From V. O. Kovalevsky 5 September [1870]
Summary
Will order the first set of casts from Murray.
Thanks CD for a book for his wife from the Royal Society Library.
His brother [Alexander] is delighted at being referred to in CD’s work [Descent 1: 205].
| Author: | Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский) |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Sept [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 169: 80 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7317 |
From Francis Darwin [before 18 October 1870]
Summary
Needs more money to pay his tutoring bills.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 18 Oct 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7345F |
From Louis Rérolle 15 June 1870
Summary
French translation of Orchids is published.
| Author: | Louis Rérolle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 132 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7234 |
To J. D. Hooker 27 September [1870]
Summary
Comments on JDH’s report of Liverpool meeting.
Huxley’s address.
Sir Roderick [Murchison]’s "apotheosis".
Tyndall’s lecture is "grand" except for egotistical beginning. Some Frenchmen have pitched into CD for using the "as if" reasoning, which Tyndall shows is justified.
Has just read George Rolleston’s address in Nature.
Anton Dohrn says German public have high opinion of Lyell.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 27 Sept [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 181–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7328 |
From Bartholomew James Sulivan 27 June 1870
Summary
Tells of his health and family matters.
Congratulates CD on being honoured by Oxford.
Discusses the state of Tierra del Fuego and the success of missionaries there.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 293 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7246 |
From James Philip Mansel Weale [25 May 1870]
Summary
Behaviour of ants.
| Author: | James Philip Mansel Weale |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [25 May 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 43 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7201 |
From Benjamin Clarke 1 November [1870]
Summary
Sends CD some Indian corn seeds to demonstrate the extreme effect sometimes producible on progeny by the mutilation of a parent.
Writes of a recent book.
| Author: | Benjamin Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Nov [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.11: 26 (EH 88206077) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5662 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1866 ); the zoological part was ready for the press in early 1867 (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter …
- … letter of 25 March 1867 ( Correspondence vol. 15), Clarke had outlined a procedure for breeding a predominantly female variety of maize by emasculating the breeding stock repeatedly for several years. Thomas Gibbs and Company were seedsmen; they had premises on the corner of Piccadilly and Halfmoon Street, London ( Post Office London directory 1870). On the verso of the title page of Clarke 1866 …
From Camille Dareste 2 July 1870
Summary
Has found a remarkable anatomical character in the niata skull of which he wrote [see 5540]. Asks whether the skull CD brought from South America [at the Royal College of Surgeons] shows the same character. If so, it would provide incontestable evidence of the origin of this race of cattle.
| Author: | Gabriel-Madeleine-Camille (Camille) Dareste |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 47 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7262 |
From Francis Galton 28 June 1870
Summary
[William Rathbone] Greg is author [of "Failure of ""natural selection"" in the case of man", Fraser’s Magazine 78 (1868): 353–62].
Comments on findings in J. M. Duncan [Fecundity, fertility, sterility and allied topics (1866)].
Saw A. D. Bartlett about monkeys.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 80: B160–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7249 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to Galton written during this period has been found. William Rathbone Greg had written an anonymous article, ‘On the failure of “natural selection” in the case of man’, for Fraser’s Magazine ([Greg] 1868). Galton refers to James Matthews Duncan and Duncan 1866 ; …
- … 1866 ) in Descent 1: 174 and n. 19. Galton refers to Abraham Dee Bartlett . For an earlier query from CD about crying monkeys, see Correspondence vol. 15, letter …
From Francis Galton 8 April 1870
Summary
The mark he had thought a variation is not, and he thinks his infusion still too small even when the blood is defibrinised.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: A13–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7161 |
From J. D. Hooker [7 March 1870]
Summary
Does not give much for botanical results of Round Island, but the zoology is wonderful.
Lyell’s new book [The student’s elements of geology (1870)]. Urges Lyell to make it Elementary principles.
Grove is disgusted with CD for being disquieted by William Thomson: "Take another dose of Huxley’s penultimate address to Geol. Soc." [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 25 (1869): 28–53].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [7 Mar 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 42–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6646 |
To Ernst Haeckel 23 June [1870]
Summary
Comments on new edition of EH’s book [Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, 2d ed. (1870)].
Mentions his own book [Descent].
Visit by Kölliker.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Date: | 23 June [1870] |
| Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1: 1–52/24) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7241 |
To Gustav Jäger 17 February 1870
Summary
Encloses his letter to GJ [6885], which was returned.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gustav Jäger |
| Date: | 17 Feb 1870 |
| Classmark: | Frau Dr Hildegard Jaeger (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7111 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to Gustav Jäger, 9 September 1869 . There is an annotated copy of Jäger’s book, Darwin’sche Theorie und ihre Stellung zur Moral und Religion ( Jäger [1869] ) in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 429); CD’s other copy is now in the library of the Linnean Society of London. Jäger had left the Zoological Gardens of Vienna in 1866 …
To Francis Darwin 18 October [1870]
Summary
Sends a cheque to pay off FD’s debts. Warns him of the dangers of overspending his income and advises him strongly to keep accounts.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Oct [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 211: 6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7346 |
To V. O. Kovalevsky 22 February [1870]
Summary
"I have received a very large box full of beautiful tea from Russia yesterday … my life is as regular & monotonous as a clock.
I make sure, but wofully slow progress, with my new book."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский) |
| Date: | 22 Feb [1870] |
| Classmark: | J. A. Stargardt (dealers) (17 March 1995); Swann Auction Galleries (dealers) (1 October 1953) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13060 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 20 February [1870] and n. 1. Kovalevsky visited Down from 30 September to 1 October 1869 ( Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). Descent was published at the beginning of 1871. CD refers to Kovalevsky’s brother, Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky , and to A. Kovalevsky 1866 . …
From Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen 27 November 1870
Summary
Concerning the Dutch edition of Descent.
| Author: | Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Nov 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 184: 15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7384 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to him of the 19 th inst. Hearing you would be glad to know, who he would employ for the translation of your new work: the descent of man and selection in relation to sex, I take the liberty to introduce myself— I am naturalist, had my education at the university of Leiden of Prof. I. van der Hoeven and was promoved there in 1866 …
From William Winwood Reade [c. 8 or 9 April 1870]
Summary
Brief observations on expression in Africa.
Alexander Agassiz is a good investigator, who differs with his father on evolution.
The behaviour of women and savages is a little easier to understand than that of civilised men.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [8 or 9] Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7069 |
From Francis Darwin [before 4 January 1870]
Summary
Humphrey does not think more bones in female os coccyx than in male. Because of maceration it is impossible to compare male and female skeletons. Has another coach while Stuart ill.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 4 Jan 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6520F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from CD requesting Francis to put a question to George Murray Humphry has been found. CD evidently asked about the number of bones in the coccyx (os coccyx or tailbone) in men and women. In Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte ( Haeckel 1868b , p. 235), Ernst Haeckel had noted that in human females the vestigial tail, composed of three to five small vertebrae, was usually one vertebra longer than in males. James Stuart had been third wrangler at Cambridge in 1866, …
To J. D. Hooker 2 July [1870]
Summary
Thanks JDH for offer of lilies.
The paper on orchids is by Hermann Müller [Verh. Naturhist. Ver. Preuss. Rheinlande & Westphalens 25 (1868): 1–62], on Platanthera and Epipactis.
Cites another work by P. Rohrbach [Über den Blüthenbau (1866)].
MS [of Descent] ready for printer.
Has read Bentham’s last Linnean Society [Presidential] Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1870): lxxiv–xciv] with great interest.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 2 July [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 175–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7261 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, 1 July 1870 and n. 3. CD refers to Hermann Müller’s observations on Platanthera and Epipactis in an article on Westphalian orchids published in Verhandlungen des naturhistorischen Vereines der preussischen Rheinlande und Westphalens ( H. Müller 1868 ). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. CD refers to Paul Rohrbach’s monograph on the structure and fertilisation of Epipogium gmelini (now E. aphyllum , the ghost orchid; Rohrbach 1866 ). …
| letter | (19) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (6) |
| Darwin, Francis | (2) |
| Galton, Francis | (2) |
| Clarke, Benjamin | (1) |
| Dareste, Camille | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (1) |
| Jäger, Gustav | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
| Darwin, Francis | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Galton, Francis | (2) |
| Kovalevsky, V. O. | (2) |
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
Beauty and the seed
Summary
One of the real pleasures afforded in reading Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the discovery of areas of research on which he never published, but which interested him deeply. We can gain many insights about Darwin’s research methods by following these …
Matches: 1 hits
- … One of the real pleasures afforded in reading Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the discovery of …
Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
Summary
On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were very pleased to welcome Terry Molloy back to the Darwin Correspondence Project for a special recording session. Terry, known for his portrayal of Davros in Dr…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 1 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Design | Personal Belief | Beauty | The Church Perhaps the most notorious …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This term is the plain expression of the facts,—Nat. selection is a metaphorical …
Bartholomew James Sulivan
Summary
On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Darwin and vivisection
Summary
Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
3.10 Ernest Edwards, 'Men of Eminence'
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of published photographs, Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science and Art, with Biographical Memoirs . . . The Photographs from Life by Ernest Edwards, B.A.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments
Summary
The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
