To Nature 3 August [1872]
Summary
Replies to C. R. Bree’s letter of 27 July [Nature 6 (1872): 260] contending that CD was wrong about early pedigree of man.
Defends the statement of CD’s view in Wallace’s review [Nature 6 (1872): 237–9] of Bree’s book [Exposition of fallacies … of Darwin (1872)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Nature |
| Date: | 3 Aug [1872] |
| Classmark: | Nature, 8 August 1872, p. 279 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8448 |
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 28 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can …
- … as evolution’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 27 July [1872] ). By the end of the year Darwin …
- … s. 6 d. ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ). Always closely involved in …
- … translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September 1872 ). He recapped the history of the French …
- … of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November 1872 ). To persuade his US publisher, …
- … Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). A worsening breach The …
- … beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ). I consider that you have …
- … Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). Piqued, Mivart flung back by return of post …
- … errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January 1872 ). Darwin likened the affair to the …
- … towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872] ). Despite Darwin’s request that he …
- … world’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 10 January 1872 ). Darwin, determined to have the last …
- … acknowledge it ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). 'I hate controversy,’ Darwin …
- … I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] ). Darwin's theories under …
- … the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872 ). 'Here is a bee' …
- … it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I wanted some encouragement’, he …
- … to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Müller had sent him a …
- … of natural and sexual selection to bees (H. Müller 1872), and with his reply Darwin enclosed an …
- … standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Finishing Expression …
- … doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was far from idle during their …
- … to be more erect’ ( letter to Briton Riviere, 19 May [1872] ). Riviere had been suggested to …
- … clever book’ ( letter to J. M. Herbert, 21 November 1872 ) and invited Butler to dinner the …
- … from Samuel Butler to Francis Darwin, [before 30 May 1872] , and letter from Samuel Butler, 30 …
- … feels no doubts’ ( letter to F. C. Donders, 17 June 1872 ). Right up to the beginning of June, …
- … Buckley Litchfield ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 13 May 1872 ). Delivery to the press brought only …
- … myself’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 25 July 1872 ). A battle for the independence of …
- … partisan reply ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 May 1872 ). On 13 June, a messenger arrived in …
- … to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 ). Darwin was quietly using his …
- … Mr. Darwin , and Darwin wrote a cutting letter to Nature in Wallace’s defence ( letter to …
Evolutionary views of human nature
Summary
From April 2010 until 31 March 2013, the Darwin Correspondendence Project ran an major international research project 'Exploring Evolutionary Views of Human Nature through Darwin’s Correspondence'. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research…
Matches: 8 hits
- … research project 'Exploring Evolutionary Views of Human Nature through Darwin’s Correspondence& …
- … contemporaries in developing an evolutionary theory of human nature in the period 1870 to 1873. …
- … and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). Three volumes of The …
- … reading public. An additional feature of the Human Nature project was the creation of web …
- … and emotion. Other aspects of Darwin's research on human nature received special attention: his …
- … hosted a major international conference on Darwin and Human Nature, inviting scholars in history, …
- … events were organised, presenting aspects of the Human Nature project to diverse audiences, and …
- … Kindness" (Cambridge Science Festival, 2012), and the Human Nature Film Series (Arts …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 7 hits
- … corporal punishment and not the susceptibilities of a moral nature.” Darwin did not typically …
- … online ahead of schedule as part of the “Darwin and Human Nature” project, funded by the Arts and …
- … Darwin, Francis [before 30 June 1872] New University …
- … Galton, Francis 7 Nov 1872 Rutland Gate, London, …
- … Meyer, A.B. 25 April 1872 Manila, Philippin Islands …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 7 Sept 1872 11 St Mary Abbot' …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 5 Nov 1872 13 Alfred Place, …
Human Nature
Summary
The early 1870s were a turning point in the global debate about human evolution, with deep implications for science, colonial expansion, industrial progress, religious belief, and ethical and philosophical debate. Darwin’s correspondence from this period…
Matches: 7 hits
- … and its relationship to prevailing assumptions about human nature. The extension of …
- … about the application of evolutionary theory to human nature that centred on Darwin’s work still …
- … and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) saw the greatest expansion and …
- … prevailing assumptions about human intellectual and moral nature. Exploration of the origins …
- … Much of the scholarly attention to Darwin’s views of human nature has focussed on ‘social Darwinism’ …
- … Man was published, many of them on the subject of human nature. A selection of the most important …
- … full online publication of the volume, as part of the Human Nature initiative. All the letters from …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 10 hits
- … Letter 8676 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [13 December 1872] Mary Treat details her …
- … Letter 8683 - Roberts, D. to Darwin, [17 December 1872] Dora Roberts reports an …
- … responds to a letter of Darwin’s which was published in Nature with some observations of her …
- … 8144 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L. C., [5 January 1872] Darwin asks his niece, Lucy, …
- … 8168 - Ruck, A. R . to Darwin, H., [20 January 1872] Amy Ruck reports the results …
- … Letter 8224 - Darwin to Ruck, A. R., [24 February 1872] Darwin asks his …
- … Letter 8169 - Wedgwood, L. to Darwin, [20 January, 1872] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, gives the …
- … 8427 - Darwin to Litc hfield, H. E., [25 July 1872] Darwin thanks Henrietta for …
- … 8153 - Darwin to Darwin, W. E., [9 January 1872] Darwin thanks his son William …
- … Letter 8676 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [13 December 1872] Mary Treat details her …
3.16 Oscar Rejlander, photos
Summary
< Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) led him to the Swedish-born painter and photographer, Oscar Gustaf Rejlander. Rejlander gave Darwin the notes that he had…
Matches: 5 hits
- … book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) led him to the Swedish-born …
- … him in May, August and October 1871, and in March and August 1872, but some of these payments, and …
- … April 1871, and reproduced in the London Journal in June 1872. Darwin also sent it to various …
- … Henry Jeens as a steel engraving, which was published in Nature in 1874, and was included in …
- … one of Huxley, in The London Journal , 55:1426 (8 June 1872), p. 357, illustrating an article …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 11 hits
- … also contributed to discussions in the scientific weekly Nature on the role of inherited and …
- … on the common sundew, Drosera rotundifolia , in August 1872, but was interrupted by revisions to …
- … Expression had been published at the end of November 1872 and sold quickly. He wrote to Hooker …
- … off, & most of them sold!” Reviews remarked on the popular nature of the book. Full of …
- … Darwin received a letter from John Traherne Moggridge on the nature of animal instinct. Moggridge, …
- … Darwin soon became involved in a related discussion in Nature magazine, forwarding a letter from …
- … fearful of butchers and butcher’s shops ( letter to Nature , [before 13 February 1873] ). …
- … triggered by smell. Darwin joined the debate, writing to Nature ( letter to Nature , [before …
- … after he had smashed some with his finger ( letter to Nature , [before 3 April 1873] ). …
- … by seeing the corpses of a fellow species” ( letter to Nature , [before 24 July 1873] ). …
- … character traits in families, and the comparative role of nature and nurture by gathering statistics …
Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 10 hits
- … for the book may have been increased by the publication in 1872 of Corals and coral islands , by …
- … ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 14 April 1874 ). The technical nature of Huxley’s argument prompted …
- … vol. 20, letter to St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). To Darwin’s relief, Murray replied …
- … vol. 20, letter to Hubert Airy, 24 August 1872 ). The passage took twelve weeks aboard the …
- … a source of inspiration. In April, he wrote a letter to Nature, observing that the flowers of …
- … primroses were abundant in each district ( letter to Nature , 18 April [1874] ). He …
- … M. Story-Maskelyne, 4 May 1874 ). In a second letter to Nature , Darwin summarised the …
- … blindfolded from the moment of being hatched ( letter to Nature , 7 and 11 May [1874] ; …
- … with the contraction of Dionaea leaves in Nature (Burdon Sanderson 1874). Hooker also …
- … ). He featured in the scientific worthies series in Nature ( letter to J. N. Lockyer, 13 May …
2.6 Adolf von Hildebrand bust
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1873, the German biologist Anton Dohrn commissioned a plaster bust of Darwin for the ‘fresco room’ of his new research centre, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples. It was a fitting memorial of a long association between the two…
Matches: 7 hits
- … on at least two occasions during the construction (1872–1873). Most of the money for the building …
- … articles and reports on the progress of the project in Nature, and his speech at the official …
- … revolution by Mr. Darwin’s great work’, he wrote in 1872, and its future lay in the study of …
- … was given: DCP-LETT-7925 and 7926. Dohrn to Darwin, 21 Aug. 1872, writing in his capacity as …
- … DCP-LETT-8481, and Darwin’s supportive reply, 24 Aug. [1872]: DCP-LETT-8486. Anton Dohrn, ‘The …
- … . . . promoting the Foundation of Zoological Stations’, Nature 6 (29 August 1872), pp. 362–363. …
- … ‘Inauguration of the Zoological Station of Naples’, Nature 12 (6 May 1875), pp. 11–13. Dohrn, …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 4 hits
- … Letter 8140 - Darwin to Darwin, W. E., [3 January 1872] Darwin congratulates his son for …
- … Letter 8146 - Darwin to Treat, M., [5 January 1872] Darwin praises Mary Treat’s …
- … Letter 8171 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L., [21 January 1872] Darwin thanks his niece for the …
- … plants; he has recommended that she send her manuscript to Nature for publication. …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 3 hits
4.13 'Fun' cartoon by Griset, 'Emotional'
Summary
< Back to Introduction Ernest Griset’s drawing titled ‘Emotional!’ was published in Fun magazine on 23 November 1872, and is another skit referring to Darwin’s recently published Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. A hippopotamus had been…
Joseph Simms
Summary
The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874, while he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character (Simms 1873). He hoped it might 'prove…
Matches: 5 hits
- … he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character …
- … embarking on a three-year lecture tour of Britain in 1872, including 52 lectures in London alone. As …
- … feet high, of splendid proportions, and fittingly endowed by nature for the arduous physical and …
- … University of Georgia Press. Darwin, Charles. 1872. The expression of the emotions in man …
- … Simms, Joseph. 1891. Physiognomy illustrated; or, Nature's revelations of character. A …
Climbing Plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A monograph by which to work After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in…
A tale of two bees
Summary
Darwinian evolution theory fundamentally changed the way we understand the environment and even led to the coining of the word 'ecology'. Darwin was fascinated by bees: he devised experiments to study the comb-building technique of honey bees and…
Matches: 3 hits
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 4 hits
- … progressive, as well as racist and sexist theories of human nature would remain one of the most …
- … special issue on ‘Descent of Darwin: race, sex, and human nature’]. Shanafelt, Robert. 2003. …
- … 20 December 1871 Letter to Mary Treat, 5 January 1872 Letter to [E. M. Dicey?] …
- … Press. Gianquitto, M. 2007. ' Good observers of nature’: American women and the …
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: 14 hits
- … a new edition taken from the sixth English edition of 1872 (Freeman 1977, pp. 85–6). …
- … he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature,—such as the long neck of the giraffe …
- … in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat and the meteoric …
- … and beautiful co-adaptations, which we see throughout nature;—I cannot see that we thus gain any …
- … selection. But he does not show how selection can act under nature. He believes, like Dean Herbert, …
- … qu’il doit remplir dans l’organisme général de la nature, fonction qui est pour lui sa raison d’être …
- … affected by circumambient molecules of a particular nature, and thus have given rise to new forms. …
- … or revelation as it is opposed to the general analogy of nature. If, on the other hand, we view …
- … liable to extermination from accidental fluctuations in the nature of seasons and in the number of …
- … and to seize on every ill-occupied place in the economy of nature, that it is quite possible for …
- … would be of actual disservice, as being of a more delicate nature, and more liable to be put out of …
- … propagated for a succession of generations in a state of nature, modification might be effected …
- … Page 79, 2 six lines from bottom, after word ‘‘nature,’’ insert parenthesis—reading the whole …
- … great and sudden transition would in fact be effected in the nature of the plant. Pages 293 …
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
