| Description | <p>Manuscript. Letters were found divided between 19 folders. The letters have been described below in these groups.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1892, on the Association for Promoting a Professorial University for London, specifically covering a request to Karl to draft a letter of reply to Lankester's critics; on signing the Protest against the Albert Charter, and meeting the Member of Parliament, Acland, who supports their cause; and letters from Lankester and Ripon on the campaign's preferred constitution for a Professorial University in London; and criticism of Karl's letter to <i>The Times</i> highlighting the differences between his own views and those of the Association Committee.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1893, about ordinates for curves, coefficients for crabs in Naples and Plymouth; mean errors; standard deviation in crab data; morphology and species; and data on exam results of science students at London University</p>.
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<p>Letters covering the year 1894, on dice throwing observations and calculations, enclosing results from F Y Edgeworth; enclosing coefficients of the nonic and ray-floret counts from chrysanthemum myconis; on Association for Promoting a Professorial University for London business, about a deputation to go before Lord Rosebery urging implementation of provisions in the Report of the Royal Commission; and on poisons produced by Daphnia.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1895, on distribution; on taking measurements of limbs, enclosing diagrams and an exam paper titled "Suggested additional questions for advanced students"; and on curves from crab measurements.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1896, criticising Karl's paper on fertility of marriages, focusing criticism on the sources of data (such as the Whitney family of Connecticut, and <i>Burke's Peerage</i>) and statistical treatment, and enclosing rough calculations and a table of families from <i>Burke's Peerage</i>; proposed work on snail shells found in holiday around the Main, Germany; on "dynamic causes"; supervising a recent Cambridge graduate named Stead, who will work on growth rates in Plaice; on frontal breadth ratios of crabs; on proposal to use Darwin's house for experiments in selective breeding, and his and Galton's desire to see Pearson on any Committee formed to manage the purchase; and replying to Karl's criticism of his crab investigation.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1897, asking for the proper formula for changing the origin of correlation moments; enclosing record of crab moults per day in July 1896; on proceedings at a meeting of the University of London Senate about constitutional reform; on possible error of sample size in Karl's essay on "Reproductive Selection" in his book <i>Chances of death, and other studies in evolution</i>; on death rates of crabs in putrid water; and on clarifying what is meant by death rates in crab experiments, and relevance of frequency curve.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1898, about an experiment on regression through dice tossing; plans to use dice tables to show how correlation and regression depend upon chance, enclosing correlation tables; on his paper for the British Association, and experiment on spinning teetotums; on fertility of greyhounds; on diminution of higher level teaching and research in science at UCL, and suspicion that it will become a "place of elementary instruction", before students go to more specialised study at the Imperial Institute.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1899, on moving in to Merton College, Oxford, and his understanding of Galton's meaning about inheritance of characters; about rules for University of London D.Sc. examinations; on having charge of Rolleston and Greenwell's skulls, and determination to fight the repeal of the statute giving them to him; winning the skull case and plans to learn to measure them; on problems with Karl's death-rate correlations; on Warren's experiments on death-rates in moths; Karl's statement on selective death-rates to explain correlation between fraternal ages of death, to which Weldon suggests senile decay in organs; suggesting organisms to study for likeness; on getting a skull catalogue produced and published through the Clarendon Press; measuring blood corpuscles from frogs; influence of animal age on blood corpuscle size; selection experiments on Daphnia, and problems encountered; problems measuring blood corpuscles, particularly dehydration; Karl's work on familial characters in moths; and on autogamy.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the period February - August 1900, on difficulty of financing a laboratory at UCL; poppy growing experiments; going over results of moth breeding to determine inheritance of characters, enclosing data and generational correlations; data on poppies with seedlings; poppy experiment results; further results of dice tossing; sending poppy germination data; how to measure "gross fertility" in poppies; snail species in Europe; on errors of watering, drainage, and sowing affecting poppy growing; detailed observations of poppies, including illustrations; on being able to demonstrate environmental causes of selective destruction in experimental conditions; on fitness of snails with a mean shell character; on indirect selection in relation to Karl's work on stature of Italian soldiers; and Karl's definition of direct selection.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the period September - December 1900, on collecting snails in north Germany; notes, illustrations, data and graphs on Clausilia laminata; Mendel's paper on crossing peas; being unable to get the paternal correlation from poppies, and Karl's solution; on writing an account of the research of Thomas Henry Huxley for Sidney Lee; on value of statistical methods applied to biology and suggesting a journal on those lines; agreeing with Karl's title of <i>Biometrika</i> for the proposed journal; thoughts on Leonard Huxley's <i>Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley</i>; attempts to understand Mendel's results and conclusions from pea-crossing and other experiments; and search for snails in Funchal, Madeira.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the period January - July 1901, on likely subscribers to <i>Biometrika</i>; circulars to publicise the journal; on feasibility of publishing <i>Biometrika</i> on current interest, comparing it to Clarendon Press'<i>Annals of Botany</i>; enclosing letter from W Bateson on the controversy over prior publication of his referee paper on Karl's article; on spinning teetotums; on poppies, optimistic projections about popularity of <i>Biometrika</i>, and loss of assistants; snail distribution; correlation of stature in poppy brothers; on study by Mr Caesar de Bruyken determining correlation between stalk and ear-length in Rye, enclosing extracts and table; opening Coutts account for <i>Biometrika</i>, finishes teaching Comparative Anatomy; curves for Italian soldier stature data, enclosing tables and graph; literature growing surrounding Mendel's "law"; on printing format and costs for <i>Biometrika</i>; explaining Aurel von Török's work on correlation of lower jaw angles in human skulls; on creating a bibliography for the first <i>Biometrika</i> volume; on evidence in Standpuss' book for ancestry affecting result of crops; negotatiations over publication agreements with Clarendon and Cambrige University Presses for <i>Biometrika</i>; snail and moth measurements; study of neanderthal type skull found by Pitt-Rivers at Cork Cathedral; preparing soldier and snail papers for the end of August, and critical bibliography; and success of his Zoology students.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the period August - December 1901, on his bicycle accident; curves for soldier statures and snails; calculating standard deviations from Clausilia shell measurements; significance of Alice Lee's contribution to the snail paper; Tschermak's pea crossing results and conclusions; enclosing letter to Karl from The Royal Society about publication of his "Homotyposis" paper; investigation into pea crossing; need to explain to Galton the value of an expert, technical journal like <i>Biometrika</i>; on chance of results following Mendel's "laws"; on finishing peas paper and enclosing letter from Tschermak about using colour plates from his paper; on Mendel and ancestral inheritance; and criticising Bateson's "symmetry" and "differentiation".</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1902, giving suggestions to Karl about his paper on regression; desire to write on De Vries and regression for the April number of <i>Biometrika</i>; plans to collect Draba verna; on starting a contention with Bateson; fight to get his Zoology students examined; on picking and growing Draba verna for leaf measurements, and correlation between leaf position and characters to show homotyposis; on Porta's data on goldfish; on his trip to Parma, and trying to convince Porta to include correlation tables in his work; suggests renegotiating contract with publishers of <i>Biometrika</i>; investment of profit at Merton College, Oxford, in estates; Bateson's attack on Weldon in his book <i>Mendel's Principles of Heredity: A Defence</i>; comparing Lychnis vespertina and Lychnis diurna, by counting and measuring hairs; popularity of an "unstatistical theory of inheritance"; papers by Hensgen, Warren and Simpson for <i>Biometrika</i>; possibility of classification bias by schoolmasters when collecting data about pupils; further information on cross-bred mice; possible usefulness of Arthur Thompson's ancient Egyptian skulls; on three forms of shell to be found in Helix stigata around Palermo; regarding Lutz's work on crickets; view that the next cooperative work ought to be on systematic zoology, and statistical presentation of species problem; and enclosing a diagram of the plan spiral of Brescia Clausila itala, and an account of all available hybrid mice.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1903, on covering Kobelt's route around Palermo and confirming his observations on snail shells; Geofrrey Smith's MS on Actinosphaerium; refers to Bateson's misreading and mistranslation of Mendel's theory of "compund allelomorphs"; species problem relating to Ranunculus ficaria; antipathy to <i>Biometrika</i> at Oxford; enclosing map showing collection of Celandines around Sandford; enclosing letter from Raymond Pearl about work on Arcella; correlations between anatomical parts of celandines; enclosing letter from G H Grosvenor on measuring Salpa in Naples; Dunker's work on skulls; continuation of mice cross-breeding; enclosing MS of a letter to <i>Nature</i> on "Mendel's Principles of Heredity in Mice"; details of laboratory bred albino mice; proof of D C McIntosh's paper on Ophiocoma nigra; inheritance of eye-colour in mice; enclosing a "friendly" note in <i>Nature</i>, 23 July 1903, on <i>Biometrika</i>; about action of the UCL Council regarding the Drapers' Company donation; on error in Darbishire's records compounded and affecting correlation tables; Salpa's measurement of muscle-bands in asexual parental Salpa; arguing that the effect of environment does not invalidate Karl's view on homotyposis; on A P di Cesnola's work on Mantis; and trip to Palermo to repeat snail collecting activity.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the year 1904, on being made Chairman of the Zoological Section of the Royal Society for the next three years; collecting snails under armed guard in Palermo; on correlation between measurements of columellar length and peripheral radius in clausilia; Farmer's work on cancer; attempts to work formulae in Karl's "law of ancestral inheritance" for hybrid cases; on method of grinding snail shells; latency of characters as a result of fertilisation; accepts invite to lecture at UCL on heredity; notes on heredity [possibly lecture notes]; drawings of wasps legs; on lecture preparations; and Cuénot's work on mice.</p>
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<p>Letters covering the years 1905-1906, on chromosomes retaining individual consitutions from moment of fertilisation; Karl's mother's cancer; results of mice cross-breeding experiments defy Cuénot's view on colour inheritance; consideration of Galton's theory of reversion; on musical notation and Gregorian chants; disappointment at Lankester's Romanes lecture; poor opinion of students and life at Oxford, referring to low attendance at lectures; enclosing negative prints of Weldon's "suns"; pointing out errors in a letter by M Greenwood on ventilation in human lungs, enclosing Greenwood's letter; regarding Hurst's paper on horse colours; own research on inheritance of coat colour in horses, but principally from chestnut mares, using the <i>General Stud-Book</i>; data on specific horses; enclosing horse pedigrees; correlations relating to the ancestry of chestnut foals; and references to the history of cattle in the British isles.</p>
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<p>Also contains two letters to M S Pearson, dated October - November 1901, on counting bands in snails' shells, enclosing illustrative diagram indicating counting method, and enclosing her notes on Helix hortensis.</p> |