Sends MS of section on voice as a means of expression [Expression, pp. 86–93]. CD is dissatisfied with it – wishes he could avoid the subject.

Sends MS chapter on voice from Expression to HL for examination.

Agrees with R. B. Litchfield about Herbert Spencer’s views on speech and music.

Thanks GAE for memoir on earthworms [Bidrag till Skandinaviens Oligochaetfauna (1871)]. CD by chance is just now observing "one little point in their habits". Will be happy to learn something about the places frequented by the various species.

Obliged for ESM’s article ["On adaptive coloration of the Mollusca", Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 14 (1870–1): 141–5]. Glad to have error corrected about protective colouring of shells.

Thanks for the letter, photograph, and kind words about CD’s scientific work. [See 8088.]

CTEvS’s view of pseudova is new to CD;

he has not yet received the recent work on parthenogenesis

though he did receive the memoir on Polistes.

Sends sheets [of the 6th ed. of Origin].

Thanks JVC for his letter about the sheep.

Sends corrections for new French edition of Origin.

Sends a copy of Orchids for his wife, T. M. Story-Maskelyne, and a few other items she may wish to have.

Climbing Plants may be purchased at Williams and Norgate; he has no clean copies.

Refers GH to vol. 2, p. 431 of Variation for the "perplexed conclusion" at which CD has arrived on variation and design. Has nothing to add to this statement.

Requests that PB express his thanks to the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris for the honour conferred upon him [see 8102].

Discusses movement of ears and contraction of the platysma.

Discusses phyllotaxy, citing work of Carl Nägeli and Chauncey Wright.

Congratulates Horace on passing his "Little Go".

Will be in London until 21st. Would rejoice if JDH could come to lunch during their stay.

Apologises for expressing himself stupidly [see 8086a]. He did not mean to give an opinion on what the species was, but merely referred to the range of L. australis. CD will look at specimens, but "the subject has gone much out of my mind; & my health is so weak, & I am so overwhelmed with proof-sheets & other work" that he hopes to be excused if he does not investigate the specimens closely.

Thanks for his article Valeur philosophique de l’hypothèse du transformisme (Bertillon 1870), which is very clear.

Would not himself trust so much in Agassiz’s conclusions.

Glad the essay has been published, as he believes ‘there are but few in France who admit the doctrine of evolution’.

Thanks her for marked proof-sheets.

Discusses climate in earlier geological periods.

H. Holland keeps strongly to the opinion that Kew be under the Treasury, and will recommend this to Lowe.

Can ADB allow T. W. Wood to sketch one of his dogs in hostile and friendly positions?

Do elephants in the Zoological Gardens carry tails aloft when excited?

Asks FW to thank F. P. Cobbe for her liberal offer, but the differences [between Descent and Cobbe’s review "Darwinism in morals", Theol. Rev. 33 (1871): 167–92] are too fundamental to be reconciled.

Asks to borrow AG’s paper on denudation of flat or nearly flat surfaces ["On modern denudation", Trans. Geol. Soc. of Glasgow 3: 153-90]. CD has recently been making some observations he thinks throw a little light on the subject.