Corrections for Descent. Has sold 6500 copies in England.

Has finished rough draft of Expression, but will put it aside for the summer.

Will refresh himself with some curious observations on the response of plants to certain stimuli.

Sends corrections for Descent.

Thanks JVC for corrections for Descent. Index, which is too full, was hurried at the end.

Publisher would like to produce a translation of Expression. JVC offers to translate it.

Sends passage from Albertus Magnus on colour of horses.

Offers explanation of white colour of sea-birds.

Schweizerbart is now reprinting Descent, nearly all the first 3000 copies having been sold;

new editions of Origin

and of Variation are also planned.

Possibility of a new German translation of Journal of researches.

Glad to hear of new German edition of Origin. He is revising the English edition, adding a new chapter of "Answers".

No new edition of Descent has appeared.

Would be glad to see a new translation of the Journal of researches, which he revised in 1845.

Comments on white colour of sea-birds.

News of progress of German editions of Origin

and Descent.

Asks CD for references on chabius – a Chilean hybrid of goat and sheep.

CD offers to mark corrected passages in sheets of 6th edition of Origin.

Discusses question of hybrids between goats and sheep, on which H. von Nathusius has cast doubt in his recent Viehzucht [1872]. CD gives several references for a contrary view.

Asks JVC to inquire about HvN’s assertion that castrated rams have no horns.

Horns of castrated merino rams remain almost undeveloped.

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

Thanks JVC for his letter about the sheep.

CD sends some sheets [of 6th ed. of Origin]. Informs JVC that he is having it stereotyped, so he can never again make any serious alterations. "The little strength left to me shall be employed on new works."

Asks whether he can start soon on translating Expression.

Thinks CD has gone a little too far on St G. J. Mivart’s objection, which he thinks did very little harm in Germany.

JVC’s history of zoology is finished [Geschichte der Zoologie bis auf Joh. Müller und Charl. Darwin (1872)].

Will send second proofs of Expression.

Glad JVC has finished translating Origin.

Assures him that Mivart’s book [On the genesis of species (1871)] has produced a great effect in England and America. CD has discussed incipient structures at some length because it enabled him to give many cases of gradation.

Asks JVC to note that he does not vouch for Expression’s being worth translating.

Has sent sheets of Expression.

Thanks JVC for his History of zoology [Geschichte der Zoologie bis auf Joh. Müller und Charl. Darwin (1872)]. Considers the title one of the greatest honours ever paid him.

Reports on foreign orders for the heliotype plates of Expression.

Has translated half of Expression; is delighted with it. Comments on some points that he questions.

Is at work on concluding part of his handbook of zoology [Handbuch der Zoologie, 2 vols. (1863–75), with A. Gerstaecker].

Will consider JVC’s comments on Expression when he prepares a new edition.

Corrects CD’s spelling of the name of a statue: the Arrotino (spelled "Arretino" by CD) [see Expression, p. 184, on grief-muscles].

Thanks JVC for correcting his blunder on spelling of "Arrotino" [see Expression, p. 184]. "No Frenchman has a greater tendency to spell all proper names wrongly than I have."

Doubts accuracy of Bible translations quoted by CD as evidence that Semitic races blush.

Questions his note on derivation of words like "ugly", "huge", etc.

Lists some mistakes and misprints.

Thanks JVC for his criticisms and corrections of Expression. Asks him to alter his translation accordingly.