To J. W. Dawson 19 January 1872
Summary
Thanks recipient for memoir on fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John William Dawson |
| Date: | 19 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | McGill University Library, Department of Rare Books |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8166 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Thanks recipient for memoir on fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian. …
- … s Fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations of Canada ( Dawson 1871 ) in …
- … fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations of Canada. Montreal: Dawson …
- … the fossil plants of the Devonian & Upper-Silurian formations. When we remember our state …
To H. T. De la Beche 19 August [1847]
Summary
Bernhard Studer has been at Down. Studer will not be able to join HDelaB’s Ordnance Survey working party.
CD is glad to hear about very old rocks under Silurians. "There is something grand and mysterious at these depths."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Thomas De la Beche |
| Date: | 19 Aug [1847] |
| Classmark: | National Museum of Wales, Department of Natural Sciences (De la Beche) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1111 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton …
- … to hear about very old rocks under Silurians. "There is something grand and mysterious at …
- … about the very old rocks under the Silurians; there is something so grand & mysterious at …
- … extension of Roderick Impey Murchison’s Silurian system in 1842 to include Adam Sedgwick’s …
- … were any rocks older than Murchison’s Silurian formations in Wales. By 1847, however, the …
- … to be without fossils, below these Silurian strata in north-western Wales (see Ramsay and …
Agassiz, Louis. 1863b. The Silurian beach. Atlantic Monthly 11: 460–71.
Matches: 1 hit
- … Agassiz, Louis. 1863b. The Silurian beach. Atlantic Monthly 11: 460–71. NW6 P900.1.c.6.11 …
To Gaston de Saporta 31 January 1878
Summary
Has sent GdeS’s drawing to Hooker. He, Oliver, and Thiselton-Dyer have been perplexed by it.
L. Lesquereux’s discoveries in the Cincinnati Lower Silurian beds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Louis Charles Joseph Gaston (Gaston) de Saporta, comte de Saporta |
| Date: | 31 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | Petit and Théodoridès 1959, pp. 210–11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11341 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … been perplexed by it. L. Lesquereux’s discoveries in the Cincinnati Lower Silurian beds. …
- … an unchanged flora from the base of the Silurians to the summit of the Carboniferous beds? …
- … Land plants, recently discovered in the Silurian rocks of the United States. [Read 19 …
- … several plants in the Cincinatti Lower Silurians. Prof. Williamson wrote to me a week ago …
- … then says “add all this to Saporta’s Silurian fern” and he than asks “are we going to …
From A. C. Ramsay 18 October 1871
Summary
Sends two papers ["On the physical relations of the new red marl", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 27 (1871): 189–98 and "On the red rocks of England", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 27 (1871): 241–54] bearing on the continuance of generic and specific terrestrial types, in areas of Europe and elsewhere, that lasted from the Upper Silurian to the Lias.
| Author: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8017 |
Matches: 4 hits
From W. C. Williamson 19 January 1878
Summary
Insectivorous plants.
| Author: | William Crawford Williamson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 105 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11326 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … has found in the Cincinnati Lower Silurians, true
〈 L〉 epidodendroid stems — Sphenophylla — … - … an
〉 unchanged Flora from the〈 bas〉 e of the silurians to the summit〈 of〉 the Carboniferous … - … de Saporta described a fern found in Silurian beds in France in Saporta 1877a . Williamson …
- … Land plants, recently discovered in the Silurian rocks of the United States. [Read 19 …
- … a number of fossil plants found in Silurian beds in North America, including Psilophytum ( …
Secord, James Andrew. 1986. Controversy in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Matches: 1 hit
- … in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton …
From Charles Lyell 23 April 1855
Summary
CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Apr 1855 |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 6: 7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1672 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton …
- … of Lamellebranchiate bivalves in the Silurian! All obtained by quarries opened solely by …
- … of Joachim Barrande’s great work on Silurian fossils ( Barrande 1852–1911 ) had received …
- … 1854 (see Forbes 1854c ). He divided the Silurian system into eight stages, identifiable …
- … 150 species of lamellibranchs in the Silurian would, therefore, overturn Forbes’s theory. …
- … a separate group of fossils below the lower Silurian would justify a separate name. In his …
From Charles Lyell 7 May 1860
Summary
Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.
Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.
Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 May 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 396 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2787 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous. Édouard Lartet to give paper …
- … getting more & more separated from Lower Silurian— He replied certainly— I am beginning to …
- … Joachim Barrande believed that the lower Silurian formations around Prague constituted a …
- … that they were merely part of the lower Silurian. In his Manual of geology ( C. Lyell …
- … in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton …
From William Henry Harvey 24 August 1860
Summary
Continues earlier discussion, admitting his opinions have been modified. Still regards natural selection as one agent of several. States areas of disagreement.
| Author: | William Henry Harvey |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Aug 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98 (ser. 2): 33–40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2898 |
Matches: 14 hits
- … Granting the highly developed condition of Silurian fossils we are driven to seek for …
- … bed, “long before the first bed of the Silurian was deposited”. At p. 285, you calculate …
- … living species, are represented by fossil species in Silurian strata, & considering our …
- … very small acquaintance with Silurian fossils I think this a large number. I cannot …
- … at present seem to fail a little above the Silurian will yet be traced down into it. Every …
- … Chiton , two well-marked & nearly allied Silurian genera, having numerous modern as well …
- … other molluscan genera during the whole post-silurian epoch, I can only liken each small …
- … as, in imagination, we descend through pre-silurian beds toward our first organism, many …
- … crushed by the weight of 50 or 500 post-silurian epochs, for we see that, time being …
- … thereby the enormous length of the post-silurian epoch (from the present year, back …
- … to the date of the first silurian bed);—but let us endeavour to conceive, guided …
- … evidence, the probable length of the pre-silurian -organic period, from the lowest bed, …
- … the Primordial Form. Little as we know of Silurian Animals we know at least that they were …
- … undivaricated since the first bed of the silurian was deposited; may not these same two …
From Joseph Beete Jukes 27 February 1860
Summary
Believes in the "perfect indefiniteness & frequently the vast length of the interval" between consecutive geological formations. Thus has little respect for arguments against CD based on the absence of transitional forms in the geological record. States that species found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are really varieties of greatly differing ages. CD’s theory accounts for the progressive inprovement, multiplication and increase in complexity that can be seen, but which may often be only relative.
| Author: | Joseph Beete Jukes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Feb 1860 |
| Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 125–7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2716A |
Matches: 5 hits
- … in Victorian geology: the Cambrian–Silurian dispute. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton …
- … found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are …
- … on the fossils of older rocks like the Silurian ( Secord 1986 ). He had worked with Jukes …
- … Blumenbachii for instance is found in both Upper & Lower Silurian, but Salter says that …
- … those found in Lower Silurian vary so much from the Wenlock ones that he has doubted their …
Dawson, John William. 1871. The fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations of Canada. Montreal: Dawson Bros. London: Sampson Low, Son and Marston.
Matches: 1 hit
- … fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations of Canada. Montreal: Dawson …
Hall, James. 1860. Descriptions of new species of fossils from the Silurian rocks of Nova Scotia. Canadian Naturalist 5: 144–59.
Matches: 1 hit
- … of new species of fossils from the Silurian rocks of Nova Scotia. Canadian Naturalist 5: …
Billings, Elkanah. 1859a. On some new genera and species of Brachiopoda from the Silurian and Devonian rocks of Canada. Canadian Naturalist 4: 131–5.
Matches: 1 hit
- … genera and species of Brachiopoda from the Silurian and Devonian rocks of Canada. Canadian …
Salter, John William. 1862. On Peltocaris, a new genus of Silurian Crustacea. [Read 21 May 1862.] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 19 (1863): 87–92.
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1862. On Peltocaris, a new genus of Silurian Crustacea. [Read 21 May 1862. ] Quarterly …
Lesquereux, Leo. 1877. Land plants, recently discovered in the Silurian rocks of the United States. [Read 19 October 1877.] Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 17 (1877–8): 163–73.
Matches: 1 hit
- … Land plants, recently discovered in the Silurian rocks of the United States. [Read 19 …
From Alcide Charles Victor Dessalines d’Orbigny 14 February 1845
Summary
Agrees that CD’s fossil shells do not differ from those ADd’O saw in South America. Apparent differences due to errors by G. B. Sowerby. Collection magnificent; recommends special publication. Enabled ADd’O to correct error in dating of sandstone of Concepción. Lists geological periods represented in collection from Jurassic to Diluvian. Collection includes unusual group of crepidules.
| Author: | Alcide Charles Victor Dessalines (Alcide) d’Orbigny |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Feb 1845 |
| Classmark: | DAR 43.1: 62–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-829 |
From Joachim Barrande 19 June 1870
Summary
Encloses a copy of a letter he has written to a French geologist. In it he raises objections to evolutionary theory:
why are corals inadequately represented in the fossil record?
How can one explain the widespread appearance and then disappearance of groups like the trilobites?
If Mollusca and Articulata have a common ancestor, why are not ancient forms more akin than present ones?
| Author: | Joachim Barrande |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 44–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7236 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Dawson identified samples taken from pre-Silurian strata in eastern Canada as fossilised …
- … his claim, made in Origin , p. 307, that life existed before the Silurian period. …
- … interpretation of the samples as pre-Silurian fossils remained controversial, however ( …
- … nor even on the horizon of the primordial Silurian fauna, fauna one tells us is relatively …
- … belatedly, that is to say, in the second silurian fauna and their great development has no …
- … in formations before the second Silurian fauna, for, by reason of their calcareous nature, …
- … is to say on the horizon of the primordial Silurian fauna. Why did the fragile wrapping of …
Murchison, Roderick Impey. 1839. The Silurian system, founded on geological researches in the counties of Salop, Hereford, Radnor, Montgomery, Caermarthen, Brecon, Pembroke, Monmouth, Gloucester, Worcester, and Stafford; with descriptions of the coal-fields and overlying formations. 2 pts. London. [Vols. 4,7]
Matches: 1 hit
- … Murchison, Roderick Impey. 1839. The Silurian system, founded on geological researches in …
| letter | (94) |
| bibliography | (9) |
| people | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (46) |
| Lyell, Charles | (9) |
| Ramsay, A. C. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Harvey, W. H. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (46) |
| Lyell, Charles | (12) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
| Ramsay, A. C. | (4) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (92) |
| Lyell, Charles | (21) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Ramsay, A. C. | (8) |
| Harvey, W. H. | (3) |
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Human nature in Commentary
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of life occurred, might remain unaltered from long before Silurian age to present day. I grant there …
