Wishes CD would enlarge on the doctrines of [Pyotr Simon] Pallas about the various races of dogs having come from several distinct wild species or sub-species.

Suggests organisms have a latent principle of improvement which is brought out by selection or breeding.

The antlers of 800 deer of the glacial period have been found in a cave. They show great variety of form, but gradation from one to the other can be traced when all are laid out. Suggests CD study changes that have taken place in the species since glacial period.

Has ordered the wicked book [Origin] CD has been so long a-hatching.

Since dogs have same gestation period as the wolf it is likely that the wolf is the ancestral wild species, if it is just one species.

CD’s belief that domestic dogs are descended from several distinct aboriginal species seems to contradict views on sterility of hybrids and variation in Origin. If domestic varieties came from hybrids of wild species it will be impossible to trace ancestry. Opponents will exploit these problems.

By this post he sends for approval specimen copy of CD’s book [Origin of species]. At 14 s., 1250 copies will yield £240, two-thirds of which will go to author. Arrangements for early copies.

Will welcome CD’s work [Origin] with a "close & continuous perusal".

Believes in the "operation of existing influences or causes in the ordained becoming and incoming of living species" and so could not regard CD’s attempt to demonstrate the nature of such influences as "heterodox".

Will judge CD’s book [Origin] free from two superstitions: the dogma of the permanent species and the need of an act of intervention to bring change.

JDH’s congratulations on Origin.

Lyell believes S. P. Woodward wrote review in Athenæum.

Lyell’s and Huxley’s positive responses.

JDH has only plunged into a few chapters.

Hooker to send copy of his essay to ARW.

Questions CD’s view in Origin that domestic dogs are not descended from a single stock. Occasional crossings of domestic stock with wild species could explain cases of reversion towards wild specific forms. CD’s views on hybridity do not then have to be contradicted in constructing an ancestral stock.

Believes natural selection will become recognised as an established truth in science, though it will shock the ideas of many men.

Comments on pp. 201, 211, and 218 [of Origin].

Writes of "the Dr’s" [Henry Holland’s] mixed reactions to the book.

Adds a personal opinion, "it is the most interesting book I ever read".

Has just finished Origin. CD has demonstrated a true cause for the production of species.

CD has loaded himself with unnecessary difficulty in adopting natura non facit saltum.

Thanks CD for the Origin; AS has read the book "with more pain than pleasure". CD has deserted "the true method of induction" and many of his wide conclusions are "based upon assumptions which can neither be proved nor disproved". His "grand principle – natural selection" is "but a secondary consequence of supposed, or known, primary facts".

Sends some bees CD requested

and discusses the differences among several animal species on islands of the West Indies.

Sends a correction for Origin reprint.

Congratulates CD on Origin; has been "initiated into an entirely new province of knowledge".

Notes error involving rhinoceros.

Encloses other notes.

Comments on the Origin. Outlines difficulties he finds in CD’s theory. Believes CD must define natural selection more accurately and mentions instances in which that principle is an insufficient cause to account for the form of certain structures.

JDH half through Origin. High praise for facts and reasoning.

Lyell told JDH his criticisms: small matters JDH did not appreciate.

Reactions of G. Bentham, J. S. Henslow, and C. C. Babington.

Forwards letter from Asa Gray.

Bentham is very agitated by Origin. CD over-emphasises natural selection. His theory accounts for too much and would be improved by unburdening it of natural selection.