Asks GHD what the chances are against squinting and non-squinting children coming alternately in a family of ten.
Requests that correspondent take some action regarding the state of horses on his farm. Robert Ainslie of Tromer Lodge, Down, was fined in 1852 following CD’s complaints.
A report on his somewhat improved health.
Discussion of ducks. CD asks for information on a domestic Chinese race about which Robert Swinhoe wrote to CD. Compares Chinese duck with Anas poecilorhyncha and Boschas.
Notes improvement in health.
Has read FM’s paper on sponges ["Über Darwinella aurea", Arch. Miskrosk. Anat. 1 (1865): 344–53] with interest.
Has also read FM’s work on the metamorphoses of Peneus [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 14 (1864): 104–15], an interesting and important embryological discovery.
CD regards Louis Agassiz’s opinions as valueless.
In despair: has lost his copy of Verlot’s memoir on variations of flowers [Sur la production et la fixation des variétés (1866)]. Has JDH borrowed it?
What progress has been made with pigeon drawings for Variation?
Can WBT persuade Mr Zurhorst to repeat a pigeon experiment?
CD is happy to sign photograph. He will only require one copy of the journal.
Sends copies of photographs of himself. Asks for photographs of German naturalists.
Comments on EH’s account of Protogenes primordialis.
Has found Verlot.
His sister [Emily Catherine Langton] is dying [d. 2 Feb 1866].
His stomach still very bad. Writes one or two hours and reads a little.
JDH is a wretch to remind CD of his coal-plant prophecy.
Glad JDH will give Nottingham lecture.
No summary available.
Welcomes ARW’s paper on pigeons ["On the pigeons of the Malay Archipelago", Ibis 1 (1865): 365–400].
Influence of monkeys on distribution of pigeons and parrots.
Asks ARW to explain a passage in his paper on Malayan Papilionidae [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 1–71] on how dimorphic forms are produced. CD knows of varieties "that will not blend or intermix", but which produce offspring quite like either parent.
ARW’s remarks on geographical distribution in Celebes "will give a cold shudder to the immutable naturalists".
Presses ARW to work on his travel journal.
Thanks for photographs [of German scientists].
Thanks for all five numbers of Der Mensch [1866].
Had not known that Rütimeyer had written on modification of species.
Obliged for JW’s information on variability of size of bees’ cells. Hexagonal cells not always work of several insects. W. H. Miller found great variability in thickness of cell walls.
Will be pleased to sign FWF’s certificate for the Royal Society if he can send it to CD, who does not have the strength to go to London.
No summary available.
Requests repayment of loan as FR promised last spring.
ARW’s simple explanation of dimorphic forms is satisfactory.
On "non-blending" of certain varieties, CD thinks ARW has not understood him. He does not refer to fertility. He crossed two differently coloured varieties of peas and "got both varieties perfect, but none intermediate". Something like this must occur in ARW’s butterflies.
Discussion of Mrs Agassiz’s letter [to Mary Lyell, forwarded to CD] regarding S. American glacial action,
with comments on Bunbury’s letter on temperate plants.
Refers to opinions of Agassiz, David Forbes, Hooker, and CD on glacial period and glaciers.
Wishes he had published a long chapter on glacial period [Natural selection, pp. 535–66] written ten years ago.
Tells of death of his sister, Catherine, and other family matters.