No summary available.
No summary available.
Requests that PB express his thanks to the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris for the honour conferred upon him [see 8102].
Discusses movement of ears and contraction of the platysma.
Discusses phyllotaxy, citing work of Carl Nägeli and Chauncey Wright.
Maoris of New Zealand admire beards, contrary to statement in Descent [2: 349].
JDH informs Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff that he is sending Cosmo Melville a report on the pamphlet relating to an injured poppy crop. JDH thinks the pamphlet is unfairly harsh toward Bihar Opium agents & should not have been published by the Government. He believes his report is to be sent to India so asks Grant Duff to read over it & get it approved by 'his Grace'.
Thanks for letter and reference to Nägeli’s observations on leaf arrangement in the bud.
Pleased to hear from CD. Sends more facts about the life and habits of the inhabitants of the Seychelles.
Congratulates Horace on passing his "Little Go".
Will be in London until 21st. Would rejoice if JDH could come to lunch during their stay.
Sends CD a ptarmigan.
Cannot come to lunch to meet Sir Henry Holland. Holland may have seen Robert Lowe [Lord Sherbrooke] already. Will CD let him know his views?
Apologises for expressing himself stupidly [see 8086a]. He did not mean to give an opinion on what the species was, but merely referred to the range of L. australis. CD will look at specimens, but "the subject has gone much out of my mind; & my health is so weak, & I am so overwhelmed with proof-sheets & other work" that he hopes to be excused if he does not investigate the specimens closely.
Thanks for his article Valeur philosophique de l’hypothèse du transformisme (Bertillon 1870), which is very clear.
Would not himself trust so much in Agassiz’s conclusions.
Glad the essay has been published, as he believes ‘there are but few in France who admit the doctrine of evolution’.
Thanks her for marked proof-sheets.
Discusses climate in earlier geological periods.
H. Holland keeps strongly to the opinion that Kew be under the Treasury, and will recommend this to Lowe.
Can ADB allow T. W. Wood to sketch one of his dogs in hostile and friendly positions?
Do elephants in the Zoological Gardens carry tails aloft when excited?
Asks FW to thank F. P. Cobbe for her liberal offer, but the differences [between Descent and Cobbe’s review "Darwinism in morals", Theol. Rev. 33 (1871): 167–92] are too fundamental to be reconciled.
Asks to borrow AG’s paper on denudation of flat or nearly flat surfaces ["On modern denudation", Trans. Geol. Soc. of Glasgow 3: 153-90]. CD has recently been making some observations he thinks throw a little light on the subject.
Describes fly-catching activity of Drosera longifolia.
Experiments on Papilio asterias; sex of adult determined by length of larval feeding time.
Comments on Die Kalkschwämme [1872].
A Franciscan prior, Padre Buona-Grazia, agrees with human descent.
His trip to Dalmatia.
German reception of Descent.
Mentions current work.