From B. W. Savile   30 September 1881

Dear Sir—

I beg to thank you for your courteous and speedy reply to the question I ventured to ask you; and regret much at having to trouble you a second time, through not having made my question as distinct and clear as I ought to have done.¹

I agree with you in thinking there is “no difficulty” about the doctrine of Evolution so far as my question extended for the reasons you have justly given—

What I should have added—where the difficulty appears to me to begin, is this. “Admitting the ovule of a mammal to be of the same sort at first and undistinguishable from the ovule of an egg bearing animal—how could the first of the mammal species be nourished, if its immediate progenitor was a non-mammal”?

I think this is the difficulty w^h. I should be glad to have solved; but knowing how valuable is y^r. time, I cannot expect you to favour me with a reply unless you can do so in the briefest compass possible which will be duly appreciated by Dear Sir, | yours very faithfully | B. W. Savile