Has decided to send the letter ["Variation of organs", Nature 8 (1873): 505].
Writes of his poor health and problems of settling in at Trinity.
No summary available.
Asks GHD whether he can tell him what inclination a polished or waxy leaf ought to hold to the horizon in order to let vertical rain rebound off as much as possible.
Sends table showing relative force of impact of weight dropped on a plane inclined at different angles.
On bodies of varying elasticity bouncing off inclined planes [see 9096].
CD gives his criticisms of GHD’s essay on religion and the moral sense. Urges him to delay publishing for some months and then to consider whether it is new and important enough to counterbalance the effects of its publication. J. S. Mill would never have influenced the age as he has done had he not refrained from expressing his religious convictions. Cites John Morley’s Life of Voltaire [1872]: direct attacks produce little effect; real good comes from slow and silent side attacks. "My advice is to pause, pause, pause."
"It is a fearfully difficult moral problem about speaking out on religion, & I have never been able to make up my mind."
An Irishman, a "grand breeder" of short-horns, declared at lunch that CD’s books had been "a great help to [him] in breeding!"
No summary available.
CD writes about organising a subscription for Dohrn’s Zoological Station at Naples. Has drawn up a draft circular for naturalists to sign to show their support for the Station.
Sorry to hear of GHD’s poor health – he could have pleasant society at Cambridge if he were stronger.
Contributes £75 [to a fund for Naples Zoological Station] "if the affair goes on after we hear from Dohrn".
CD is looking for editorial assistance in preparing a new edition of Descent, and inquires whether GHD might be interested in taking on such a tedious job.
Pleased that GHD will help with second edition of Descent. Cautions him not to alter strength of CD’s expression or improve the style too much.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Gives his and CD’s thanks for information on consanguinity among parents of asylum inmates.
Returns and sends comments on Clarke Hawkshaw’s essay ‘The persistence of forms of life in the depths of the sea’.
Has finished the index [for Descent, 2d ed.].
Finds statistical evidence that cousin marriages are at least three times as frequent in "our rank" as in the lower.
No summary available.
Sends queries [on proofs of Descent, 2d ed.]. Will be finished, except for the index, in two days.
Is now less satisfied than formerly with his statistics on cousin marriage.
[Enclosure is a copy by GHD of J. S. Mill’s statement about Origin (Logic 2: 18 n.).]
