Thanks WBT for help with pigeons and poultry.

Will probably be away at the time of Anerley show.

Thanks for Supplement to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [1851–6]. Praises SPW’s work. "What an amount of labour is condensed in your little volume! … I fully believe & hope that you will reap the only reward worth having, the consciousness that you have done good service to the cause of Science."

Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.

Wants accurate information on "the economy of nature". Is interested in how far the struggle with other species checks the northern range of any species.

Thanks John Storey for information.

Has written very strong notes to Lord Overstone and Sir J. W. Lubbock and hopes they will be of service to THH.

Acknowledges receipt of THH’s lecture [unidentified].

Asks JWL to use his influence to forward the appointment of T. H. Huxley to the Examinership in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at University of London. Gives details of THH’s qualifications.

Thanks for answer to query. "I see … that there is no hope of comparing the same genus at two different periods, and seeing whether the tendency to vary is greater at one period in such genus than at another period."

Inclined to dispute SPW’s doctrine that islands are generally ancient. Doubts that they are remnants of continents.

Extensive notes on Madeiran birds: when and where seen on the island and under what conditions.

Wants good rabbit specimens. Will be in London on 21 June and can pick up some pigeons.

Thanks for the very detailed information sent by EWVH.

CD (and Emma) had a good laugh over JDH’s mortified response to a misinterpretation (in print) concerning his position on multiple creation.

Comments on SPW’s book [Manual of Mollusca (1851–6)].

Mentions questions he has for SPW [see 1890].

Thanks WDF for specimen of Dorking cock.

Reports safe arrival of rabbit sent by WBT.

SPW and Waterhouse agree on island faunas; gives Australia and Tasmania as examples. The "stream of migration" from Asia to Tasmania.

Looks forward eagerly to the publication of CD’s "specific" researches.

Invites CD to send his memoranda [on Manual of Mollusca].

Note on cases of representative shells that are not clearly either varieties or species.

Queries from CD on the distribution of molluscan genera referring to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [pt 3 (1856)], with SPW’s answers.

Thanks WBDM for the particulars on the iceberg.

Will look up the barnacle specimen to which he refers at British Museum.

WBDM should remember when he returns to New Zealand that aboriginal rat and frog are "great desiderata in Natural History".

Answers CD’s questions about plants common to U. S. and Britain and their distribution in Europe.

Variability of agrarian weeds.

Comments on TVW’s book [On the variation of species with special reference to the Insecta (1856)].

On TVW’s Unitarianism. Predicts TVW will fall further away from Christianity.

[Letter sent by TVW to Charles Lyell.]