Thanks GJR for gift of game.
Contributes to [Naples] Zoological Station.
Says it is not likely he will be able to criticise GJR’s work.
Recommends Jean-Henri Fabre, Souvenirs entomologiques [1879].
Encloses letters from J. F. Moulton [12350 and 12356].
On GJR’s work on mental evolution in animals. Emphasises "love" among animals.
Comments on stimulation of plants.
On pleasure and pain.
Thinks Herbert Spencer has done little service to science but a great service to thinking.
Thinks importance of mathematics overestimated [by J. F. Moulton] in criticising Spencer.
Preparing his book, Animal intelligence [1882].
Spent an afternoon with a spiritualist but did not learn anything.
Lectured on mental evolution in Newcastle.
Has conducted interesting research on locomotor systems of echinoderms.
Sends proofs of Encyclopaedia Britannica article on hybridism [9th ed., 12: 422–6]. Can CD mention authorities who should be cited?
Comments on hybridisation; cites authorities. Sends book by Wilhelm Olbers Focke [Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge (1881)].
Comments on GJR’s article on hybridisation.
Recommends his article ["Fertility and hybrids from the Chinese and common goose", Collected papers 2: 219–20].
Discusses crosses of Lythrum.
Thanks for copy of W. O. Focke [Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge (1881)].
Has nearly finished paper on locomotor system in echinoderms.
Returns book [W. O. Focke, Pflanzen-Mischlinge]. It was of great use.
Suggests experiment involving light stimulation of plants.
Discusses GJR’s idea of subjecting plants to brief flashes of light.
Hoped to see GJR in London, but was too tired.
Delighted his book Movement in plants has interested GJR.
Asks if GJR has example of dogs calling on each other to go hunting; there is a case half a mile away.
Has heard that Samuel Butler has abused him in his latest book, but he does not intend to look at it.
Glad CD thinks experiment worth trying [see 12904]. Has written to John Tyndall for permission to do it at Royal Institution.
Paper on echinoderms written [with J. C. Ewart, "Locomotor system of Echinodermata", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 172 (1881): 829–85].
John Tyndall has provided apparatus for experiment with light.
Frank [Darwin]’s paper a brilliant success [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 18: 406–19, 420–55. Read 16 Dec].
Has got a monkey for observation.
Comments on papers by Francis Darwin.
Suggests methods for growing seedlings for experiments involving light.
Comments on GJR’s observations on monkey.
Describes difficulty of obtaining pigs for experiment.
Has read with interest GJR’s review [of Samuel Butler, Unconscious memory (1880)] in Nature [23 (1880–1): 285–7]. Heroic of GJR to call down [Butler’s] revenge on his own head. Ernst Krause’s letter [Nature 23 (1880–1): 288] very good.
As magistrate, CD must enforce rules regarding infection in pigs.
Thanks GJR for his second letter replying to Butler [Nature 23 (1880–1): 335–6].
Intends experiment to see if cats released in country can find their way back.
Comments on the meaning of his definition of the term, "animal intelligence". Encloses further discussion from his forthcoming book [Earthworms].