Summary

Will return Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St Paul (Jowett 1855) and requests several books, of which the latest is Hugh Miller’s Cruise of the Betsey (Miller 1858).

Summary

Returns the Greenland catalogue, which he has kept too long.

Summary

Questions about stripes on mules.

Summary

Origin will be published 22 Nov. Fears correspondent will find the conclusions "abominable".

Summary

Asserts that if his views [in the Origin] are in the main right, palaeontology does not give a fair picture of the forms that have peopled the earth, and [fossil] collections are a mere chance gathering of a few forms.

Summary

August Laugel has sent him a copy of his review [of Origin] in Revue des Deux-Mondes [26 (1860): 644–71].

Summary

He has sent the list of seeds to J. H. Hooker at Kew. There has been no agreement about a French edition [of Origin]. There is little chance of his being at the BAAS meeting at Oxford.

Summary

Orders one copy of the issue of the Atlantic Monthly for last August (but not worth sending to America for) and two copies of the issue for next October.

Summary

Sends photograph in case recipient collects them.

Summary

Thanks correspondent for book on old bones.

Summary

[No informatiion about content.]

Summary

On rereading the Origin, offers a criticism on two grounds: 1. Blending inheritance; 2. The tendency of species to elude competing species. Also competition within species eliminates the weak and thus preserves the species.

Summary

Sends a photograph of himself.

Summary

Reports information sent by E. Schulte [12254] on the colours of the male Diadema bolina.

Discusses extent to which consciousness came into play in the origin of certain instincts, including sexual display.

Summary

On the Christian God; questioning of CD’s religious beliefs.

Summary

Regrets he has not time to develop points touched on in her letter and that he does not understand what information she wants.

Summary

Writes at length on importance of God and Catholicism, and the need to seek salvation.

Summary

CD has repeated a test of whether hybrids of the common and Chinese goose are fertile inter se. Reports his success, and comments on its significance for the theory of descent.

Summary

[Draft letter that was never sent, headed "First letter disapproved by everybody" in CD’s hand.] Explains that he had, in fact, mentioned in the MS of his part of Erasmus Darwin that Krause had added to his essay as it appeared in Kosmos. During subsequent revision, this mention was accidentally omitted. [Apropos of S. Butler’s charges against CD.]

Summary

[A revised version (but also not sent) of the draft letter 12439.]