To George Grove 17 July [1871]
Summary
The cat exhibition might provide information on unusual breeds of cats and their inheritance.
Expresses interest in deafness of white, blue-eyed cats.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Grove |
| Date: | 17 July [1871] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7870 |
Matches: 16 hits
- … The cat exhibition might provide information …
- … on unusual breeds of cats and their inheritance. …
- … Expresses interest in deafness of white, blue-eyed cats. …
- … faithfully | Ch Darwin The hereditary character of the 6-toed cats would be worth enquiry. …
- … must be a hasty generalisation, and mentioning two cases of deaf white female cats. Tait …
- … also later observed a deaf white female cat ( Nature , 13 December 1883, p. 164). …
- … public attention, viz that entirely white cats with blue eyes are deaf: if one eye alone …
- … has lately published a statement that this holds good only with male cats. Possibly you …
- … might make a small class for “white cats of any breed, with both eyes or one alone blue” & …
- … the Sexes could be ascertained when the cats are sent. This would really be a curious …
- … had asked for suggestions for a second cat show at the Crystal Palace; see letter from …
- … 15 July 1871 . CD had made the claim that cats with blue eyes were invariably deaf in …
- … p. 12, and since modified it to the claim that white cats with blue eyes were almost …
- … always deaf, the exceptions, however, being cats that had the least bit of colour in their …
- … 7 July 1869, p. 113, claiming that deafness was confined to male white cats (though not …
- … all male white cats were deaf), and that eye colour was a matter of indifference. There …
From Edward Blyth 4 August 1855
Summary
Sends a skeleton of a Bengal jungle cock.
Has never heard of trained otters breeding in captivity.
Introduced domestic rabbits are confined to the ports of India.
Canaries and other tame finches and thrushes brought into India do not breed well.
Origin of the domestic canary. Tendency of domesticated birds to produce "top-knot" varieties.
The tame geese of lower Bengal are hybrids; those of upper Bengal are said to be pure Anser cygnoides.
Wild Anser cinereus occur in flocks in the cold season.
Discusses at length different breeds of domestic cats and possible wild progenitors. Wild and domestic cats occasionally interbreed. The Angora variety breeds freely with the common Bengal cat and all stages of intermediates can be found.
Believes pigeons have been bred in India since remote antiquity.
Discusses whether mankind is divided into races or distinct species.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Aug 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A69–A78 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1735 |
Matches: 52 hits
- … Discusses at length different breeds of domestic cats and possible wild progenitors. …
- … Wild and domestic cats occasionally interbreed. The …
- … variety breeds freely with the common Bengal cat and all stages of intermediates can be …
- … as for its analogy with the long-haired Cat of the same country. In Bengal, I have never …
- … E. Gray of the Br. Museum! Enough of this digression. Cats . It seems to me t
〈 ha〉 t we have … - … The first much resembles our commonest wild Cat ( F. chaus ) in colouring; but is a much …
- … tail, that tapers as in the British Cat. The body markings are totally undiscernible; but …
- … longer & fuller (much as in the British wild cat, only more Lepus -like! ), that along the …
- … Well, comparing these chaus -like tame Cats with Rüppell’s figure of maniculata (evidently …
- … progenitors of the race; but if ever such a cat were to be met with purely wild, it …
- … would be set down as an escaped tame Cat, or descendant of such. …
- … Such a wild Cat, however, assuredly does not occur hereabouts; where F. chaus is …
- … coast and in Ceylon, there is a small wild Cat affined to the domestic, grey with some …
- … interbreed occasionally with the domestic Cat, as I think I before told you; & this is in …
- … favor of my theory of the origin of the British tame Cat. —The second …
- … type I have to mention is a grey Cat, beautifully & regularly spotted throughout, or with …
- … any one would pronounce it to be a very handsomely marked tame cat. The markings are …
- … rather large, somewhat as in the British wild cat, but beautifully distinct. Fur as in the …
- … extent of this in our beautiful Leopard Cat ( F. bengalensis ), would surprise you; but a …
- … generally; unless perhaps numerous tame cats had run wild, as might happen in that often …
- … satisfactory conclusions . Has a 1 2 bred wild cat ever been met with wild in Britain; in …
- … has longer fur, much as in the British Wild Cat; but the tail not so thick, distinctly …
- … and indistinctly marked as in the British Wild Cat. — N.B. Looking to the shoulders more …
- … with domestication into the common tame Cat. — What ever is the corresponding species …
- … like (for such doubtless exists) in the native locality of the Angora Cat? This …
- … interbreeds most freely with the Bengal Cat; & the result is, that we see hybrids of every …
- … fur, & development of brush : many Angora Cats (here termed Persian ) being brought by an …
- … affined. The typically coloured Angora Cat is grey-brown throughout, with faint streaks on …
- … I cannot distinguish from that of the Bengal Cat, but both have the molars (indeed all the …
- … teeth) conspicuously smaller than in the British Wild Cat. The …
- … Br. tame cat’s skull I have no specimen of. — …
- … The Malayan Cats (so far as I …
- … have seen) resemble the Bengal Cat, except that the tail is almost (if not quite) …
- … from the M. peninsula to Timor! So also with the Manx Cat, as you of course know. Qu. …
- … been brought from the east? What Malayan Cats I have seen have been black & white, so that …
- … the typical coloration. There is a small wild Malayan Cat with very short tail, the F. …
- … which indeed is the smallest wild Cat known to me; but this has small & rounded ears! …
- … to contribute . Here we occasionally see Cats with deformed tails, as if broken in the …
- … a quasi-broken tail! — What about the blue cats of Spain? Have you not seen them in the …
- … over the country, I know not; nor what Chinese Cats are like. — But there is a frequent …
- … in Calcutta); & an occasional no doubt, with Cats from other countries, especially the …
- … in all proportions upon parti-coloured Cats; & not unfrequently they are white, with …
- … for a tortoise- shell. The half-bred Angora Cats are of all varieties of colour. — Lastly, …
- … derivation from maniculata . This may be found to hold good with the tame Cats of Egypt; & …
- … if tame Cats really (& solely) originated there, it is likely enough that the intercourse …
- … the dispersion of the Egyptian race of tame Cats probably long before they found their way …
- … north of the Mediterranean. Domestic Cats are familiarly referred to in various ancient …
- … those which relate to the comparatively late diffusion of tame cats in our own island; & I …
- … know nothing of what the ordinary Cats of Western Asia, Turkey, &c, are like, as no one ( …
- … that I do not now think that the Bengal Cats descend from maniculata , but more probably …
- … Indian & English essentially the same (Cats essentially same breed in India. )—? (You …
- … 203), CD noted: ‘Ask, “what about the blue cats of Spain? ’ For Blyth’s reply, see notes …
From Henrietta Emma Darwin [29 October 1862]
Summary
Instinct in cats.
| Author: | Henrietta Emma Darwin; Henrietta Emma Litchfield |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [29 Oct 1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 68 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3787 |
Matches: 10 hits
- … Instinct in cats. …
- … sucking instinct’ pencil Top of letter : ‘Henrietta on Cats. — | Oct. 29/62/’ pencil …
- … My cat Greysy deserted her 2 nd kitten Bullsig when it was a month old, I suppose because …
- … its whole stomach was quite wet. — our Ilkley cat used to suck its own stomach when it was …
- … that, as a child, she would sit ‘for long hours’ watching her cats, and ‘sympathising …
- … with the cat’s admiration of her kittens’. Henrietta refers to the period from 2 to 16 …
- … At Hartfield where we were, there was an old cat & kittens & about 2 days after …
- … we got there she adopted this cat & sucked it with the others. She had this mother for a …
- … interval till we came to Shanklin where there were two old cats giving milk & 3 kittens. …
- … She took to both these cats & played with the kittens. One day I observed her snowzling in …
From Edith Evans 27 January [1882]
Summary
Reports observations on curious cats that appear to be cat–rabbit hybrids.
| Author: | Edith Hunter; Edith Evans |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Jan [1882] |
| Classmark: | DAR 201: 9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13646 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … Reports observations on curious cats that appear …
- … to be cat–rabbit hybrids. …
- … is similar to nineteenth-century accounts of the Manx cat, which some believed to be …
- … a hybrid of a rabbit and cat (see, for example, Train 1845 , pp. 20–1). …
- … of writing to you about a curious kind of cat, of which I heard from a friend, the Rev d . …
- … years since I lived where those curious cats were, so that I cannot tell whether any of …
- … recollection of the facts is somewhat dim. The cats lived in various parts of the valley …
- … they were a cross between rabbits and cats; but I have now no means of knowing whether my …
- … to know your opinion; possibly these rabbit-cats may be familiar to you. I Trusting to the …
- … of the Ottawa, and were all of them cat-shaped in head and fore-quarters, and rabbit- …
- … of the color of what we call Maltese cats, a bluish-grey or mouse color, with, sometimes, …
From W. D. Fox 16 August [1875]
Summary
Discusses deafness in white cats. Every blue-eyed, white cat WDF has known has been deaf.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Aug [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 188 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6319 |
Matches: 14 hits
- … Discusses deafness in white cats. …
- … Every blue-eyed, white cat WDF has known has been deaf. …
- … I shall probably see both these cats before long, and shall very likely find a Colony …
- … about there. The Caister Cat—being described as very fine , may probably be a male. Your …
- … deafness and the colour of fur and eyes in cats in 1856 (see Correspondence vol. 6, …
- … correlation in English, Persian, and Danish cats’ ( Variation 2: 329). See also Variation …
- … state—not one dozen, but dozens of white cats came under my observation. The first I saw …
- … which I think was a male)—2 Norwegian Cats whose owner I amazed (as I have done several …
- … by remarking “that it was a pity such fine cats should be deaf”. These were females. Of …
- … letters on the subject of these blue eyed cats—it is now 20 to 30 years since—but they …
- … elder children remember “Lily” our first cat—as perfectly deaf & blue eyed—& she certainly …
- … wife & cubs if they remembered the white cats. “Lily” was too far back, but “Glaucops” was …
- … nr G t Yarmouth—added “that there is a cat there perfectly white, but with the usual green …
- … Caister Rectory close by Mr Steward has a magnificent blue eyed cat which is quite deaf. ” …
From Athénaïs Michelet 17 May 1872
Summary
AM [wife of Jules Michelet] offers information on crosses in cats.
| Author: | Adèle-Athénaïs Mialaret (Athénaïs) Michelet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 170 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8356 |
Matches: 19 hits
- … AM [wife of Jules Michelet] offers information on crosses in cats. …
- … are any biographies or partial studies by amateurs written in English on domestic cats and …
- … big cats, lions , tigers etc. Everything must reach you, sir, as if in tribute, and I am …
- … on a book on the history and behaviour of cats; her original intention, first conceived in …
- … to write a fictionalised account of her own cats. Her incomplete manuscript was published …
- … have been noticed. ’ In Variation 2d ed. 1: 47, CD omitted the text after ‘common cat’. …
- … The cats mentioned are discussed in A. …
- … Michelet [1904]. The first official London cat show was held at the Crystal Palace on 13 …
- … I am occupied at the moment. It concerns cats , my guests and favourites since my earliest …
- … the science. I have read the chapter on cats in your book on variations most attentively, …
- … reproduce with one another and with common cats. — In connection with this fact, perhaps I …
- … Some years ago I received a pair of cats. The male, a magnificent black and white Angora, …
- … intermixture. The female was a true gutter cat, meagre, short-haired , and slender. In the …
- … the bottom of my garden. But a smoky black cat came prowling about, and had the customary …
- … time the length and volume of an Angora cat. I named him Pluto . I kept him for 5 years. …
- … one thinks. In Paris, where one keeps cats to which one is attached indoors, the couple, …
- … flighty. The indomitable independence of cats and their pressing need to roam at night …
- … 8. In Variation 1: 45, CD wrote, ‘In England half-bred Angora cats are perfectly fertile …
- … with the common cat; I do not know whether the half-breeds are fertile one with another; …
From George Grove 15 July 1871
Summary
The cat exhibition was a success. Asks whether the next one might be made to serve interests of science and of CD’s investigations by, for example, offering prizes for cats with special modifications or characters.
| Author: | George Grove |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 July 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 229 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7866 |
Matches: 10 hits
- … CD mentioned a rumoured race of six-toed cats in Variation 2: 14. …
- … The cat exhibition was a success. Asks whether the next one might be …
- … by, for example, offering prizes for cats with special modifications or characters. …
- … and wishing me success with our Exhibition of Cats. It was very successful with one rather …
- … many persons were disappointed of seeing the Cats. We shall, however, remedy all this in …
- … Crystal Palace Company; the first official cat show was held at the Crystal Palace on 13 …
- … 1871 ( Era , 16 July 1871, p. 4). A second cat show was held at the Crystal Palace on 2 …
- … According to Era , 16 July 1871, p. 4, one of the cats exhibited had twenty-six claws. …
- … or modification for instance— One of the Cats exhibited on Thursday had I think 7 toes on …
- … the fact of such abnormal peculiarities in cats. I fear I am writing very ignorantly, but …
From William Alexander Wooler 29 December 1868
Summary
Observations that confirm CD’s deduction that half-bred Persian cats are fruitful one with another. Relates case of Persian characters reappearing in the offspring of a common cat which was the descendant of a half-bred Persian.
| Author: | William Alexander Wooler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Dec 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 159 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6516 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … confirm CD’s deduction that half-bred Persian cats are fruitful one with another. Relates …
- … reappearing in the offspring of a common cat which was the descendant of a half-bred …
- … a really fine half bred long wooled Persian cat— he cant tell me how many generations …
- … In Variation 1: 45, CD had noted that half-bred Angora or Persian cats were fertile …
- … with common cats, and had speculated …
- … that half-bred cats would be fertile with one another. In Variation 2d …
- … 47, he added, ‘In England half-bred Angora cats are perfectly fertile with one another’, …
- … you on the following— Half bred Persian Cats inter breeding My Brother brought a black …
- … your deductions that half bred Persian cats are fruitful one with another The Mother from …
- … of her progeny which however were much as common cats he says— He however kept only the …
- … bred between the common & the Persian Cats & had had kittens once to a pure bred white …
To Athénaïs Michelet 23 May 1872
Summary
Discusses books about cats and crosses in cats. Thanks her for her book on cats.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Adèle-Athénaïs Mialaret (Athénaïs) Michelet |
| Date: | 23 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.417) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8348 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Discusses books about cats and …
- … crosses in cats. …
- … Thanks her for her book on cats. …
- … something about the expression & gestures of cats under different emotions; & this is a …
- … correspondents who were also judges at the cat show ( The Times , 4 December 1871, p. …
- … reports, & for information about any books on cats. I heard from him this morning that he …
- … the fertility of crossed Angora & common cats. It is not believd by physiologists that the …
To J.-H. Fabre 20 February 1880
Summary
Discusses sense of direction of cats and other animals.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean-Henri Casimir (Jean-Henri) Fabre |
| Date: | 20 Feb 1880 |
| Classmark: | Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Bibliothèque centrale, Paris (Ms FAB 32) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12494 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … Discusses sense of direction of cats and other animals. …
- … Macmillan and Co. Weir, Harrison. 1889. Our cats and all about them: their varieties, …
- … line through broken ice. With respect to the cats, I have seen an account that in Belgium …
- … is a society which gives prizes to the cat which can soonest find its way home, & for this …
- … common among local people of turning a cat round in a bag to disorient it so it would not …
- … of northern Siberia. The Belgian practice of cat racing was described in an article in the …
- … 16 June 1860; the article was reprinted in a book on cats ( Weir 1889 , p. 218). According …
- … ham and a silver spoon to the owner whose cat found its way home soonest. In the event, an …
- … that such a belief should be held about cats in your country. I never heard of anything of …
From J. E. Harting 1 May [1880?]
Summary
Wild cat gestation is twelve days longer than domestic cat, a fact not mentioned in Variation.
| Author: | James Edmund Harting |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 May [1880?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 112 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13815 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Wild cat gestation is twelve …
- … days longer than domestic cat, a fact not mentioned in Variation . …
- … worth notice, namely, that where the Wild Cat has been induced to reproduce in captivity, …
- … an interesting fact in regard to the Wild cat ( Felis sylvestris ) to which I do not find …
- … that the period of gestation in the wild cat is as nearly as possible 68 days, or 12 days …
- … this. CD discussed the relationship between wild and domestic cats in Variation 1: 43–8. …
- … The notes on gestation in cats appeared in the April and August 1876 issues of Zoologist ( …
From W. H. Patterson 24 April 1876
Summary
Observations on expression and variation in cats.
| Author: | William Hugh Patterson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Apr 1876 |
| Classmark: | DAR 174: 28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10469 |
Matches: 10 hits
- … Observations on expression and variation in cats. …
- … cottages, and at the door of most of the cottages a cat sat, enjoying the evening sun. …
- … The curious thing was, that all the cats I noticed had the same colouring namely a mixture …
- … was particularly long and coarse, I saw no cats with short glossy fur, nor any coloured, …
- … This seems to have become the dominant type of cat in that quarter of Strabane. W m . H. …
- … Expression , p. 129, CD remarked that cats made at least six or seven different sounds: ‘ …
- … curious. ’ CD discussed varieties of domestic cat in Variation 1: 43–8. Strabane is a town …
- … a young lady name not given nor date but probably about 1830. W m . H. Patterson. Cats. …
- … I have an old gray Tom cat which mews and …
- … purrs like other cats, but which has besides, another kind of speech which I have not …
From Richard Harte 30 August 1872
Summary
Report about six-toed cats; trait persistent for three generations.
| Author: | Richard Harte |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Aug 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 110 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8496 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Report about six-toed cats; trait persistent for three generations. …
- … of polydactylism, including cases of six-toed cats, in Variation 2: 12–17. The steward has …
- … have. ] ‘—grandchildren’ added pencil Top of letter : ‘Cats 6 toes | 3 generations’ pencil …
- … few days ago from Cork to Bristol I noticed a cat on board with enormous paws, and I found …
- … steward informed me that the mother of this cat had an abnormal number of claws (he could …
- … further told me that he had at home a sister of the cat I saw on board which had six claws …
- … on both fore and hind feet and that this cat had some young ones with extra claws one of …
- … I have brought with me to London a tom cat with six claws on the front paws and five on …
To [?] 21 September [1869]
Summary
Thanks correspondent for sending curious facts about his cats.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 21 Sept [1869] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Australia (MS 760/2/571) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6952 |
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: 9 hits
- … Compares sense of smell in dogs and cats. …
- … of the fish until she was close to it. The cat was quite familiar with me, and had been …
- … impressed me with the conviction that cats discover food by smell with very indifferent …
- … acuteness of the sense of smell in dogs and cats, but perhaps it may be useful in adding …
- … reason to think that the sense of smell in cats is much less highly developed than in dogs …
- … among other things, we see the difficulty cats often seem to experience in finding food …
- … accomplished in the space of a minute, the cat could not do in a quarter of an hour; for, …
- … every piece of meat had been found. The cat, on the contrary, walked about mewing, and …
- … soon as the first could be eaten. The house cat was afterwards tried in the same room, and …
From ? September 1872
Summary
On cats’ habit of leaving the room or house in which a corpse is lying.
| Author: | Unidentified |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 141 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8503 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … On cats’ habit of leaving the room or house in which a corpse is lying. …
- … behaviours and mental powers of animals, including the domestic cat, in Descent 1: 34–106. …
- … to what appeared to me a noticeable peculiarity in the Domestic Cat. While conversing with …
- … a friend on Natural History, he remarked that Cats leave the houses in which dead bodies …
- … the result was the same, viz, that the Cats appeared always to have deserted the house, or …
- … of Science, and was informed that all the Cats had left the Premises, including the mother …
- … of the dead body from the house, all the Cats (about seven) returned, including the mother …
From Edward Blyth 22–3 August 1855
Summary
Gives extracts from a letter by Thomas Hutton.
Rabbits are kept (generally by Europeans) in the NW. provinces and breed freely. Canaries are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. EB gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22–3 Aug 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A79–A84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1746 |
Matches: 16 hits
- … are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. …
- … gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms. [CD’s notes are …
- … up here from the plains generally speaking, & like yours are hybrid cygnoides . “ Cats . …
- … We have a few tabby cats here & there” ( Qu . the genuine English tabby? ) ; “but the tame …
- … therefore the same as my alleged wild Cat of the Punjab Salt Range; & also Fraser’s, but …
- … Blyth— Miscellaneous Notes for M r . Darwin Cat . In Ogilby’s ‘Mammalogy of the Himalaya’, …
- … Introduction to Royle’s Ill. Him. Bot , p. lxv, a wild Himalayan Cat is mentioned, affined …
- … to the European Wild Cat but streakless; & a specimen is stated to be in the Z. S. …
- … a specimen of the streakless grey tame Cat of this country; for I remember seeing one …
- … p. 100; & his ‘travels’ I have never seen. Cats again. In Huc’s ‘Chinese Empire’. ( …
- … Eng . Transl . II, 120), “Tailless Cats” are mentioned; & “ …
- … white silky Cats are not unknown” there. —Also several sorts of dogs with black tongues! …
- … in Fraser’s Him n . Travels, p. 351, it is stated that “small Cats” (Qu. chaus ? ) “ …
- … of a size and colour approaching the domestic Cat, were more than once met with among the …
- … Himalyanus. ? ’ Blyth later described a wild cat of ‘the streaked or spotted type’ from …
- … Rüppell 1838–40. Huc 1855 , 2: 120: ‘The cat is domesticated, especially a tailless kind, …
From John Medows Rodwell 31 October 1860
Summary
Observations on his white blue-eyed cat. There is no sign of deafness.
Apropos of ch. 5 of Origin, tells of blind rats found when a Roman bridge was excavated.
| Author: | John Medows Rodwell |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Oct 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 167–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2970 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … Observations on his white blue-eyed cat. There is no sign of deafness. Apropos of ch. 5 of …
- … making further observations upon my white cat. This I have now done and am able to state …
- … correlation between blue eyes and deafness in cats in Origin , pp. 12 and 144, where he …
- … entirely deaf. Now that I am speaking of cats I may mention that my late uncle the Rev. …
- … W. Kirby of Barham was a great Cat-fancier all his life, and that he was very careful to …
- … not know that he ever eliminated the smaller cats, though he certainly never would allow a …
- … elsewhere. He was extremely proud of his Cats, and had petted this one particular Breed …
- … his Curate, I always recollect him with a cat on his Table, Knee or Shoulder. And I have …
- … assures me that though he has often known cats with both eyes blue to be stone deaf he has …
- … to you upon the state of a large number of white cats, as a friend of his, a lady residing …
- … not far hence, is a fancier of white cats and has a large number—of which I could only …
From J. E. Gray 6 February 1868
Summary
Would like a look at Nathusius.
Edward Blyth’s inability to recognise cats’ skulls.
| Author: | John Edward Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 214 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5846 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … Would like a look at Nathusius. Edward Blyth’s inability to recognise cats’ skulls. …
- … in Variation , and supplied much information on cats ( Variation 1: 43–5, 48). Rhinoceros …
- … E. Gray 1867a ). Gray wrote a series of papers on cat taxonomy in 1867 (J. Gray 1867b , …
- … of which criticised Blyth’s classification of the wild cats of India and Africa ( J. E. …
- … Blyth had published a paper on the wild cats of India ( Blyth 1863 ), and remarks on …
- … of Bengal ( Blyth 1856 ). CD’s discussion of cats in Variation drew on Blyth 1856 among …
- … publications. For a modern taxonomy of wild cats, see Nowell and Jackson eds. 1996, pp. …
- … 307–13. Felis chaus is the jungle cat, which ranges from north-east Africa to south-east …
- … Asia. Felis cafra is a South African wild cat; the name was also used to refer to F. …
- … a synonym of F. catus , the domestic cat) is a name that appears in Henri Marie Ducrotay …
- … poor man is scarcely trustworthy about cats, &c &c, especially since his malady— He came …
From J. M. Rodwell 6 December 1860
Summary
Discusses Origin, suggesting confirmation might come from studying reproduction in microscopic organisms.
Gives anecdotal observations of blind rats and white cats.
| Author: | John Medows Rodwell |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Dec 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 169–70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3012 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … in microscopic organisms. Gives anecdotal observations of blind rats and white cats. …
- … 4.8] crossed pencil Top of first page : ‘Cats Deaf’ pencil, del pencil ; ‘Rats Blind ( …
- … as this neighbourhood is concerned, my enquiries about the white Cats. My neighbour M rs . …
- … Ellis of Hoddesdon has three white cats all of which are, and always have been stone deaf …
- … 12 and 144, CD stated that deafness in cats was ‘invariably’ correlated with blue eyes. He …
- … rendezvous for Cockneys in the adjacent parish of Nazing has five white cats and a kitten …
- … all, like my cat, fully endowed with the faculty of hearing. When I tell you that …
- … all parts of the premises (with 4 black cats) more like a flight of tame pigeons than any …
Document type
| letter | (230) |
| bibliography | (25) |
| people | (1) |
Addressee
| Darwin, C. R. | (154) |
| Fox, W. D. | (6) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (4) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (4) |
| Darwin, Emma | (3) |
Correspondent
| Darwin, C. R. | (224) |
| Blyth, Edward | (15) |
| Fox, W. D. | (9) |
| Gray, Asa | (8) |
| Tait, Lawson | (6) |
Date
| 1828 | (1) |
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| 1836 | (1) |
| 1841 | (1) |
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| 1844 | (2) |
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| 1848 | (3) |
| 1854 | (1) |
| 1855 | (16) |
| 1856 | (12) |
| 1857 | (2) |
| 1859 | (1) |
| 1860 | (10) |
| 1861 | (5) |
| 1862 | (4) |
| 1863 | (8) |
| 1864 | (2) |
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| 1870 | (6) |
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| 1878 | (6) |
| 1879 | (1) |
| 1880 | (6) |
| 1881 | (6) |
| 1882 | (3) |
Search:
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Historical documents in Commentary
Historical documents in Commentary
4 Items
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
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…
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: 1 hits
- … in the natural tendencies of our domestic animals: one cat, for instance, taking to catching rats, …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … or hurt, & may be compared to young mice trembling at a cat the first time, they see one.— …
