Circular letter regarding the distribution of CD’s excess income, with a note addressed to W. E. Darwin concerning his handling of Elizabeth Darwin’s share.

Thanks his children for their present of a fur coat.

Send CD a present of a fur coat.

Sorry to hear of his illness.

On his visit to J. F. McLennan, GHD might tell him that CD thinks A. R. Wallace would work up McLennan’s materials conscientiously.

Nature [21 (1880): 382] has an item about tremors and earth movements in Japan.

Writes on family matters and researches.

Mentions construction of a pendulum

and completion of a paper he will send to the Royal Society.

The Colonel [J. L. Chester] is pleased [see 12509].

Jos[iah Wedgwood III] is dying.

Has sent off paper to the Royal Society

and begun work on a new problem which he feels contains the meaning of Bode’s Law, concerning the mean distances of the planets from the sun. There are mathematical difficulties, however, which he may be unable to surmount.

Will get to work on the pendulum next week.

Writes of a Mrs Noel, who is annoyed with CD’s neglect of Erasmus Darwin’s brother, W[illiam] A[lvey] D[arwin I], [in Erasmus Darwin].

Discusses GHD’s genealogical researches

and his health.

Some essays have arrived for GHD.

Asks CD’s advice on how to answer a letter requesting his endorsement of Wrigley, his former teacher at Clapham School.

Advises GHD on what to write if he is asked for a reference for Alfred Wrigley.

Thanks GHD for information about trypsin.

Asks GHD to decipher a letter [in German] he has received with a book: The Bible in science.

Enjoyed his stay in Cambridge extremely.

Discusses how fruits of lime-trees arranged themselves in a ripple-like way on a flooded walk.

Is having a trough made to try experiments [on ripple-marks].

Comments on CD’s book [Movement in plants].

Continues with his experiments with ripple-marks.

Is in despair about his astronomy.

Glad GHD goes on with ripple-marks; if he makes out a theory of ripples, they might give important information about the most ancient deposits.

CD has been wonderfully glorified in the Times [review of Movement in plants, 20 Nov 1880].

Discusses GHD’s ripple theory. Asks him how they are formed.

Delighted to hear that light is dawning in GHD’s eyes on the planetary system.

Thanks to Times review, Murray needs 500 more copies [of Movement in plants].