Returns pamphlets.

B. T. Lowne’s observation [Mon. Microsc. J. 4 (1870): 326–30] that boiling does not kill certain moulds is curious, but then how account for absence of all living things in Pasteur’s experiment?

Always delighted to see a word in favour of Pangenesis.

Thiselton-Dyer’s paper ["On spontaneous generation and evolution", Q. J. Microsc. Sci. 10 (1870): 333–54] is Spencerian.

The chemical conditions for first production of life are said to exist at present, but in some warm little pond today such matter would be absorbed or devoured, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.

Will send copy of Descent.

Comments on JC-B’s MS on expression among insane. Asks about weeping in insane men. Do idiots laugh when pleased?

Thanks for photographs of insane. Asks for additional photographs.

Comments on Henry Maudsley [Body and mind (1870)].

Pointed ears in the insane.

Asks that a presentation copy [of Descent?] be sent to Edward Blyth. Comments on publication.

Discusses presentation copies [of Descent]. Dallas returned proofs of index on Friday. Asks for John Stuart Mill’s address.

Discusses publication of Descent. Orders copies of vol. 2 sent to Wallace, Mivart, and F. P. Cobbe.

Will attend Athenaeum and vote for RC.

JC-B’s MS most useful.

P. Gratiolet’s observations on contraction and dilation of pupils of eye of a person in extreme terror. Has JC-B ever observed this? Expression has been his hobby-horse for 30 years.

Receipt for payment by John Murray of £630 for the first edition, consisting of 2500 copies, of Descent.

Suggests sending his book [Descent?] to Popular Science Review.

Thinks JT’s discovery of a glycerine respirator is an interesting practical discovery. CD has been wondering about the hairs in our nostrils, but doubts that JT has explained their function, since there are hardly enough.

Will ask W. Ogle to observe hairs in nostrils of different races.

Says Descent is "selling like Mad.––" Murray will print another 1500 or 2000 copies. Has received £630 for the 2500.

On Monday he visited Mivart, who is a charming man.

He seemed to be taken aback by CD’s points about the larynx and giraffe.

[See 7507 and 7519.]

He seemed to have forgotten CD’s argument regarding the formation of the greyhound.

Discussed the larynx and the silence of the Cetaceans.

If FD mentions any of this to [Marlborough Robert] Pryor, ask him not to mention it to anyone else "as it is perhaps rather a breach of confidence to repeat even to friends private conversation."