To Lawson Tait 4 June [1875]
Summary
CD’s observations on the power of movement and transmission of motor impulses in plants. If RLT succeeds with the tails of mice, it will be "a beautiful little discovery"; CD will enjoy it the more "because some German sneered at natural selection and instanced the tail of the mouse" [see 10013].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 4 June [1875] |
Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections DC AL 1/19) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10009 |
To Lawson Tait 11 June [1875]
Summary
Has found that H. G. Bronn in the chapter appended to his translation of Origin cited ears and tail of mice as facts opposed to natural selection. Suggests RLT examine hairs of tails of mice for possible nerves.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 11 June [1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 24–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10013 |
To Lawson Tait 13 June [1875]
Summary
RLT’s observations come too late, as CD’s book on Droseraceae has been printed.
Reports on his observations of ferment in secretions in Drosera rotundifolia and Drosophyllum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 13 June [1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 26 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10017 |
To Lawson Tait [after 17 June 1875]
Summary
RLT will find abundant evidence of absorption by Aldrovanda in CD’s forthcoming book [Insectivorous plants]. Congratulates him on his discovery of ferments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | [after 17 June 1875] |
Classmark: | Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10019 |
To Lawson Tait 17 [July 1875]
Summary
Informs RLT of J. D. Hooker’s work on Nepenthes ["Nepenthaceae, Cytinaceae", in Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis by A. P. de Candolle (1873), 17: 90–116].
Has asked JDH to try secretions of pitchers that had caught no insects.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 17 [July 1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 27 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10023 |
To Lawson Tait 20 July [1875]
Summary
CD returns MS of a paper by RLT. "If you have succeeded in separating the ferment, the fact is manifestly important." Asks whether RLT tested the digestive ability of fluid from pitchers without animal matter. This would be necessary to prove that there was ferment in the fluid. CD is glad to hear about the [passage?] for guiding insects; he had guessed this to be the case.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 20 July [1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 28 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10080 |
To Lawson Tait 10 September [1875]
Summary
CD gives a few instances of various animals (starfish, earwigs, spiders) that take charge of their young.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 10 Sept [1875] |
Classmark: | Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10154 |
To Lawson Tait 15 August [1875]
Summary
Thanks him for his kind review of Insectivorous plants in the Spectator. Disputes Tait’s report of a Nepenthes that trapped a fly but did not digest it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 15 Aug [1875] |
Classmark: | Leeds University Library Special Collections (Brotherton Collection, tipped into Insectivorous plants (1875): MS Misc. Letters 2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10177F |
To Lawson Tait 14 October [1875]
Summary
Will be happy to present RLT’s paper on Nepenthes to Royal Society.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 14 Oct [1875] |
Classmark: | Department of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas (MS 331 box 1 folder 11) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10199 |
To Lawson Tait 27 November [1875]
Summary
Because CD has been unwell, he has not read RLT’s paper carefully, but it seems an important contribution to science. Hopes RLT’s chemical observations will be confirmed. It seems a great anomaly that two substances with an acid should be requisite for digestion.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 27 Nov [1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 30 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10280 |
To Lawson Tait 1 December [1875]
Summary
Abstract sent to the Royal Society. It seems to CD "uncommonly clear and well-done".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 1 Dec [1875] |
Classmark: | Josh B. Rosenblum (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10284 |
To Lawson Tait [13–15 March 1875]
Summary
Thinks CD is right about the retention of a tail.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | [13–15 Mar 1875] |
Classmark: | Birmingham Daily Post, 8 April 1875, p. 6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9885F |
To Lawson Tait 20 March [1875]
Summary
Has read RLT’s essay [The pathology and treatment of diseases of the ovaries (1874)] with interest. His facts about tumours seem to CD "highly favourable to some such notion as Pangenesis".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 20 Mar [1875] |
Classmark: | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Hannover (Noviss. 450: A 48) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9896 |
To Lawson Tait 25 March 1875
Summary
Would be glad to make RLT’s acquaintance, but CD’s health would make RLT’s visit to Down unprofitable. Suggests a meeting in London at end of month.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
Date: | 25 Mar 1875 |
Classmark: | John Wilson (dealer) (Catalogue 62, July 1989) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9902 |