Sends Haast’s report; JDH may use any and all of the details in the letter.

Asks identity of a reviewer of Lyell’s Antiquity of man [Edinburgh Rev. 118 (1863): 254–302].

No summary available.

Sending a demonstration of the last theorem of Pierre Fermat, which has been the subject of a prize of the Academy many times. Would like his views on the logic. Arthur Cayley has done everything possible to prevent TK from winning the Academy medal.

Hopes he glanced at the last words of TK's article on the polyhedra in the R.S.L. Proceedings.

Reports that 100 copies of the Leeds essay JH requested will be ready the next day. Thanks JH for his understanding concerning the error in The Leeds Mercury [see WT's 1863-10-29].

Offers letters to Eliza Meteyard for her book [The life of Josiah Wedgwood (1865–6)].

CD has a Wedgwood vase of his father’s for JDH.

Finds part of his proof was defective, but it makes no difference to the final result.

Sends copies of 'The Yard, the Pendulum, and the Metre' published by Leeds Astronomical Society.

At Turners Hill near East Grinstead is a pond, which feeds the Rivers Medway and Ouse.

Regarding a suitable length for the proposed metric system. Hopes the metrical people will continue to agitate.

Would be pleased to show JH the pond, but thinks it should be carefully examined before any reference is made to it.

CD agrees about reversion.

The discovery of crossing in cryptogams is very interesting.

Thanks for sending him his essay on the yard, pendulum and metre. Hopes it will engage the attention of the public. A measure of 50" would be very convenient.

ED writes on behalf of her husband, who is ill, to thank FH for his letter

and to thank [L. C.] Treviranus for his paper on orchids.

CD wishes to know whether Orchis pyramidalis grows in FH’s neighbourhood. He needs a fresh specimen to compare the stigma with those grown locally.

Sends annual cheque for Down parish charities.

CD is too ill to write.

As for natural selection, he is more faithful to PM’s "own original child" than PM is himself. To illustrate, CD relates the metaphor of an architect selecting well-shaped stones and rejecting ill-shaped ones. [See Variation 2: 431.]

Regarding the Proceedings of the Southern Telescope Committee.

Tendril-bearing plants seem to CD "higher" organised with respect to adaptive sensibility than lower animals.

Wishes to encourage John Scott.

Death of JDH’s daughter makes CD cry over his own dead daughter Annie.

Sedgwick’s scientific merit.

Sends GA [see GA's 1863-11-21] JH's copy of the Melbourne telescope correspondence and reports; needs information from GA and Edwin Dunkin about the sun's motion, although JH questions some of Dunkin's work.