From A. G. Butler 29 June 1871
Summary
Resemblance of ocelli, in a moth and the argus pheasant.
Mimicry.
Pugnacity of stickleback.
| Author: | Arthur Gardiner Butler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 June 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 89: 81–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7839 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … for his Lepidoptera exotica ( Butler 1874 ; see letter from A. G. Butler, 2 June 1871 …
- … 1874 , pp. 78–9, Butler described the gradation of ocelli in Brahmaea swanzii (now Dactyloceras swanzii ) and B. lucina (now D. lucina ) and suggested that the feature had developed by sexual selection. See letter …
From W. D. Fox 2[0–9?] October [1871 or 1873?]
Summary
Fox hopes to see CD in London in November.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20-9 Oct 187120-9 Oct 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 222 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4639F |
From St G. J. Mivart 31 January 1871
Summary
Thanks CD for the second volume of Descent.
| Author: | St George Jackson Mivart |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Jan 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 193 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7467 |
From Anton Dohrn 7 September 1871
Summary
Reports on the international support he has obtained for the zoological station [see 7038]. Asks CD whether he will serve on a board of naturalists who would receive an annual report on the station.
Huxley is now convinced by AD’s views on homologies of the nervous system of arthropods, annelids, and vertebrates. Kovalevsky takes the same line but does not go far enough.
| Author: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 207 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7925 |
To Hensleigh Wedgwood 3 March [1871]
Summary
Admits pointer illustration is faulty.
Discusses shame, remorse, social instincts, approbation, and other topics discussed in Descent, ch. 4. "But as yet I nail my colours to the mast."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Hensleigh Wedgwood |
| Date: | 3 Mar [1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 24, 54–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7537 |
From John Murray 10 May 1871
Summary
Offers CD same payment for the 3d issue of Descent as for 2d.
Has bespoke four better drawings of birds in case a 4th issue is needed.
Vanity Fair wants CD’s portrait by Carlo Pellegrini ["Ape"].
| Author: | John Murray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 398 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7750 |
To G. A. Eisen 3 December 1871
Summary
Thanks GAE for memoir on earthworms [Bidrag till Skandinaviens Oligochaetfauna (1871)]. CD by chance is just now observing "one little point in their habits". Will be happy to learn something about the places frequented by the various species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gustavus Augustus Eisen |
| Date: | 3 Dec 1871 |
| Classmark: | The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Manuscripts and Archives Division. (Miscellaneous papers) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8093 |
From Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen 3 November 1871
Summary
Wishes to translate Expression into Dutch.
| Author: | Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Nov 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 184: 16 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8049 |
From W. B. Dawkins 8 February 1871
Summary
The box of bones sent by CD has led to a series of explorations. Reports on Yorkshire cave-hunting.
| Author: | William Boyd Dawkins |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Feb 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 125 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7477 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … in his letter of 29 January [1870] ( Correspondence vol. 18). See Dawkins 1874 , pp. 81– …
- … vol. 18, letter from W. B. Dawkins, 29 January [1870] ; see also Dawkins 1874 , pp. …
- … letter from W. B. Dawkins, 29 January [1870] . Dawkins concluded that not all of the tibiae were platycnemic and that the feature was indicative not of race but of age and sex ( Dawkins 1871b , Dawkins 1874 , …
From William Turner [after 28 March 1871]
Summary
Note on errata in first volume of Descent.
| Author: | William Turner |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 28 Mar 1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 82 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7637 |
From W. B. Dawkins 27 August 1871
Summary
Describes the successful excavation of caves containing interred remains of Neolithic man.
| Author: | William Boyd Dawkins |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Aug 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 127 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7918 |
Matches: 2 hits
From John Tyndall 23 February [1871]
Summary
Has devised a respirator for firemen by moistening cotton wool with glycerine and adding charcoal. JT suggests the nose with its hairs and mucus is a respirator that would give protection against diseases caused by floating particles. The presence of hair and mucus is thus explained by CD’s theory.
| Author: | John Tyndall |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Feb [1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: C5–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7508 |
From James Crichton-Browne 3 April 1871
Summary
Sends photographs of general paralytics. Expressions of exaltation of [these?] patients do not come out well in the photographs.
Is experimenting with idiots under his care. Has been unable to produce a blush in any one of them.
| Author: | James Crichton-Browne |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Apr 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 53.1: A30, C134–6; DAR 161: 315 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7658 |
To R. F. Cooke 4 November 1871
Summary
Agrees to stereotyping Origin [6th ed.].
Asks that 500 or 1000 more copies of Descent be printed. Will make no corrections except the number of thousands on title page. Would like to revise [Descent] if it goes on selling.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
| Date: | 4 Nov 1871 |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 238–9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8052 |
From John Fiske 23 October 1871
Summary
JF’s indebtedness to Herbert Spencer. [Published version complete.]
| Author: | John Fiske |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | J. S. Clark 1917, 1: 389–91; DAR 164: 124 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8030 |
From W. E. Darwin [17 November 1871]
Summary
Says has sent a copy of CD’s memorial to Captain Jones. Passes on Sir Geo. Grey’s comments on pasturage near Morpeth. Tells superstition about straight furrows and fairies.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [17 Nov 1871] |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 38) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8073F |
From A. G. Butler 2 June 1871
Summary
Facts contradicting Wallace’s views on coloration of Lepidoptera.
| Author: | Arthur Gardiner Butler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 June 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 89: 108–111 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7797 |
To John Fiske 9 November 1871
Summary
Thanks JF for his lectures, the arguments of which he finds very forcible; is glad to see JF has detected the falseness of much of Mivart’s reasoning.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Fiske |
| Date: | 9 Nov 1871 |
| Classmark: | The Huntington Library (HM 8260) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8058 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from John Fiske, 23 October 1871 and n. 1). St George Jackson Mivart had raised a number of objections to CD’s theory of descent in On the genesis of species ( Mivart 1871a ). Fiske addressed Mivart’s criticisms regarding the inadequacy of natural selection to explain similarities of structure in divergent organisms, such as the resemblance of the eye of the cuttlefish to that of vertebrates (see Fiske 1874 , …
From J. D. Hooker 31 October 1871
Summary
Details of the JDH–Ayrton–Gladstone imbroglio.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 93–5; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’Correspondence vol. 156, Indian Letters, Calcutta Botanic Garden II 1860–1905, ff. 1066–7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8036 |
| letter | (19) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Butler, A. G. | (2) |
| Dawkins, W. B. | (2) |
| Crichton-Browne, James | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
| Eisen, G. A. | (1) |
| Fiske, John | (1) |
| John Murray | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
| Butler, A. G. | (2) |
| Dawkins, W. B. | (2) |
| Fiske, John | (2) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
Darwin's 1874 letters go online
Summary
The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1874 through his letters and see a full list of the letters. The 1874 letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 …
St George Jackson Mivart
Summary
In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1874, the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart caused Darwin and his son George serious …
Lost in translation: From Auguste Forel, 12 November 1874
Summary
You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections on your favourite topic—ants. If only you had paid attention when your mother tried to teach you English you might be able to read it. But you didn’t, and you…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections …
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 …
Joseph Simms
Summary
The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874, while he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character (Simms 1873). He hoped it might 'prove…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am merely slaving over the sickening work of preparing new Editions …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both …
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Summary
George Eliot was the pen name of celebrated Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). She was born on the outskirts of Nuneaton in Warwickshire and was educated at boarding schools from the age of five until she was 16. Her education ended when she…
Matches: 1 hits
- … George Eliot was the pen name of the celebrated Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). She …
4.24 'Daily Graphic', Nast satire
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1874 the Harvard philosopher John Fiske published his magnum opus, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, in which he set out to explain the far-reaching significance of Darwin’s and Herbert Spencer’s evolutionary theories. He…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In 1874 the Harvard philosopher John Fiske published his …
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 …
Photograph album of Dutch admirers
Summary
Darwin received the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific admirers in the Netherlands. He wrote to the Dutch zoologist Pieter Harting, An account of your countrymen’s generous sympathy in having sent me on my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin received the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific …
Animals, ethics, and the progress of science
Summary
Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In Descent, he argued that some animals exhibited moral behaviour and had evolved mental powers analogous to conscience. He gave examples of cooperation, even…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
3.18 Elliott and Fry photos, c.1869-1871
Summary
< Back to Introduction The leading photographic firm of Elliott and Fry seems to have portrayed Darwin at Down House on several occasions. In November 1869 Darwin told A. B. Meyer, who wanted photographs of both him and Wallace for a German…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction The leading photographic firm of Elliott and Fry seems to have …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I cannot bear to think of the future The year 1876 started out sedately enough with …
