Discusses use by correspondent of clichés from one of his books.

Thanks correspondent for present of book [unspecified].

Comments on paper by HE [see 10328].

Suspects that the reported skeleton of a tailed man is that of some distinct animal [see 10432].

Amused by brief visit of strange man about whom RB had written.

Hopes that geology continues to flourish in Canada.

Mentions receiving GJR’s paper on Medusae [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 12 (1876): 524–31].

Will call on GJR in London.

Asks to show GJR’s letter to George Darwin and other sons. A secret cannot be well kept.

Trip to London delayed.

Will call tomorrow morning.

Congratulates GJR on lecture ["The physiology of the nervous system of Medusa", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 8 (1875–8): 166–77].

Thanks AWvH for his work on Justus Liebig [The life-work of Liebig (1876)].

Promises to send sheets of his new book [Cross and self-fertilisation].

Encloses essay by Haeckel criticising Pangenesis [Die Perigenesis der Plastidule (1876)]. Discusses Haeckel’s theory of inheritance.

Asks about the Physiological Society.

Regrets he cannot hear lecture by F. C. Donders.

Hopes to see WB before he returns home.

Joseph Fayrer can supply cobra poison.

Discusses vivisection.

Mentions visit to the John Hawkshaws.

Describes discovery by his son [Francis Darwin] of protoplasmic filaments extending from small glands in the leaves of Dipsacus [see Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 26 (1877): 4–8].

CD has read the two reports on culture of poppies with interest and has planted seeds.

Suggests an experiment for evidence on whether plants, thought merely varieties, are like species and fail to intercross, despite insect pollination.

Thanks GWN for condolences on death of Amy, his daughter-in-law.

Encloses coral specimen and manuscript account of it by William Lonsdale.

Asks WCM to design additional rooms for Down House.

Mr Laslett, a builder, will meet WCM on Tuesday.