to argue that evolution by natural selection: Salisbury argued that one hundred million years was not sufficient for natural selection to transform jellyfish into humans, and also repeated Kelvin’s objection based on the argument of design. Salisbury 1894. Described also in Shipley 2001.

Perry wrote to a physicist friend: Perry wrote to Oliver Lodge on October 31, 1894. He added that if natural selection were to be dismissed, the only alternative was to appeal to some providence, and he regarded that as destructive for scientific reasoning. Shipley 2001.

he diligently sent copies: To physicists Joseph Larmor and George FitzGerald, as well as to Osborne Reynolds and Peter Guthrie Tait. He also wrote to Kelvin on October 17, 1894, and again on October 22 and October 23 (Cambridge University Library, Papers of Lord Kelvin Add. MS. 7342 (P56, P57, P58).

“I sat beside him”: The dinner took place on October 28, 1894. Perry wrote to Oliver Lodge on October 29 (University College London, Lodge Papers Add. MS. 89).

The scientific journal Nature eventually published: Perry 1895a.