To A. R. Wallace [c. 10 April 1864]
Summary
Has seen that ARW has read a paper to the Linnean Society.
Thinks that Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics (Spencer 1851) would be too deep for him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | [c. 10 Apr 1864] |
| Classmark: | The Argyll Papers, Inveraray Castle (NRAS 1209/856) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4378F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … me, & I do not feel a bit the wiser. The doctors still maintain that I shall get well, but …
From Ernst Haeckel 26 October 1864
Summary
Thanks CD for notes concerning the development of his ideas about the origin of species. Says August Schleicher and Carl Gegenbaur also interested.
Names new supporters of CD’s theory, including Max Schultze, Rudolf Leuckart, and Alexander Braun. Zoologists have been more interested than botanists.
He is writing a general work on the relationships among animals [Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866)].
Comments on Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin [1864].
Gegenbaur is revising his Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie [2d ed. (1870)] to accord with evolution.
Thanks CD for copy of book on balanids [Living Cirripedia, vol. 2].
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Oct 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 39 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4646 |
From E. A. Darwin [15? April 1864]
Summary
Sir Henry Holland wants to see [Erasmus Darwin] Zoonomia.
Snow [F. J. Wedgwood] has gone, hoping to meet Fanny who is in a state of anxiety.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [15? Apr 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B19–20 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4482 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … talking of abstract doctoring without doctors. Snow is gone to Folkestone in the hopes of …
To J. D. Hooker [10 and 12 January 1864]
Summary
CD very ill.
Suspects F. Boott’s widow is illegitimate granddaughter of Erasmus Darwin.
CD, like JDH, has speculated that agrarian weeds have become adapted to cultivated ground. Suggests comparison with country of origin.
Wallace’s praise of Herbert Spencer’s Social statics baffles CD.
[Letter completed by E. A. Darwin.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 and 12 Jan 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 216 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4389 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Press. 1927–96. King-Hele, Desmond. 1977. Doctor of revolution. The life and genius of …
To W. D. Fox 30 November [1864]
Summary
The Copley Medal is considered a great honour, but such things make little difference to CD, except for the several kind letters he received. It shows that natural selection is making some progress.
His health is poor.
Work is crawling on Variation;
occasional botany recreative.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 30 Nov [1864] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 145) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4685 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to do from 2 to 3 hours work, & all my Doctors tell me this is good for me; & whether or …
From Bartholomew James Sulivan 18 March [1864]
Summary
Has six months’ leave from the Admiralty because of his health; intends going to Europe for four months.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Mar [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 282 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4431 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … I have been some weeks at Brighton where the Doctor is—and have been waiting in England in …
From Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox [6 May 1864]
Summary
CD has been so ill they must discourage visit by WDF. Recovering slowly with new treatment.
| Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [6 May 1864] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 143) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4487 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … get on. I dare say you are enough of a Doctor to like to know what has done him so much …
From Robert Goodwin Mumbray 18 January 1864
Summary
Has verified J. M. Bechstein’s contention that species of finches hybridise.
Quotes Thomas Bewick’s observations on hybrids between pheasants and common fowl. RGM had often noticed so-called "pheasant fowl", but thought it was a foreign bird.
| Author: | Robert Goodwin Mumbray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Jan 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 318–318/1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4392 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Your’s Obediently | R G Mumbray To | Doctor Darwin “There are many varieties of Pheasants— …
To J. D. Hooker 13 April [1864]
Summary
CD has told Scott not to hope for help from JDH.
Health improving.
Hopes to write Lythrum paper soon.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 13 Apr [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 229 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4461 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … me much good & is, I am sure, a most able doctor: drinking very little—enormous quantities …
To J. D. Hooker [27 January 1864]
Summary
CD continues very ill.
His only work is a little on tendrils and climbers. Asks whether all tendrils are modified leaves or whether some are modified stems.
Last number [Jan 1864?] of Natural History Review is best that has appeared.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [27 Jan 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 218 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4398 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … better, & what I lay much stress on (whatever Doctors say) my brain feels far stronger & I …
| letter | (10) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (1) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (1) |
| Mumbray, R. G. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (1) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
3.15 George Charles Wallich, photo
Summary
< Back to Introduction In the years around 1868–1871, when professional photographers competed for sittings with Darwin, a doctor called George Charles Wallich approached him with a similar request. Wallich was planning to publish a set of his own…
Matches: 1 hits
- … photographers competed for sittings with Darwin, a doctor called George Charles Wallich approached …
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
- … to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year …
Darwin’s student booklist
Summary
In October 1825 Charles Darwin and his older brother, Erasmus, went to study medicine in Edinburgh, where their father, Robert Waring Darwin, had trained as a doctor in the 1780’s. Erasmus had already graduated from Cambridge and was continuing his studies…
Matches: 4 hits
- … where their father, Robert Waring Darwin, had trained as a doctor in the 1780’s. Erasmus had already …
- … physiology was an influential work; John Ayrton Paris, a doctor from Cambridge, published the …
- … was written by Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, a doctor at Lichfield; Anna Seward wrote a …
- … but the writer left for London about twenty years before the doctor arrived to set up his medical …
4.25 'Punch' 1877 re. Cambridge doctorate
Summary
< Back to Introduction Punch often ridiculed Darwin by showing him as a monkey or in other animalistic forms, but in 1877, when he at last received an honorary degree from Cambridge University, it paid its tribute to ‘wisdom’. ‘Punch to Dr. Darwin’…
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…
1.14 William Richmond, oil
Summary
< Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, celebrated his honorary degree of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma mater for the presentation ceremony…
Life of Erasmus Darwin
Summary
The Life of Erasmus Darwin (1879) was a curious departure for Darwin. It was intended as a biographical note to accompany an essay on Erasmus's scientific work by the German writer Ernst Krause. But Darwin became immersed in his grandfather's…
Matches: 3 hits
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Nijmegen 08 June 1904 Nijmegen Doctor. In the list it says J.R. van Beemen …
John Beddoe
Summary
In 1869, when gathering data on sexual selection in humans, Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with John Beddoe, a doctor in Bristol. He was looking for evidence that racial differences that appear to have no benefit in terms of survival - and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … exchanged a short series of letters with a John Beddoe, a doctor in Bristol who had also published …
4.34 'Punch', Sambourne cartoon 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction Linley Sambourne’s cartoon in Punch, a ‘Suggested Illustration’ for Darwin’s forthcoming book on The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875) is another playful transformation of the author into an ape or monkey. However,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … those of the author, not of the plants themselves: the ‘Doctor’ is evidently ‘ready to avow his …
Asa Gray
Summary
Darwin’s longest running and most significant exchange of correspondence dealing with the subjects of design in nature and religious belief was with the Harvard botanist Asa Gray. Gray was one of Darwin’s leading supporters in America. He was also a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Gray was born in New York State in 1810. He qualified as a doctor, but gave up medical practice …
Charles Darwin born
Summary
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the fifth of six children of Robert Waring Darwin, a doctor, and his wife Susannah, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood I.
Matches: 1 hits
- … the fifth of six children of Robert Waring Darwin, a doctor, and his wife Susannah, daughter of …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … seems to me an astonishing fact’. Blackley was a doctor, practicing in Hulme, Manchester, who …
Titus Coan
Summary
In 1874, when Darwin was preparing the second edition of Descent of Man, he received letters from all over the world in reply to his queries about human behaviour; one in particular would have stirred up unexpected memories of his own time among the native…
Matches: 1 hits
- … South America. Titus Munson Coan , an American doctor, passed on a message to Darwin from …
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…
Darwin's illness
Summary
Was Darwin an invalid? In many photographs he looks wearied by age, wrapped in a great coat to protect him from cold. In a letter to his cousin William Fox, he wrote: "Long and continued ill health has much changed me, & I very often think with…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the age of 57, he summarized all his ailments for a new doctor. The note makes painful reading: …
1.21 window at Christ's College Cambridge
Summary
< Back to Introduction Among the many posthumous commemorations of Darwin is a portrayal of him in stained glass. It is in the oriel window of the Hall at his alma mater, Christ’s College Cambridge – in a bay looking onto the First Court of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … history, and he is shown wearing the academic robes of a Doctor of Laws, in reference to the …
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…
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: 1 hits
- … , sparking one of the testier passages in Descent;* a doctor’s promising research on the …
