From Edward Blyth 23 February 1856
Summary
Opposition to EB within the Asiatic Society.
Possibility of establishment of a zoological garden at Calcutta.
Has seen Gallus varius alive for the first time.
Will procure domestic pigeons for CD; could CD pay for them by returning hardy creatures, such as macaws and marmosets, which EB can sell for a high price in India?
Does not recall his authority for genealogy of the asses of Oman. If a genuine wild ass exists EB believes it will be in south Arabia.
Infertility of Irish and Devon red deer.
Details of an unusual species of wild dog.
Fertility of canine hybrids. General tendency toward hybrid sterility.
Has skins of hybrid Coracias and the parent species.
Wide-ranging species; skua found in Europe and Australia, but not in the tropics.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Feb 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A128–A132 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1832 |
From Edward Blyth 26 February 1856
Summary
There is a possibility of establishment of a Government Museum at Calcutta, with which the Asiatic Society Museum would be merged. EB would like the curatorship but fears other possible applicants. Asks CD to represent him to W. H. Sykes.
Discusses the ancients’ awareness of various cats as deduced from the etymology of their names.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Feb 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A126–A127 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1833 |
To M. J. Berkeley 29 February [1856]
Summary
Preparing paper on seed-soaking for Linnean Society ["Action of sea-water on seeds", Collected papers 1: 264–73]. Wants to use MJB’s results. Lost ardour when he found seeds would not float.
Has grown MJB’s purest pea seeds and got a few variants. Gärtner’s experiments suggest direct action of pollen, but CD thinks it is "mere variation".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 29 Feb [1856] |
Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/45) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1834 |
From John Morris 1 March 1856
Author: | John Morris |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Mar 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 246 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1835 |
From M. J. Berkeley 7 March 1856
Summary
Reports on breeding experiments with various seeds: corn, aubergine, kidney beans, sugar-peas. Speculates that cause of changes in seed colour in sugar-peas may be mere variation rather than result of impregnation.
Author: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Mar 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 174 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1836 |
To George Henry Kendrick Thwaites 8 March 1856
Summary
Hopes GHKT will publish on variations in plant species at different elevations. Asks about variations among plants on heights of Ceylon.
Promises to publish on the species question.
Asks for pigeons’ skins from India or Ceylon, and for ducks’ skeletons. Mentions help promised by E. F. Kelaart.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Henry Kendrick Thwaites |
Date: | 8 Mar 1856 |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.125) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1837 |
From Thomas Hutton 8 March 1856
Summary
TH believes that the progeny of hybrid crosses, in which a domesticated or "artificial" race is involved, tend to resemble the more "natural" of their parents [see Natural selection, p. 486].
Provides some information on local hybrid domestic geese [see Natural selection, p. 439] and pigeons.
Author: | Thomas Hutton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Mar 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 283 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1838 |
To Syms Covington 9 March 1856
Summary
Thanks SC for his interesting account of the state of the colony. SC was wise to settle there where his sons have much better prospects.
Has finished his book on barnacles [1854]. Royal Medal awarded him chiefly for this work.
Asks SC whether he has observed any odd imported breeds of poultry, for his work on variation of species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Syms Covington |
Date: | 9 Mar 1856 |
Classmark: | Sydney Mail, 9 August 1884, p. 255 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1840 |
To Herbert Spencer 11 March [1856]
Summary
Thanks for copy of HS’s Principles of psychology [1855].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
Date: | 11 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 147: 484a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1841 |
To Samuel Birch [12 March 1856]
Summary
Arranges an appointment.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Birch |
Date: | [12 Mar 1856] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1489) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1841A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 15 March [1856]
Summary
Asks WBT to try to purchase some specific pigeons.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 15 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1842 |
To W. D. Fox 15 March [1856]
Summary
Believes WDF’s case of mongrel Scotch deerhound is very valuable for him.
Mentions his work on pigeons and chickens.
Fears sometimes he will break down: "My subject gets bigger and bigger".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 15 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 97) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1843 |
To M. J. Berkeley 18 March [1856]
Summary
Thanks MJB for information which he is including in his article for the Linnean Society.
Refers to the peas "which produce the black or intensely purple pods". [See 1834 and 1836.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 18 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | Joseph R. Sakmyster, ADS Autographs (dealer) (no date) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1843A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 20 March [1856]
Summary
Discusses various pigeons and would welcome receiving any odd breed. Some pigeons have died from overeating bag salt.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 20 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1844 |
From Edward Blyth [c. 22 March 1856]
Summary
Gives references to works on fowls and pigeons.
Observations on Gallinaceae.
Musk ox skull from southern England is additional evidence for Agassiz’s glacial period. Owen is mistaken in calling it a buffalo.
EB describes the buffalo proper.
Will send domestic pigeon specimens.
Believes pigeons were not bred in India before the Mohammedan conquest. Describes Indian breeds.
Believes the ass is an African rather than an Asian production. Discusses various species of ass and their distribution.
Wild horned cattle on borders of Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur.
[Notes received by CD on 6 May 1856.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 22 Mar 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: 133–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1845 |
To C. J. Andersson 25 March [1856]
Summary
Thanks for proof sheets of Lake Ngami: or, exploration and discoveries during four years’ wanderings in the wilds of South Western Africa (Andersson 1856).
Is very grateful for the information CJA has provided about cattle in South Africa, and wishes to ask further questions about native breeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles John (Carl Johann) Andersson |
Date: | 25 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | National Library of South Africa, Cape Town |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1845F |
To Thomas Henry Huxley 2 April [1856]
Summary
Invitation to THH and wife to come to Down to meet H. C. Watson, T. V. Wollaston, and the Hookers.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 2 Apr [1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 46) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1847 |
To Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell 3 April [1856]
Summary
Reminds WBDM of his promise of information about the quartz boulders and an iceberg with fragment of rock seen in southern ocean.
Sends other questions [on separate sheet (missing)] which WBDM will think ridiculous, but all bear on plants and animals under domestication.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell |
Date: | 3 Apr [1856] |
Classmark: | Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand (Mantell papers, MS-Papers-0083-268) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1848 |
From Edward Blyth [3 April 1856]
Summary
Reports observations on Indian pigeons from David Scott at Hansi. EB adds remarks on Indian breeds he has encountered. Suggests Egypt, Turkey, and Syria would be good places from which to obtain specimens. Believes domestic races are all descended from Columba livia; their calls are all similar and they pair indiscriminately.
Guinea-fowl.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [3 Apr 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A140–A143 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1849 |
From Charles John Andersson [6 April 1856]
Summary
European men choose partners for different reasons. Savages select more for bodily attraction than facial beauty.
Author: | Charles John (Carl Johann) Andersson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [6 Apr 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 85: A102 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1850 |
letter | (260) |
Darwin, C. R. | (189) |
Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Blyth, Edward | (6) |
Wollaston, T. V. | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (69) |
Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (24) |
Lubbock, John | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (9) |
Darwin, C. R. | (258) |
Hooker, J. D. | (39) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (24) |
Lyell, Charles | (12) |
Lubbock, John | (10) |