To T. H. Huxley 11 April [1853]
Summary
Offers to send Ascidia specimens of Beagle voyage. Describes some of them.
Hopes THH will review his book [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1] which has been published for a year with no notice taken of it except briefly by Dana.
Discusses Limulus-like larva. "I have become a man of one idea.– cirripedes morning & night."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 11 Apr [1853] |
| Classmark: | DAR 145: 150Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 13) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1514 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Dana’s review had appeared in July 1852 (see letter to J. D. Dana, 25 November [1852] , …
- … letter to T. H. Huxley, 17 July [1851] , n. 1). An unannotated reprint of Müller 1852 …
- … letter is established by the reference to Living Cirripedia (1851) having been published a year previously (see n. 7, below). Huxley was cataloguing the British Museum collection of Ascidia. He had reported on some of his findings to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1852 ( …
To T. H. Huxley 13 [December 1856]
Summary
Pleased by what THH says on cement glands and organs in higher Crustacea. Content to be moderately right.
Hopes THH will dissect the Conchoderma.
Asks for cases of organs in which there is no apparent transition from other organs or in which transition can be shown in an unexpected way and for instances of odd and inexplicable connections between parts, such that if one part varies the other varies also.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 13 [Dec 1856] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 44, 375) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2020 |
To T. H. Huxley 16 November [1860]
Summary
Thanks THH for his lecture ["On the study of zoology", Lay sermons, addresses and reviews (1870), pp. 104–31]. Best exposé and classification of the higher objects of natural history he has ever read. On reading and observation.
Henrietta’s lack of improvement.
R. McDonnell’s work on rays and electric organs of fishes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 16 Nov [1860] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 145) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2986 |
To T. H. Huxley 23 April [1853]
Summary
On THH’s paper on cephalous Mollusca [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 143 (1853) pt 1: 29–66]. Discovery of the type or "idea" (in THH’s sense, not Owen’s or Agassiz’s) is one of the highest ends of natural history.
Discusses anamorphism;
position of heart in Cleodora.
Variability within species;
cementing process in cirripedes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 23 Apr [1853] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1480 |
To T. H. Huxley 10 June [1855]
Summary
Asks whether THH will attend Council of Royal Society and speak for him on Joachim Barrande and J. D. Dana.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 10 June [1855] |
| Classmark: | Janet Huxley (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1697 |
To T. H. Huxley 13 December [1859]
Summary
Sends anecdotes and drawings of pigeons for Royal Institution lecture. Offers parts on hybridisation and pigeons from his MS (if THH has patience to read them).
Has heard George Busk is converted.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 13 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 82–6) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2582 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letters to T. H. Huxley, 27 November [1859] and [5 December 1859] . CD refers to John Matthews Eaton , the author of several treatises on pigeon breeding. CD’s annotated copies of Eaton 1851 , 1852, …
- … letter to T. H. Huxley, 16 December [1859] . George Busk was a close friend of Huxley’s and zoological secretary of the Linnean Society . Dean Wolstenholme was a well-known animal painter ( DNB ). His engravings of pigeons illustrate Eaton 1852 . …
To T. H. Huxley 1 July [1856]
Summary
Asks for information on geographical distribution of ascidians; are any closely allied species or genera found in north and south temperate zones that do not have representatives in the tropics?
Answers some questions on [cirripede] antennae.
If THH ever sees a tree washed ashore, will he observe whether any earth is embedded between roots?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 1 July [1856] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 175, 37–9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1914 |
To T. H. Huxley 8 March [1855]
Summary
Thanks THH for corroborating his observations. Discusses metamorphosis of ovaria to cement organs. Ovaries, germinal vesicles, and anatomy of cirripedes. Difficulties of classification, and observation.
THH’s article on Mollusca [Charles Knight, ed., English cyclopædia: a new dictionary of universal knowledge (1854–70) 3: 855–74].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 8 Mar [1855] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 25) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1645 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1852 , p. 119). CD described the unusual homologies of the body of Proteolepas bivincta in Living Cirripedia (1854): 594–6. Owing largely to the differences in the development of this form from other cirripedes, CD classified Proteolepas as the sole species in its order. The paper has not been identified. T. H. Huxley 1855a , in which Huxley proposed an archetype for the Mollusca. See letter …
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
'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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend …
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific …
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
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
George Busk
Summary
After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until the material was sent, in 1852, for study by George Busk, one of the foremost workers on the group of his day. In 1863, on the way down to Malvern Wells, Darwin had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 …
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
- … Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Arthur Mellersh
Summary
Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at the time when Darwin was travelling around the world. One account suggests an inauspicious start to their friendship; apparently Mellersh introduced himself…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at …
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
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
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
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
Fritz Müller
Summary
Fritz Müller, a German who spent most of his life in political exile in Brazil, described Darwin as his second father, and Darwin's son, Francis, wrote that, although they never met 'the correspondence with Müller, which continued to the close of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Francis Darwin, in Life and letters of Charles Darwin , wrote of Fritz Müller They …
