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To Nature   11 February [1874]

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Summary

Prefaces Fritz Müller’s observations on termites and stingless bees [see 9281].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  11 Feb [1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 19 February 1874, pp. 308–9
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9283

To Nature   6 April [1874]

Summary

Comments on J. T. Moggridge’s article on the fertilisation of Fumaria capreolata [Nature 9 (1874): 423].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  6 Apr [1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 16 April 1874, p. 460
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9393

To Nature   18 April [1874]

Summary

CD has observed hundreds of primrose flowers cut off their stalks, and conjectures that this was done by birds to obtain the nectar. Asks readers of Nature in England and abroad whether primroses are subject to such destruction in their localities.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  18 Apr [1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 23 April 1874, p. 482
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9418

From J. H. Gladstone to Nature   [23–30 April 1874]

Summary

Cancel: third-party letter.

Author:  John Hall Gladstone
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  [23-30 Apr 1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 30 April 1874, p. 509
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9425F

From H. C. Key to Nature   [23–30 April 1874]

Summary

Cancelled: third-party letter from H. C. Key.

Author:  Henry Cooper Key
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  [23-30 Apr 1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 30 April 1874, p. 509
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9425G

From G. M. Seabroke to Nature   [23–30 April 1874]

Summary

Cancelled: third-party letter from G. M. Seabrook.

Author:  George Mitchell Seabroke
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  [23-30 Apr 1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 30 April 1874, p. 509
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9425H

From T. R. Stebbing to Nature   [23–30 April 1874]

Summary

Cancelled: third-party letter.

Author:  Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  [23-30 Apr 1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 30 April 1874, p. 509
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9425I

From W. T. Thiselton Dyer to Nature   [23–30 April 1874]

Summary

Cancelled: third-party letter.

Author:  William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  [23-30 Apr 1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 30 April 1874, p. 509
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9424F

To Nature   7 and 11 May [1874]

Summary

Thanks Nature correspondents for their observations on destruction of primroses [Nature 9 (1874): 509; 10 (1874): 6–7]. Reports an error in his observations: ovules, as well as nectar, are taken by the birds. As the habit of cutting off primrose flowers is widespread, CD concludes it is instinctive in bullfinches.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  7 and 11 May [1874]
Classmark:  Nature, 14 May 1874, pp. 24–5
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9444
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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: 19 hits

  • … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the …
  • … be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August …
  • … pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such …
  • … And … one looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • … was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • … inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October …
  • … in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • … that Mr Williams was ‘a cheat and an imposter’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 ). …
  • … his, ‘& that he was thus free to perform his antics’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 29 January [1874
  • … Darwin had allowed ‘a spirit séance’ at his home ( letter from T. G. Appleton, 2 April 1874 ). …
  • … edition, published in 1842 ( Correspondence  vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 17 …
  • … Hooker, and finally borrowed one from Charles Lyell ( letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January …
  • … ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 14 April 1874 ). The technical nature of Huxley’s argument prompted …
  • … a source of inspiration.  In April, he wrote a letter to  Nature,  observing that the flowers of …
  • … primroses were abundant in each district ( letter to  Nature , 18 April [1874] ). He …
  • … M. Story-Maskelyne, 4 May 1874 ). In a second letter to  Nature , Darwin summarised the …
  • … blindfolded from the moment of being hatched ( letter to  Nature , 7 and 11 May [1874] ; …
  • … with the contraction of  Dionaea  leaves in  Nature  (Burdon Sanderson 1874). Hooker also …
  • … ). He featured in the scientific worthies series  in  Nature  ( letter to  J. N. Lockyer, 13 May …

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: 10 hits

  • … In 1874, the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart caused Darwin and his son …
  • … appeared to have created very little stir, until, in July 1874, Mivart published an anonymous review …
  • … it for publication in the next issue of the Quarterly ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 29 July 1874
  • … kind of thing Murray would be likely to wish to circulate ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 1 August [1874] …
  • … them explicitly, he might be thought to endorse them ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 5 August 1874 ). …
  • … of encouraging licentiousness. A postscript to Darwin’s letter, which may belong to another letter, …
  • … on board Darwin’s comments and sent a fair copy of his letter with his letter of 6 [August] 1874
  • … was given to them on account of their extraordinary nature and barbarity. Secondly , he …
  • … a Pickwickian sense’ ( letter to John Murray, 18 October 1874 ). In other words, Mivart had used …
  • … reaction was savage ( letter to G. H. Darwin, [6 December 1874] ). Hooker and Huxley between them …

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: 6 hits

  • … physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874 , while he was staying in London. …
  • … with rigid care at every object’. No reply to the letter has been found, and Darwin was not …
  • … please give your height while standing in stockings. (Letter from Joseph Simms, 14 …
  • … feet high, of splendid proportions, and fittingly endowed by nature for the arduous physical and …
  • … London: John Murray. Simms, Joseph. 1873. Nature’s revelations of character, or, the mental …
  • … Simms, Joseph. 1891. Physiognomy illustrated; or, Nature's revelations of character. A …

Moral Nature

Summary

In Descent of Man, Darwin argued that human morality had evolved from the social instincts of animals, especially the bonds of sympathy and love. Darwin gathered observations over many decades on animal behavior: the heroic sacrifices of social insects,…

Matches: 12 hits

  • … save another. Letters Letter 7048 : Darwin, W. E., to Darwin, …
  • … but rather in a muddle on the whole subject" Letter 7645 : Morley, John to Darwin, …
  • … but 'in the air' from generation to generation." Letter 7685 : Darwin to …
  • … that man ever existed as a non-social animal." Letter 7691 , Morley, John, to …
  • … the moral sense, at a time when Paris is aflame". Letter 7145 : Darwin to Cobbe, F. …
  • … apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind." Letter 7149 : Cobbe, F. P. to …
  • … metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?" Letter 7470 : Wedgwood, …
  • … which look with reverence or respect is shame." Letter 7537 : Darwin, C. R. to …
  • … dissatisfied with himself & regret his conduct." Letter 9377 : Darwin, C. R. to …
  • … remain, to a large extent, of the same so-called instinctive nature as before?" …
  • … or random) is Self or Self-Interest." Letter 12615 : Darwin, C. R. to Preston, …
  • … University Press. Wilson, E. O. 1978. On Human Nature , pp. 149-67. …

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: 26 hits

  • … Observers Women: Letter 1194 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [12 August …
  • … silkworm breeds, or peculiarities in inheritance. Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to …
  • … observations of cats’ instinctive behaviour. Letter 4258 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, …
  • … to artificially fertilise plants in her garden. Letter 4523 - Wedgwood, L. C. to …
  • … be made on seeds of Pulmonaria officinalis . Letter 5745 - Barber, M. E. to …
  • … Expression from her home in South Africa. Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L …
  • … Expression during a trip to Egypt. Letter 7223 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L. C., …
  • … expression of emotion in her pet dog and birds. Letter 5817 - Darwin to Huxley, T. …
  • … is making similar observations for him. Letter 6535 - Vaughan Williams , M. S. …
  • … of a crying baby to Darwin's daughter, Henrietta. Letter 7179 - Wedgwood, …
  • … briefly on her ongoing observations of wormholes. Letter 8611 - Cupples, A. J. …
  • … expression of emotion in dogs with Emma Darwin. Letter 8676 - Treat, M. to Darwin, …
  • … birds, insects or plants on Darwin’s behalf. Letter 8683 - Roberts, D. to …
  • … of an angry pig and her niece’s ears. Letter 8701 - Lubbock, E. F . to Darwin, …
  • … that she make observations of her pet cats. Letter 8989 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [28 …
  • … on her experiments with fly-catching Drosera . Letter 9426 - Story …
  • … without the birds attacking the buds and flowers. Letter 9616 - Marshall, T. to …
  • … specimens and bird observations from Calcutta. Letter 3634 - Darwin to Gray, A., [1 …
  • … “enthusiasm and indomitable patience”. Letter 4242 - Hildebrand, F. H. G. to Darwin …
  • … contained in “a little treatise”. Letter 4436 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., [26-27 …
  • … he has moved one or two of them into his bedroom. Letter 5602 - Sutton, S. to …
  • … expression of emotion in chimpanzees and orangs. Letter 5705 - Haast, J. F. J. von …
  • … to show in his museum in Canterbury, New Zealand. Letter 6453 - Langton, E. to …
  • … 9606 - Harrison, L. C. to Darwin, [22 August 1874] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, sends a …
  • Letter 9616  - Marshall, T.  to Darwin, [September 1874] Theodosia Marshall details …
  • Letter 9485 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [8 June 1874] Mary Treat details her experiments …

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: 15 hits

  • … by the prospect of animals suffering for science. In a letter to E. Ray Lankester, he wrote: ‘You …
  • … another word about it, else I shall not sleep to-night’ ( letter to E. R. Lankester, 22 March [1871 …
  • … experiment as an illustration of its tender and sympathetic nature: ‘everyone has heard of the dog …
  • … pangenesis. Darwin was taken aback, and swiftly replied in a letter to Nature , insisting that he …
  • … deserved credit for his ‘ingenuity and perseverance’ ( letter to Nature , [before 27 April 1871] …
  • … for further cross-circulation and ‘Siamesing’ ( letter from Francis Galton, 13 September 1871 ). …
  • … Some of the results were promising, but inconclusive (see letter from G. J. Romanes, 14 July 1875 …
  • … results will be necessary to convince physiologists’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 18 July 1875 ). …
  • … for your work; & I suppose birds can be chloroformed (letter to G. J. Romanes, 27 December …
  • … branded physiologists as ‘demons let loose from hell’ ( letter to F. B. Cobbe, [14 January 1875] ) …
  • … detail here . He stated his position most frankly in a letter to Henrietta, 4 January [1875] . …
  • … point of view I have rejoiced at the present agitation. ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January …
  • … science of Physiology as doomed to death in this country. ( letter To T. H. Huxley, 14 January 1875 …
  • … are now in the position of a persecuted religious sect’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 4 June [1876] ) …
  • … of the utility of experiment amongst people in general’ ( letter from T. L. Brunton, 12 February …

3.16 Oscar Rejlander, photos

Summary

< Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) led him to the Swedish-born painter and photographer, Oscar Gustaf Rejlander. Rejlander gave Darwin the notes that he had…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … Henry Jeens as a steel engraving, which was published in Nature in 1874, and was included in …
  • … London Photographic Society, February 12, 1863. Darwin’s letter to his daughter Henrietta of 20 …
  • … of Manchester, English MS 1404, pp. 52–3, with a letter to Dresser from Darwin, dated 10 Sept. 1875 …
  • … of our time’, pp. 356–7. Steel engraving by Jeens in Nature vol. 10, ‘Presented to the …

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: 6 hits

  • … < Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a …
  • … was himself mentioned in it. In the many editions of Nature’s Revelations , there was indeed a …
  • … physiognomy was not, however, restricted to the face. In his letter to Darwin he explained, ‘I wish …
  • … was anxious on occasion to disprove such associations. In a letter to Lyell of 21 August 1861, …
  • … Review , 99:198 (Sept. 1856), pp. 452-491. Joseph Simms, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, …
  • … and to Gray, 17 Sept. [1861] (DCP-LETT-3256]. Simms’s letter to Darwin, 14 Sept. 1874 (DCP-LETT-9637 …

2.6 Adolf von Hildebrand bust

Summary

< Back to Introduction In 1873, the German biologist Anton Dohrn commissioned a plaster bust of Darwin for the ‘fresco room’ of his new research centre, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples. It was a fitting memorial of a long association between the two…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … articles and reports on the progress of the project in Nature, and his speech at the official …
  • … references and bibliography Dohrn’s letter to Darwin, 30 Nov. 1867: DCP-LETT-5701. Dohrn to Darwin …
  • … Anton Dohrn, ‘The foundation of zoological stations’, Nature 5 (8 Feb. 1872), pp. 277–280, and …
  • … . . . promoting the Foundation of Zoological Stations’, Nature 6 (29 August 1872), pp. 362–363. …
  • … for the Stazione: DCP-LETT-9412. Darwin’s follow-up letter to Dohrn, enclosing his personal …
  • … ‘Inauguration of the Zoological Station of Naples’, Nature 12 (6 May 1875), pp. 11–13. Dohrn, …

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: 13 hits

  • … of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 …
  • … sweeping conclusions on insufficient grounds. Letter 3934 - Darwin to Scott, J., [21 …
  • … how to make the material worthy of publication. Letter 4185 - Darwin to Scott, J., [25 …
  • … indefatigable worker you are!”. Letter 7605 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [20 March …
  • … memorial” in memory of the book. Letter 8140 - Darwin to Darwin, W. E., [3 …
  • … how he made so many observations without aid. Letter 8146 - Darwin to Treat, M., [5 …
  • … “in some well-known scientific journal”. Letter 8171 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L., [21 …
  • … that Lucy is worth her weight in gold. Letter 9005b - Darwin to Treat, M., [12 …
  • … flies until he had repeated the experiment. Letter 9580 - Darwin to Darwin, G. H. D., …
  • … should not yet be submitted to the publisher. Letter 9613 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., …
  • … and thinks that it ought to be published. Letter 10523 - Darwin to Treat, M., [1 June …
  • … in the pursuit of her “admirable work”. Letter 11096 - Darwin to Romanes, G. J., [9 …
  • … plants; he has recommended that she send her manuscript to Nature for publication. …

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: 26 hits

  • … ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run’ ( letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1882 ) …
  • … fertility of crosses between differently styled plants ( letter from Fritz Müller, 1 January 1882 …
  • … thin slices, yet are found to differ greatly in the nature of their contents, if immersed for …
  • … François Marie Glaziou (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Arthur de Souza Corrêa, 20 …
  • … quite untirable & I am glad to shirk any extra labour’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 6 January …
  • … probably intending to test its effects on chlorophyll ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). …
  • … we know about the life of any one plant or animal!’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). He …
  • … of seeing the flowers & experimentising on them’ ( letter to J. E. Todd, 10 April 1882 ). …
  • … find stooping over the microscope affects my heart’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). …
  • … sooner or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The …
  • … leaves into their burrows ( Correspondence vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 …
  • … on the summit, whence it rolls down the sides’ ( letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 ). The …
  • … light on it, which would have pleased me greatly’ ( letter from J. H. Gilbert, 9 January 1882, …
  • … annelid seemed to have rather the best of the fight’ ( letter from G. F. Crawte, 11 March 1882 ). …
  • … by the American educator Emily Talbot (Talbot ed. 1882). His letter to Talbot written the previous …
  • … by the flippant witlings of the newspaper press’ ( letter from A. T. Rice, 4 February 1882 ). Rice …
  • … men, and their role as providers for the family. In his letter, he conceded that there was ‘some …
  • … of our homes, would in this case greatly suffer’ ( letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). …
  • … she be fairly judged, intellectually his inferior, please ( letter from C. A. Kennard, 28 January …
  • … he has allied himself to so dreadful a man, as Huxley’ ( letter to John Collier, 16 February 1882 …
  • … Would my actions be the same without my consciousness?’ ( letter from John Collier, 22 February …
  • … a solid scientific foundation cannot be overestimated’ ( letter to William Jenner, 20 March [1882] …
  • … A lecture by Robert Stawell Ball that was printed in Nature declared George ‘the discoverer of …
  • … all the breeds from India & China. Any assistance of this nature would be invaluable; but I know …
  • … father confessor. ( Letter from Charles Lyell, 1 September 1874 .) Darwin’s fame continued …
  • … seems to me a much more difficult point from its graduated nature: some time ago my son, Mr G. …

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: 28 hits

  • … What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • … anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace,  27 July …
  • … best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • … condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September …
  • … translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November …
  • … to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart,  11 January …
  • … comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • … a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • … Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January …
  • … was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872 …
  • … hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart,  10 January …
  • … have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letter.  He promised to send a copy of the …
  • … partly in mind, `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] …
  • … Darwinism is to be the theme. Surely the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872 …
  • … to find that Weismann accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I …
  • … few naturalists in England seem inclined to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … reached the buzzing place where I myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … ‘as for myself it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was …
  • … to stand closer (a serried mass) and to be more erect’ ( letter to Briton Riviere, 19 May [1872] ) …
  • … and amused rather than offended by `that clever book’ ( letter to J. M. Herbert, 21 November 1872 …
  • … wrote offering Arthur May’s drawings shortly afterwards ( letter from Samuel Butler to Francis …
  • … 'exactly where, from his ignorance, he feels no doubts’ ( letter to F. C. Donders, 17 June …
  • … music provided by her husband, Richard Buckley Litchfield ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 13 May 1872 …
  • … to Henrietta; 'I know that I am half-killed myself’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 25 July 1872 …
  • … fellow’ was Darwin’s wholeheartedly partisan reply ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 May 1872 ). On 13 …
  • … was delivered to Gladstone a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, …
  • … Mr.   Darwin , and Darwin wrote a cutting letter to  Nature  in Wallace’s defence ( letter to  …
  • … Ruck, the sister of an old schoolfriend; he married Amy in 1874.  Francis, still a medical student …

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: 9 hits

  • … project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic …
  • … 17 March [1867] ). He noted another factor in a letter to Gray, remarking, ‘I am going on with my …
  • … [1873] ). In September, Darwin wrote a long letter to Nature commenting on a seemingly …
  • … exposed to slightly different conditions of life’ ( To  Nature , 20 September [1873] ). Just as …
  • … ( To Fritz Müller, 25 September 1873 ). But by March 1874, some doubts seemed to have arisen when …
  • … with new & related matter. ( To J. V. Carus, 19 March [1874] ). A year later, Darwin still …
  • … by other plants with which they grow mingled in a state of nature’ ( To J. H. Gilbert, 16 February …
  • … A. R. Wallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this letter has been found, but Darwin had long …
  • … your Cross & Self Fertilization & about to review it for “Nature”— he gloats over it' ( …

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: 27 hits

  • … ‘my wife … poor creature, has won only 2490 games’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876 ). …
  • … quantity of work’ left in him for ‘new matter’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). The …
  • … to a reprint of the second edition of Climbing plants ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 23 February …
  • … & I for blundering’, he cheerfully observed to Carus. ( Letter to J. V. Carus, 24 April 1876. …
  • … provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). Revising …
  • … year to write about his life ( Correspondence vol. 23, letter from Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, 20 …
  • … nowadays is evolution and it is the correct one’ ( letter from Nemo, [1876?] ). …
  • … anatomist St George Jackson Mivart in his Lessons from nature that Darwin had ‘at first …
  • … him ‘basely’ and who had succeeded in giving him pain ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876 ). …
  • … Mivart made a slanderous attack on George Darwin in late 1874 in an anonymous article, which …
  • … Wallace for his critical review of Mivart’s Lessons from nature . ... supporting friends …
  • … disgrace’ of blackballing so distinguished a zoologist ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 January 1876 ) …
  • … must have been cast by the ‘poorest curs in London’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [4 February …
  • … translation in 1876. ‘What is more to be wondered at—Nature in all her contrivances,—or man’s mind, …
  • … her questions were ‘too silly to deserve an answer’ ( letter from S. B. Herrick, 12 February 1876 …
  • … on Dionaea ‘to test the insect eating theory’ ( letter from Peter Henderson, 15 November 1876 …
  • … sending Darwin small amendments to his results ( letter from Moritz Schiff, 8 May 1876 ). …
  • … to get positive results in this year’s experiments’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [ c . 19 March …
  • … in the Encyclopaedia Britannica the previous year ( letter to G. H. Darwin, [after 4 September …
  • … and to promote work he admired. He was so interested in a letter from Fritz Müller in Brazil …
  • … with the ants that inhabited the trunk that he sent the letter to Nature for publication. ‘It …
  • … Darwin communicated this information in an article in Nature ( letter from Johann von Fischer, …
  • … phyllotaxis by the mutual pressure of very young buds’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 June [1876] ). …
  • … Scottish shoemaker and ardent naturalist Thomas Edward ( letter from F. M. Balfour, 11 December …
  • … live blood-hound which shall hunt it to the death’ ( letter from James Torbitt, 19 April 1876 …
  • … the public to consider Torbitt an untrustworthy fanatic ( letter to James Torbitt, 21 April 1876 ) …
  • … for an article on the snail’s heart and a letter to Nature on the use of the chemical …

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: 23 hits

  • … his University) and is much less his own man. A letter from England catches his attention …
  • … 11   My dear Hooker… What a remarkably nice and kind letter Dr A. Gray has sent me in answer to my …
  • … be of any the least use to you? If so I would copy it… His letter does strike me as most uncommonly …
  • … on the geographical distribution of the US plants; and if my letter caused you to do this some year …
  • … opposed to this, said he did not believe it, for ‘Nature never lied’. I am just in this predicament …
  • … from imperfect or conjectural data, confident that he reads Nature through and through, and without …
  • … a brace of letters 25   I send enclosed [a letter for you from Asa Gray], received …
  • … might like to see it; please be sure [to] return it. If your letter is Botanical and has nothing …
  • … Atlantic. HOOKER:   28   Thanks for your letter and its enclosure from A. Gray which …
  • … therefore they ought, if they behaved properly – and as ‘nature does not lie’ – to go together. …
  • … had shown me several of your letters (not of a private nature) and these gave me the warmest feeling …
  • … notions of natural Selection and would see whether it or my letter bears any date, I should be very …
  • … 55   My good dear friend, forgive me. This is a trumpery letter influenced by trumpery feelings. …
  • … There is a moral or metaphysical part of nature as well as a physical. A man who denies this is deep …
  • … grade must ensue, which… may be likened to the conflict in Nature among races in the struggle for …
  • … a public statement. GRAY:   89   Organic Nature abounds with unmistakable and …
  • … contented to view this wonderful universe and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that …
  • … 100   It is very easy to assume that, because events in Nature are in one sense accidental, and …
  • … 102   So long as gradatory, orderly, and adapted forms in Nature argue design – and at least while …
  • … do a good deal to secure it. Darwin passes Gray’s letter to Hooker with a cringe. …
  • … ordained.   183   The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed …
  • … operation of, an intelligent First Cause. The Ordainer of Nature. Darwin and Gray have for …
  • … A GRAY 3 AUGUST 1871 201  TO A GRAY 3 JUNE [1874] 202  FROM A GRAY 16 …

Darwin’s reading notebooks

Summary

In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…

Matches: 30 hits

  • … 1838] Atlas de la Geographie des trois Regnes de la nature. Paris. 6: folio par Céran de …
  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824 …
  • … 1840] [DAR *119: 13] Tucker’s light of Nature [Tucker 1768–78] Johnson …
  • … 1834] recommended by Sir. J. Mackintosh J. Long Moral Nature of Man [Long 1747] Novum Organum …
  • … 1834–40]: In Portfolio of “abstracts” 34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … [Morton 1839] (Preface) Royal Soc. Aspects of Nature Humboldt [A. von Humboldt 1849]— (d[itt …
  • … History of Brazil [R. Southey 1810–19]. Aspects of Nature. Humboldt [A. von Humboldt 1849]. …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … Lardners 2 nd  vol March 16 Gardner’s Music of nature [Gardiner 1832] Life of Haydn …
  • … increase of Hab. earth [Linnaeus 1781a]. Wilcke on Police of Nature [Wilcke 1781]. Hoffberg on …
  • … May 7 th  Skimmed a little of Tucker’s light of nature [Tucker 1768–78]. intolerably prolix …
  • … on Travel [Linnaeus 1759]. Biberg on œconomy of nature [Biberg 1759]. Barck on foliation of …
  • … 1805] very poor. 20 th  Botanic Garden & Temple of Nature [E. Darwin] 1789–91 and 1803] …
  • … (d[itt]o) 20 th  Reflections on the Study of Nature by Linnæus. (translated) [Linnaeus 1785 …
  • … All. Very little —— 29. Humboldt Tableau de la Nature [A. von Humboldt 1808] —— …
  • … references to Domestic Birds &c read Belon Hist de la nature des Oiseaux 1555 [Belon 1555 …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … 2] 1852. Feb. 24 th . Humboldts Aspects of Nature [A. von Humboldt 1849].— …
  • … [G. Head 1837] good —— 11. Oersted’s Soul of Nature [Ørsted 1847] (dreadful) —— 24 th …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … ( Notebooks , pp. 319–28). 55  The letter was addressed to Nicholas Aylward Vigors …
  • … to William Jackson Hooker. See  Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, [5 or 12 November …
  • … design . (Bridgewater Treatise no. 4.) London. [9th ed. (1874) in Darwin Library.]  119: 5a …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …
  • … by Bekhur to   Garoo and the Lake Manasarowara: with a letter from … J.   G. Gerard, Esq. …
  • … 1830. On the dying struggle of the dichotomous sytem. In a letter to N. A. Vigors.  Philosophical …
  • … *119: 8v., 22v.; *128: 165 ——. 1850a. Letter to the Rev. John Bachman, on the question of …
  • … art of improving the   breeds of domestic animals. In a letter addressed to the   Right Hon. Sir …
  • … 1820.  Remarks on the improvement of   cattle, &c. in a letter to Sir John Saunders Sebright, …

Before Origin: the ‘big book’

Summary

Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … to the entire natural history community by sending a letter to the Gardeners’ Chronicle , …
  • … from which he could clearly see ‘ the means used by nature to change her species & adapt them …
  • … existence, and a tiny arena for exhibiting competition in nature. Darwin’s combination of this very …
  • … and plants, and on the origin of species in a state of nature. I have to discuss every branch of …
  • … it adequately. On 18 June 1858, Darwin received a now lost letter from Wallace enclosing his essay …
  • … I had, however, quite resigned myself & had written half a letter to Wallace to give up all …
  • … volume ‘ on the variation of species in a state of nature. ’ Instead, Darwin simply raided his …

Descent

Summary

There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … new publication, Evidence as to man’s place in nature, and his reaction could not have been in …
  • … to us should so much resemble one ’. Darwin saved the letter to show Henrietta . *** ‘ …
  • … enemy into a jelly ’. By the beginning of April 1874 the corrected edition was ready to go …

Interview with John Hedley Brooke

Summary

John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…

Matches: 18 hits

  • … what the real entities are in the universe. Is the world of nature simply a collection of material …
  • … we have aesthetic appreciation: we can appreciate beauty in nature, we have mathematical skills, we …
  • … if you suggested there were other agencies at work in nature. So I do see a certain parallel there. …
  • … that the affirmation of some kind of intelligence behind nature once was constitutive of scientific …
  • … influence how individuals react. In Belfast, for example, in 1874, John Tyndall , [a] well-known …
  • … whether it has had a very interesting history, both through nature and through human interactions …
  • … it were, a progressively more refined understanding of the nature of God. And that process of …
  • … to the fear displayed by monkeys. He writes about this in a letter in 1881 to William Graham : …
  • … first primordial forms, or indeed in setting up the laws of nature so that human beings would …
  • … a flea, or something of that kind. This participation in nature was certainly emphasised by many …
  • … was supposed to be intimately involved in the affairs of nature. So you have the very …
  • … reverence for you, whom I look upon as the High priest of nature. But the Church would condemn me to …
  • … in which there had originally been a theological response to nature, then a more metaphysical …
  • … press one’s heterodoxy onto others. And you refer to a letter from Joseph Hooker to Darwin in 1865 …
  • … were certainly able to do. Those kinds of responses to nature need not be obliterated by scientific …
  • … enable us to get into a more serious discussion about: how nature should be interpreted; how we gain …
  • … certainly still meant knowledge, or provisional knowledge of nature. Or probable knowledge of …
  • … some kind of divine initiative in interactions with nature. There’s even evidence that Newton …

Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep

Summary

In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…

Matches: 29 hits

  • … Hooker, ‘or as far as I know any scientific man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December [1878] ). …
  • … or arched.… Almost all seedlings come up arched’ ( letter to Sophy Wedgwood, 24 March [1878–80] ). …
  • … when he finds out that he missed sensitiveness of apex’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [11 May 1878] …
  • … Darwin complained. ‘I am ashamed at my blunder’ ( letter to John Tyndall, 22 December [1878] ). …
  • … accursed German language: Sachs is very kind to him’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 18 June …
  • … have nobody to talk to, about my work, I scribble to you ( letter to Francis Darwin, 7 [July 1878] …
  • … but it is horrid not having you to discuss it with’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 20 [July 1878] ). …
  • … determine whether they had chlorophyll, Francis reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 …
  • … ‘There is one machine we must have’, Francis wrote ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 17 July …
  • … ‘He seems to me to jump to conclusions rather’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 3 August 1878] …
  • … the pot-plant every day & never the bedded out one’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 July …
  • … ‘I have borrowed Cieselski & read him,’ he reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [22 June 1878 …
  • … books & red-wine which is here the cure for all evils’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [24 and 25 …
  • … is very sweet & pretty,’ he added a week later ( letter to Francis Darwin, 14 July [1878] ). …
  • … in a booboo, whereas I ought to have said a gee-gee’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 17 July [1878] ). …
  • … close down on the object, but he will always do so’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 20 August [1878] ). …
  • … idiot, a deaf-mute, a monkey & a baby in your house!’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 2 September …
  • … that I want to play the part of a thieving wasp’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, 21 June 1878 ). …
  • … than zoology, where his work had been more controversial ( letter from J.-B. Dumas and Joseph …
  • … me Dr Darwin, the title seems to me quite ridiculous’ ( letter to John Price, 2 April [1878] ). …
  • … to go, in the mind of your theory, and to elucidate the true nature of the “imperfection of the …
  • … science our atlas would not have come together’ ( letter from Arnold Dodel-Port, 18 June 1878 ). …
  • … or religious prejudice. An engineer in Bohemia addressed his letter to ‘the inspired hermit of Down’ …
  • … in Germany, as if they had been school-boys’ ( letter to Karl von Scherzer, 1 April 1878 ). …
  • … a personal god with the ‘eternity of matter’ ( letter from H. N. Ridley, [before 28 November 1878] …
  • … a Naturalist and leaves Moses to take care of himself ’ ( letter from J. B. Innes, 1 December 1878 …
  • … never troubled myself about such insoluble questions’ ( letter to H. N. Ridley, 28 November 1878 ) …
  • … the evidence of the existence of a God looked at through nature’s phenomena’ ( letter from James …
  • … and an earlier effort to promote his scheme at the 1874 meeting of the British Association in …
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