From Berthold Carl Seemann 24 April 1862
Summary
Encloses a passage from his book, The botany of the voyage of H.M.S. "Herald" [1852–7].
Discusses possibility of publishing work on flora of Hawaiian Islands.
Author: | Berthold Carl Seemann |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Apr 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 130, DAR 50: E28 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3518 |
From J. D. Hooker 14 December 1866
Summary
Scarlet seed is Adenanthera pavonina. JDH’s suggestion on how disseminated.
On Herbert Spencer, "all oil no bone – a thinking pump", but his paper on sap and wood [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 405–30] is good science. His refusal to bring a specimen for analysis when confronted by JDH.
Bentham and Martin disagreement.
Speculations on New Zealand flora.
Albert Günther’s paper on fishes on each side of Isthmus of Panama [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1866): 600–4].
On the quantity (bulk and weight) of organic life [matter].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Dec 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 121–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5305 |
From H. W. Bates 30 April 1862
Summary
Discusses insects of south temperate S. America and New Zealand, especially with respect to the distribution and origin of Chilean Carabi, and has sent for a German monograph to learn about the eleven species he has found.
He refers to Chilean poverty in butterflies; scanty New Zealand insect fauna.
An analysis of south temperate insects is desirable, but the small English collections make him afraid to undertake it.
Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Apr 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 175, DAR 160.1: 67–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3523 |
From Charles Lyell 24 November 1860
Summary
CL has calculated that elevation and subsidence of certain formations in Sweden and Norway take place at the rate of 2 1/2 feet per century. He now proposes to estimate the age of a bed by including a conjecture that pauses occur in the oscillations in the ratio of 4 periods of stasis to one of movement. Applying this formula to Scotland, the last subsidence and re-elevation would be 590,000 years and the age of the beds with human implements would be 20,000 years.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 40–8) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2996A |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Uddevalla & still more elevated beds of glacial period in Norway & Sweden, I have assumed …
- … table] During this period the whole of the glacial period & the present establishment of …
- … glacial re-elevation in Scotland. Now I propose to conjecture keeping on the safe side & not exposing myself to the charge of exaggerating the probable time, that 4 parts of Europe are stationary for one which moves at the rate of 2 1 2 feet in a hundred years, or that the stationary area exceeds that in motion as 4 to 1. & 4 expresses the period …
To J. D. Hooker [14 November 1858]
Summary
An enclosure sent with the letter to JDH, 14 November [1858] (Correspondence vol. 7) - questions and comments on lists of European species found in south-west Australia and Tasmania, and European genera found in Australia.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [14 Nov 1858] |
Classmark: | DAR 50: E55–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2361F |
To F. B. White 23 September [1878]
Summary
Comments on FBW’s paper ["Hemipterous fauna of St Helena", Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1878): 444–77].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Buchanan White (Francis) (Buchanan) White |
Date: | 23 Sept [1878] |
Classmark: | Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland (205) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11707 |
To Julius von Haast 22 January 1863
Summary
Thanks JvH for his address [to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury], his Geological Report [Topographical and geological exploration of the western districts of the Nelson province, New Zealand (1861)],
and for the "honourable" notice of Origin.
CD especially interested in JvH’s facts on the old glacial period.
Asks about fossil remains [of supposed living mammalia] which CD thinks may be like "the Solenhofen bird-creature" [Archaeopteryx].
Urges the recording of rate and manner of spreading of European weeds and plants and observation on which native plants "most fail".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Francis Julius (Julius) von Haast |
Date: | 22 Jan 1863 |
Classmark: | Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand (Haast family papers, MS-Papers-0037-051-3) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3935 |
To Charles Lyell 22 September [1861]
Summary
Additional discussion of Jamieson’s theory that the roads of Glen Roy were formed by a glacial lake. Suggests the possible marine origin of the Glen Spean terraces. Comments on the power of lakes to produce pebbles. Discusses elevation of Wales and Scotland during the glacial period.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 22 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.265) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3260 |
To A. R. Wallace 26 January [1870]
Summary
Response to ARW’s MS on geological time ["The measurement of geological time", Nature 1 (1870): 399–401, 452–5].
Groans over [what is said about] man.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Date: | 26 Jan [1870] |
Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434: 198–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7086 |
From Alfred Tylor 8 June 1872
Summary
AT is trying to publish his paper with important evidence on "the pluvial period".
Author: | Alfred Tylor |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 June 1872 |
Classmark: | DAR 178: 199 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8376 |
To Asa Gray 3 July [1860]
Summary
Origin has "stirred up the mud with a vengeance"; AG and three or four others have saved CD from annihilation and are responsible for the attention now given to the subject. Reports events at Oxford BAAS meeting.
New evidence supports AG’s view of a warm post-glacial period.
Discusses his recent orchid observations.
Poses AG a question on design in nature.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 3 July [1860] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (41) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2855 |
To J. D. Hooker 26 [December 1859]
Summary
High, detailed praise for introductory essay to Flora Tasmaniae [reprinted as On the flora of Australia (1859)]. CD expects it to convert botanists from doctrine of immutable creation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 26 [Dec 1859] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 33, 30a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2606 |
To W. B. Clarke 25 October [1861]
Summary
Thanks WBC for his account of glacial action in Australia. A mundane cooler period would throw a flood of light on geographical distribution. Has sketched a large MS on subject but does not know whether he will live to publish it.
Questions WBC on striated granite boulders.
Asks him to make a botanical experiment on insect fertilisation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Branwhite Clarke |
Date: | 25 Oct [1861] |
Classmark: | Mitchell Library, Sydney (MLMSS 139/36X, pp. 263–72) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3298 |
From E. B. Tylor 4 May 1875
Summary
EBT’s brother, Alfred Tylor, wishes to visit CD with George Young.
AT’s "pluvial period" theory.
Author: | Edward Burnett Tylor |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 May 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 178: 204 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9971 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … to argue that rainfall in the post-glacial period must have been heavier than in modern …
- … changes in the sea-level during the glacial period. Geological Magazine 9: 392–9, 485–501. …
- … period from the abstract published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London ( Tylor 1852 ), but his views appeared in full in the version of his paper published in the Philosophical Magazine ( Tylor 1853 ). Tylor again encountered opposition to his views at the Geological Society in 1868 when he explained post-glacial …
To J. D. Hooker 22 July [1879]
Summary
At work on Movement in plants.
Discusses John Ball’s, G. de Saporta’s, and his own theories of higher plant origin. Their rapid development remains an "abominable mystery".
Frank is working in Würzburg.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 22 July [1879] |
Classmark: | DAR 95: 485–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12167 |
To Charles Lyell 12 April [1861]
Summary
Discusses progress of CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].
CD had not thought of subsidence in connection with "roads" of Glen Roy.
Discusses habits of ants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 12 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.244) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3117 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 November [1861]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 7 Nov [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 125 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3310 |
To J. D. Hooker 9 May [1862]
Summary
Sorry to hear of JDH’s household troubles.
Will try to get a couple of flowers of Leschenaultia to send him.
"What a good case that of the Cameroons"; the 4000ft [elevation] is much to CD’s "private satisfaction".
Sends JDH a copy of Orchids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 9 May [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 149 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3541 |
From S. B. J. Skertchly 27 February 1878
Summary
Sends CD a copy of his memoir on the fenland [Geology of the fenland (1877)].
Outlines the results of his recent researches into the geological history of man, the development of Palaeolithic culture, the occurrence of Palaeolithic remains in the boulder-clays of eastern England, and their relation to glacial and inter-glacial periods.
Author: | Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Feb 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 176 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11379 |
From J. D. Hooker 7 October 1878
Summary
Botanical evidence is against F. B. White’s origin of St Helena fauna. JDH holds flora is S. African. Since plants must arrive before insects, if fauna is Palearctic then flora survived glacial period. Flora not Miocene since old and relic orders are absent. Suggests S. African west coastal mountains as insects’ origin.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Oct 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 118–20 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11718 |
letter | (258) |
bibliography | (9) |
people | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (152) |
Hooker, J. D. | (39) |
Lyell, Charles | (15) |
Bates, H. W. | (4) |
Gray, Asa | (4) |
Darwin, C. R. | (104) |
Hooker, J. D. | (53) |
Lyell, Charles | (33) |
Gray, Asa | (9) |
Wallace, A. R. | (7) |
Darwin, C. R. | (256) |
Hooker, J. D. | (92) |
Lyell, Charles | (48) |
Gray, Asa | (13) |
Wallace, A. R. | (11) |
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1846 | (1) |
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Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Walk in Darwin’s footsteps: Click this link to download a field guide to Glen Roy written …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … If I lived 20 more years, & was able to work, how I sh d . have to modify the “Origin”, & …
Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, reprinted in 1861. I Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted…
Matches: 1 hits
- … —by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began …
Darwin in letters, 1861: Gaining allies
Summary
The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. He had weathered the storm that followed the publication of Origin, and felt cautiously optimistic about the ultimate acceptance of his ideas. The letters from this year provide an…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. By then, he had …