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ritish botanist and perhaps the best in the world, is a
full convert, and is now going immediately to publish his confession
of faith; and I expect daily to see proof-sheets. (71/4. "The Flora of
Australia, etc., an Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania." London
1859.) Huxley is changed, and believes in mutation of species: whether a
convert to us, I do not quite know. We shall live to see all the younger
men converts. My neighbour and an excellent naturalist, J. Lubbock,
is an enthusiastic convert. I see that you are doing great work in the
Archipelago; and most heartily do I sympathise with you. For God's sake
take care of your health. There have been few such noble labourers in
the cause of Natural Science as you are.

P.S. You cannot tell how I admire your spirit, in the manner in which
you have taken all that was done about publishing all our papers. I
had actually written a letter to you, stating that I would not publish
anything before you had published. I had not sent that letter to the
post when I received one from Lyell and Hooker, urging me to send some
MS. to them, and allow them to act as they thought fair and honestly to
both of us; and I did so.

(71/5. The following is the passage from the Introduction to the "Origin
of Species," referred to in the first paragraph of the above letter.)

"My work is now nearly finished; but as it will take me two or three
years more to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have
been urged to publish this Abstract. I have more especially been induced
to do this, as Mr. Wallace, who is now studying the Natural History of
the Malay Archipelago, has arrived at almost exactly the same general
conclusions that I have on the origin of species. Last year he sent to
me a memoir on this subject, with a request that I would forward it
to Sir Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is
published in the third volume of the Journal of that Society. Sir C.
Lyell and Dr. Hooker, who both knew of my work--the latter having read
my sketch of 1844--honoured me by thinking it advisable to publish,
with Mr. Wallace's excellent memoir, some brief extracts from my
manuscripts."

LETTER 72. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, May 3rd, 1859.

With respect to reversion, I have been raking up vague recollections of
vague facts; and the impression on my mind is rather more in favour of
reversion than it was when you were here.

In my abstract (72/1. "The Origin of Species.") I give only a paragraph
on the general case of reversion, though I enter in detail on some cases
of reversion of a special character. I have not as yet put all my facts
on this subject in mass, so can come to no definite conclusion. But as
single characters may revert, I must say that I see no improbability in
several reverting. As I do not believe any well-founded experiments or
facts are known, each must form his opinion from vague generalities.
I think you confound two rather distinct considerations; a variation
arises from any cause, and reversion is not opposed to this, but solely
to its inheritance. Not but what I believe what we must call perhaps
a dozen distinct laws are all struggling against each other in every
variation which ever arises. To give my impression, if I were forced
to bet whether or not, after a hundred generations of growth in a poor
sandy soil, a cauliflower and red cabbage would or would not revert to
the same form, I must say I would rather stake my money that they would.
But in such a case the conditions of life are changed (and here comes
the question of direct influence of condition), and there is to be no
selection, the comparatively sudden effect of man's selection are left
to the free play of reversion.

In short, I dare not come to any conclusion without comparing all facts
which I have collected, and I do not think there are many.

Please do not say to any one that I thought my book on species would be
fairly popular and have a fairly remunerative sale (which was the height
of my ambition), for if it prove a dead failure it would make me the
more ridiculous.

LETTER 73. TO W.H. MILLER. Down, June 5th [1859].

I thank you much for your letter. Had I seen the interest of my remark
I would have made many more measurements, though I did make several.
I stated the facts merely to give the general reader an idea of the
thickness of the walls. (73/1. The walls of bees' cells: see Letter
173.)

Especially if I had seen that the fact had any general bearing, I should
have stated that as far as I could measure, the walls are by no means
perfectly of the same thickness. Also I should have stated that the
chief difference is when the thickness of walls of the upper part of
the hexagon and of the pyramidal basal plates are contrasted. Will you
oblige me by looking with a strong lens at the bit of comb, brushing off
with a knife the upper thickened edges, and then compare, by eye alone,
the thickness of the walls there with the thickness of the basal plates,
as seen in any cross section. I should very much like to hear whether,
even in this way, the difference is not perceptible. It is generally
thus perceptible by comparing the thickness of the walls of the hexagon
(if not taken very close to the angle) near to the basal plates, where
the comparison by eye is of course easier. Your letter actually turned
me sick with panic; from not seeing any great importance [in the]
fact, till I looked at my notes, I did not remember that I made several
measurements. I have now repeated the same measurements, roughly with
the same general results, but the difference, I think, is hardly double.

I should not have mentioned the thickness of the basal plates at all,
had I not thought it would give an unfair notion of the thickness of the
walls to state the lesser measurements alone.

LETTER 74. TO W.H. MILLER. [1859]

I had no thought that you would measure the thickness of the walls of
the cells; but if you will, and allow me to give your measurements,
it will be an immense advantage. As it is no trouble, I send more
specimens. If you measure, please observe that I measured the thickness
of the walls of the hexagonal prisms not very near the base; but from
your very interesting remarks the lower part of the walls ought to be
measured.

Thank you for the suggestion about how bees judge of angles and
distances. I will keep it in mind. It is a complete perplexity to me,
and yet certainly insects can rudely somehow judge of distance. There
are special difficulties on account of the gradation in size between the
worker-scells and the larger drone-cells. I am trying to test the case
practically by getting combs of different species, and of our own bee
from different climates. I have lately had some from the W. Indies of
our common bee, but the cells SEEM certainly to be larger; but they have
not yet been carefully measured. I will keep your suggestion in mind
whenever I return to experiments on living bees; but that will not be
soon.

As you have been c
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