will not be ready for about three months.

Is working on a new edition of Coral reefs, which he thinks would sell in Germany.

Would like to hear "out of curiosity & vanity" how many copies of his books have been sold in Germany.

Asks for information about the title and date of Semper’s essay disputing CD’s theory of coral reefs.

Has ordered James Clerk Maxwell’s book [On the stability of the motion of Saturn’s rings (1859)] as a present for Sofya Kovalevsky.

Has grown haricots in England following CD’s suggestion in the Origin that this had never been done.

Wishes to see CD.

Discusses coral reefs

and encloses a copy of his "Reisebericht" [Z. Wiss. Zool. 13 (1863): 538–70], as requested by CD.

Sends paper ["Strictures on Darwinism, pt 2", J. Anthropol. Inst. 3 (1874): 208–28].

Refers to articles in the Art Journal on changes in English countenance since the Tudor period.

Reports to CD on a spiritualist séance attended by himself (incognito) and G. H. Darwin.

On obtaining Clerk Maxwell’s memoir on Saturn for his wife, Sofya.

CD elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [See 9305.]

Gives his and CD’s thanks for information on consanguinity among parents of asylum inmates.

On proportion of sexes in births of cattle; variations in families. Encloses a letter from J. G. Grove on proportions of sexes in animals.

The limitation of inbreeding.

Discusses THH’s account of the séance. CD convinced all are fraudulent.

Returns and sends comments on Clarke Hawkshaw’s essay ‘The persistence of forms of life in the depths of the sea’.

Has finished the index [for Descent, 2d ed.].

Statement of U. S. sales of Origin, Expression, and Descent.

Thanks CD for copy of Examiner.

Fear of communism is making CD’s theory popular among possessing classes.

Describes reception of Lyell’s Antiquity of man among German country people.

Responds to CD’s queries about breeders’ practices in destroying and saving males or females in litters of deerhounds.