From Arthur Nicols [before 20 March 1873]
Summary
Compares sense of smell in dogs and cats.
| Author: | Robert Arthur (Arthur) Nicols |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 20 Mar 1873] |
| Classmark: | Nicols 1885, pp. 51–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8817F |
Matches: 5 hits
- … cat was quite familiar with me, and had been kept a long time without food intentionally. …
- … I used fish because it was a food to which she was accustomed, and calculated to emit …
- … me with the conviction that cats discover food by smell with very indifferent success; …
- … cats often seem to experience in finding food thrown down to them, unless they see it …
- … other in the manner of searching for the food. The dog went to work with confidence, and, …
From James Paget [1873]
Summary
"Sir William Gull has just brought me the enclosed quotations from Chaucer, as illustrations of the closure of the eyes in effort. [In "The Nun’s priest’s tale" in Canterbury tales the fox tricks Chanticleer into crowing, whereupon Chanticleer closes his eyes to make the effort (and gets seized by the fox).] He begs me to send them to you.
I have lately seen a terrier who very distinctly frowns during mental excitement – not always with anger, but often, I think, with anxiety, as in expecting food."
| Author: | James Paget, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1873] |
| Classmark: | S. Paget ed. 1901, p. 408 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8713 |
To A. R. Wallace 9 July [1873]
Summary
Forwards photograph, sent by [J. L. G.] Krefft, of a chrysalis attached to its food-plant; the chrysalis has adjusted its colour remarkably.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 9 July [1873] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350 Box 1 Wallace MSS) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8970 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Krefft, of a chrysalis attached to its food-plant; the chrysalis has adjusted its colour …
From Francis Darwin [1873]
Summary
Klein says water ought to be changed daily. Asks to tell G Revalenta shop shut. Klein reports discovery about toads’ ova does not bear on pangenesis.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1873] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8713F |
To Virginius Dabney 3 November 1873
Summary
Thanks VD for information on caterpillars selecting food plants from within one family,
and on similar behaviour in hogs, which will not eat any plants from a family containing some poisonous members.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Virginius Dabney |
| Date: | 3 Nov 1873 |
| Classmark: | University of Virginia Library, Special Collections (3314 1: 56 MSS 3082-a) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9128 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … VD for information on caterpillars selecting food plants from within one family, and on …
From S. W. Moore [1 October 1873]
Summary
Information for CD’s use in investigating digestion by Drosera.
| Author: | Samuel William Moore |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1 Oct 1873] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9082 |
From F. W. Smartt to Willie[?] 3 January 1873
Summary
Reports the case of an idiot in his care who apparently chews his cud.
| Author: | Francis William Smartt |
| Addressee: | Willie |
| Date: | 3 Jan 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 181 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8721 |
From Valentin Salzmann 18 November 1873
Summary
Discusses human reactions to pleasant and unpleasant tastes; considers that modifications of these reactions produce several identifiable expressions of general like and dislike.
| Author: | Karl Ludwig Valentin (Valentin) Salzmann |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Nov 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 26 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9153 |
From Edward Frankland 10 October 1873
Summary
The results of EF’s tests for acids in the secretion of Drosera are largely negative [see Insectivorous plants, p. 88].
| Author: | Edward Frankland |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Oct 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 44–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9094 |
From Stanley Haynes [1873?]
Summary
Notes headed "Observations on the expression of the emotions".
| Author: | Stanley Haynes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1873?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 125 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8708 |
From A. C. Smith 25 June 1873
Summary
Wonders whether CD has any idea how the cuckoo manages to match its eggs to those of its host; believes it possible that the diet of the nestling cuckoo, which varies with its host, may affect its behaviour and the colour of its eggs.
| Author: | Alfred Charles Smith |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 June 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 183 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8950 |
From Virginius Dabney 18 October 1873
Summary
Feeding habits of the tobacco worm; it eats only five plants, all very different, but of same botanical family.
| Author: | Virginius Dabney |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Oct 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9099 |
To J. T. Moggridge 10 March 1873
Summary
Much obliged for seeds. Will expose seeds to chemical vapours.
Comments on JTM’s spider experiments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Date: | 10 Mar 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 379 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8805 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … able, once the hoods were removed, to peck for food and judge distances ( Spalding 1873 ). …
From J. B. Dunbar-Brander [before 9 July 1873]
Summary
Offers different explanations [from CD’s in Expression] for movements of dogs after voiding, and for their turning around before lying down.
CD is also wrong in saying hares do not cry except when they suffer.
| Author: | James Brander Dunbar-Brander |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 9 July 1873] |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 279 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8711 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … on tame sheldrakes patting the ground for food in Expression , pp. 47–8 and n. 19. Ferae …
From Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen [before 18 January 1873]
Summary
Translation of some of his annotations in Dutch edition of Expression.
| Author: | Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 28 Jan 1873] |
| Classmark: | DAR 53.1: B44–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8712 |
To Nature 20 September [1873]
Summary
CD, in commenting on Wyville Thomson’s "Notes from the Challenger" [Nature 8 (1873): 347–9], recapitulates his work on rudimentary male cirripedes [Living Cirripedia], especially the complementary males attached to hermaphrodites. Offers an explanation, on evolutionary grounds, of their function and size.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Nature |
| Date: | 20 Sept [1873] |
| Classmark: | Nature, 25 September 1873, pp. 431–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9061 |
From S. W. Moore 3 October 1873
Summary
Sends formula for pure pepsin for experiments on digestion of Drosera, and information on legumin. Will send chlorophyll soon.
| Author: | Samuel William Moore |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Oct 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 41–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9086 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … in order to discover which compounds in its food it reacted to. Syntonin could be prepared …
From Henry Reeks 3 March 1873
Summary
Praise for and detailed comments on Expression.
Two cases of coloration in animals – one from sexual selection, the other helping to procure prey [see Descent, 2d ed., pp. 542–3].
| Author: | Henry Stephen (Henry) Reeks |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Mar 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 105 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8703 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Sucking down air, as if swallowing savoury food)’ ink 4.1 I … species. 4.3] crossed ink …
From John Chapman 19 July 1873
Summary
Asks CD to meet with Dr Wild to discuss the Westminster Review, which CD has supported.
Quotes from Alexander Kennedy on Maori observations on competition between native New Zealand birds and introduced bees for nectar of tree blossoms.
| Author: | John Chapman |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 July 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 132, 132/1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8983 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … birds are in the habit of gathering their food by dipping their long tongues into the …
From Francis Galton to William Huggins 15 February 1873
Summary
Returns family documents about "Kepler" [William Huggins’ dog, see Collected papers 2: 170–1]; there is still some sort of investigation into the "precise mental condition" of "Kepler" and his relatives.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | William Huggins |
| Date: | 15 Feb 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: A72–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8766 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … they squeamish tastes of any kind, as regards food? I send all these just in hopes that …
| letter | (31) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Frankland, Edward | (2) |
| Moore, S. W. | (2) |
| Belt, Thomas | (1) |
| Canby, W. M. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
| Dabney, Virginius | (1) |
| Huggins, William | (1) |
| Moggridge, J. T. | (1) |
| Nature | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (29) |
| Dabney, Virginius | (2) |
| Frankland, Edward | (2) |
| Moggridge, J. T. | (2) |
| Moore, S. W. | (2) |
Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
Matches: 26 hits
- … that of their infant offspring. The possibility of procuring food during the least favourable …
- … supposing them not to die either by violence or want of food. Yet at this rate how tremendous would …
- … broods are superfluous. On the average all above one become food for hawks and kites, wild cats and …
- … much less plentiful? The explanation is not difficult. The food most congenial to this species, and …
- … of the district it inhabits, and as soon as the supply of food begins to fail in one place is able …
- … shows us that the procuring a constant supply of wholesome food is almost the sole condition …
- … peculiar circumstances so strikingly combined. Either their food is more liable to failure, or they …
- … in offspring, they can never increase beyond the supply of food in the least favourable seasons. …
- … deficient in a constant and abundant supply of wholesome food. Those whose organization does not …
- … sparrow is more abundant than the redbreast, because its food is more constant and plentiful,—seeds …
- … than others, generally the contrary; but because their food never fails, the sea-shores and river …
- … The only intelligible answer is, that their supply of food is more precarious. It appears evident, …
- … one species does so, some others requiring the same kind of food must diminish in proportion. The …
- … in health and vigour—those who are best able to obtain food regularly, and avoid their numerous …
- … those which are best adapted to obtain a regular supply of food, and to defend themselves against …
- … are the least capable of counteracting the vicissitudes of food, supply, &c., must diminish in …
- … stationary, being kept down by a periodical deficiency of food, and other checks ; and, 2nd, that …
- … rendering it more difficult to procure a regular supply of food and to provide for their personal …
- … organs, would more or less affect their mode of procuring food or the range of country which they …
- … be affected in its powers of procuring a regular supply of food; and in both cases the result must …
- … follow as surely as old age, intemperance, or scarcity of food produce an increased mortality. In …
- … has to search, and often to labour, for every mouthful of food—to exercise sight, hearing, and smell …
- … exercise. The domestic animal, on the other hand, has food provided for it, is sheltered, and often …
- … strengthened by exercise, and must even slightly modify the food, the habits, and the whole economy …
- … proportioned to each other as to be best adapted to procure food and secure safety,—that in which by …
- … shorter-necked companions, and on the first scarcity of food were thereby enabled to outlive them . …
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Owen thought it ‘ as full of good original wholesome food as an egg ’; William Henry Fitton …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
Summary
Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it’s hard to choose from many letters that stand out, but one of this editor’s favourites, that always brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5…
Matches: 1 hits
- … caterpillars from eggs of butterflies and to find suitable food plants for different species. Based …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 10 hits
- … tinder domestication is somehow connected with excess of food. He regards the unknown cause as …
- … of udder, stands of course in obvious relation to supply of food. Really, we no more know the …
- … Nature bright with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we do not see, or we forget, that …
- … beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind that, though food may be now superabundant, it is not …
- … in the world.’—(p. 68.) ‘The amount of food gives the extreme limit to which each …
- … but, in so far as climate chiefly acts in reducing food, it brings on the most severe struggle …
- … or of distinct species, which subsist on the same kind of food, Even when climate, for instance …
- … from enemies or from competitors for the same place and food; and if these enemies or competitors be …
- … ponds of fresh water. Farmers find that they can raise most food by a rotation of plants belonging …
- … that season of the year when the wolf is hardest pressed for food. I can under such circumstances …
Essay: Design versus necessity
Summary
—by Asa Gray DESIGN VERSUS NECESSITY.—DISCUSSION BETWEEN TWO READERS OF DARWIN’S TREATISE ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, UPON ITS NATURAL THEOLOGY. (American Journal of Science and Arts, September, 1860) D.T.—Is Darwin’s theory atheistic or pantheistic…
Matches: 3 hits
Plant or animal? (Or: Don’t try this at home!)
Summary
Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in particular, his real passion was something even more ambitious: to show that there are no hard-and-fast boundaries between animals and plants. In 1875 Darwin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … on the streets of London.* As a subject it had everything: food, murder, and fatal attraction. …
Darwin and barnacles
Summary
In a letter to Henslow in March 1835 Darwin remarked that he had done ‘very little’ in zoology; the ‘only two novelties’ he added, almost as an afterthought, were a new mollusc and a ‘genus in the family Balanidæ’ – a barnacle – but it was an oddity. Who,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … three pairs of cirri – frond-like limbs used for gathering food – instead of six, and, observing its …
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and, frequently, food. After teaching Covington to …
Vivisection: draft petition
Summary
The Petition of Humbly Sheweth That your petitioners are persons engaged in the study of the Biological Sciences [‘& their application to medicine’ del]. That the art of preventing & curing disease is based upon a knowledge of the nature …
Matches: 1 hits
- … to kill’ del ] *the killing of [ interl ] animals for food and their employment [ above del …
George Keen
Summary
George Keen (1794–1884) was born in England. He had arrived in Buenos Aires by 1820, making him one of the earliest settlers from Britain. In 1821 he married Mary Yates (1802/3–72), the sister of John, William and Elizabeth Yates, another family of early…
Matches: 1 hits
- … salted and dispatched to Brazil and Cuba as ‘tasajo’, food for slaves. However, this trade was in …
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: 6 hits
- … Wilde in Dublin University Magazine early month of 1854 on food of Irish. ( Pig ) [Wilde] 1854] …
- … Cage birds: their natural history, management, habits, food, diseases, treatment, breeding, and …
- … true law of population shewn to be connected with the food of the people . London. [Other eds.] …
- … situation, nature of country, population, nature of food, and way of life on the disposition and …
- … 119: 20a ——. 1852. Report on substances used as food. In Exhibition of the works of …
- … 119: 10a [Wilde, William Robert Wills]. 1854. The food of the Irish. Chapter 1: the potato. …
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … is very shy, but is easily allured by the sight & smell of food; she speaks only in inarticulate …
Thomas Rivers
Summary
Rivers and Darwin exchanged around 30 letters, most in 1863 when Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript of Variation of plants and animals under domestication, the lengthy and detailed sequel to Origin of species. Rivers, an experienced plant breeder…
Matches: 1 hits
- … near a large nursery & your mind would find abundance of food”, Rivers wrote ( [3 February 1863 …
Essay: Evolutionary teleology
Summary
—by Asa Gray EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY When Cuvier spoke of the ‘combination of organs in such order that they may be in consistence with the part which the animal has to play in Nature,’ his opponent, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, rejoined, ‘I know nothing of…
Matches: 3 hits
- … grade. Granting that quite possibly the capture of flies for food by Dionaea and the sundews may …
- … species among each other for the ground they occupy, or the food they seek, will bring out and …
- … on the other, by the direct difference in the supply of food and moisture, light and heat. Here the …
British Association meeting 1860
Summary
Several letters refer to events at the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Oxford, 26 June – 3 July 1860. Darwin had planned to attend the meeting but in the end was unable to. The most famous incident of the meeting was the verbal…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of playing with a hammer; but although he liked oysters as food, he never could teach him to break …
Darwin in Conversation exhibition
Summary
Meet Charles Darwin as you have never met him before. Come to our exhibition at Cambridge University Library, running from 9 July to 3 December 2022, and discover a fascinating series of interwoven conversations with Darwin's many hundreds of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 9 July – 3 December 2022 Milstein Exhibition Centre, Cambridge University …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat and the …
Darwin and Design
Summary
At the beginning of the nineteenth century in Britain, religion and the sciences were generally thought to be in harmony. The study of God’s word in the Bible, and of his works in nature, were considered to be part of the same truth. One version of this…
Matches: 1 hits
- … for such powers. Its main occupation was digging roots for food, and it could demolish any predator …
