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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: 16 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 …
  • … was granted. In this case you would I feel sure, no longer treat me as your friend, and you would …
  • … Cohn, 12 October 1874 ). Darwin’s American correspondent Mary Treat sent observations of the prey  …
  • … carnivorous plants that she had seen’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 2 December 1874 ). The …
  • … see letter John Murray, 9 May [1874] ). He communicated Mary Elizabeth Barber’s paper on the pupae …

Insectivorous Plants

Summary

Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Plants that consume insects Darwin began his work with insectivorous plants in the mid 1860s, though his findings would not be published until 1875. In his autobiography Darwin reflected on the delay that…

Matches: 9 hits

  • … He also corresponded with the New Jersey naturalist, Mary Treat , about carnivorous plants. …
  • … Murray. Chapters 17 and 18 Letters Letter Packet: Insectivorous Plants …
  • … Scott's objection to Natural Selection. Letter 2951 - Charles Darwin to Daniel …
  • … ammonia as a substitute for flies on Drosera . Letter 2932 - Charles Darwin to J.S. …
  • … teacher during Darwin's students days at Cambridge. In this letter Darwin asks Henslow whether …
  • … the Drosera is a known or common phenomenon. Letter 8113 - Mary Treat to Charles …
  • … observations in gratitude for Darwin's own work. Letter 9005 - Charles Darwin to …
  • … does he find this significant? 3. Does Darwin address Mary Treat differently from his other …
  • … able to appreciate the awe of utricularia expressed by  Mary Treat  in an 1874  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: 18 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 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. …
  • … in dogs with Emma Darwin. Letter 8676 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [13 December 1872] …
  • … observations of her pet cats. Letter 8989 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [28 July 1873] …
  • … 9426 - Story-Maskelyne , T. M. to Darwin, [23 April 1874] Thereza Story-Maskelyne …
  • Letter 9616 - Marshall, T. to Darwin, [September 1874] Theodosia Marshall sends …
  • … 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 …
  • … “in exposed places”. Letter 10439 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [3 April 1876] …
  • … 12389 - Johnson, M. to Darwin, [January 1880] Mary Johnson tells Darwin about her work on …
  • … plants in her garden. Letter 8113 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [20 December 1871] …
  • Letter 9485 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [8 June 1874] Mary Treat details her experiments …

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: 11 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
  • memorialin 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
  • 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., …
  • in the pursuit of heradmirable work”. Letter 11096 - Darwin to Romanes, G. J., [9
  • her manuscript to Nature for publication. Letter 13414 - Darwin to Harrison, L., …

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: 26 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] …
  • … the masses and thinking people of this country’, wrote Mary Treat from the United States; it was …
  • … 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 …
  • … 24 August 1872 ). In January, Darwin wrote to Mary Treat, encouraging her in the strongest …
  • … as known to me, which have ever been made’ ( letter to Mary Treat, 5 January 1872 ). In …
  • … to thank Darwin for sending her one; she and her companion, Mary Lloyd, were vying to read it first …
  • … Ruck, the sister of an old schoolfriend; he married Amy in 1874.  Francis, still a medical student …

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?] ). …
  • … 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 …
  • … 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 …
  • … that it contains is truly amazing.’ On 15 May, Mary Treat admitted to being so fascinated by the …
  • … 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 …
  • … communicated this information in an article in Nature ( letter from Johann von Fischer, [before …
  • … 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 …
  • … also distinguished him from his valued correspondent Mary Treat, who published her work on the …
  • … live blood-hound which shall hunt it to the death’ ( letter from James Torbitt, 19 April 1876 …
  • … in the face of death, and it was Francis’s mother-in-law, Mary Anne Ruck, who provided emotional …
  • … to H. E. Litchfield, [31 August 1876] (DAR 219.9: 138)). But Mary Anne Ruck’s ability to console …
  • … too, expressed his gratitude, stating that he had never seen Mary Anne Ruck’s equal ‘for goodness …

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: 26 hits

  • … Were women a target audience? Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
  • … Tollet for proofreading and criticisms of style. Letter 2461 - Darwin to Hooker, J. …
  • … her to read to check that she can understand it. Letter 7312 - Darwin to Darwin, F. …
  • … from all but educated, typically-male readers. Letter 7124 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E …
  • … he seeks her help with tone and style. Letter 7329 - Murray , J. to Darwin, [28 …
  • … in order to minimise impeding general perusal. Letter 7331 - Darwin to Murray, …
  • … he uses to avoid ownership of indelicate content. Letter 8335 - Reade, W. W. to …
  • … so as not to lose the interest of women. Letter 8341 - Reade, W. W. to Darwin, …
  • … which will make it more appealing to women. Letter 8611 - Cupples, A. J. to …
  • … Darwin’s female readership Letter 5391 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, [6 February …
  • … of the Manchester Ladies Literary Society . Letter 6551 - Becker, L. E . to …
  • … the chapter on pangenesis, which is a revelation. Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. …
  • … Darwin assumes that 'A. B. Blackwell' is a man. Letter 7177 - Cupples, G. to …
  • … him to the psychology of Herbert Spencer. Letter 7624 - Bathoe, M . B. to Darwin …
  • … his statements on a lack of reasoning in animals. Letter 7644 - Barnard, A. to …
  • … during a visit to an asylum with her father. Letter 7651 - Wedgwood, F. J. to …
  • … on any comments that she feels might be suitable. Letter 7411 - Pfeiffer, E. J. to …
  • … and beauty in the process of sexual selection. Letter 8055 - Hennell, S. S. to Darwin, …
  • … of a woman’s natural thinking”. Letter 8778 - Forster, L. M . to Darwin, H. …
  • … and the showing of teeth in Expression . Letter 10072 - Pape, C. to …
  • … and hopes Darwin will complete her questionnaire. Letter 10390 - Herrick, S. M. B. …
  • … of questions which she hopes aren’t too silly. Letter 10415 - Darwin to Herrick, S. …
  • … and is pleased that his work has interested her. Letter 10508 - Treat, M. to Darwin …
  • … it nearly all night before she could lay it down. Letter 13547 - Tanner, M. H. …
  • … involving worms which occurred in her garden. Letter 13650 Kennard, C. A. to Darwin …
  • … 9633 - Nevill, D. F. to Darwin, [11 September 1874] Dorothy Nevill tells Darwin …