skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

Search: contains ""

400 Bad Request

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.


Apache Server at dcp-public.lib.cam.ac.uk Port 443
Search:
in keywords
9 Items

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: 21 hits

  • The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the
  • be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August
  • pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such
  • Andone looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October
  • in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It
  • of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwins publisher. So
  • to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was
  • number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George
  • anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and
  • asthe natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of
  • with lawyers over a doubt that it may have been included in Lubbocks marriage settlements, the sale
  • for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results
  • of other insect-eating plants. The surgeon and botanist John Ralfs sent  Utricularia  from
  • in order to work on its difficult structures ( letter to John Ralfs, 13 July [1874] ). The
  • a printed appeal for funds, raising £860 ( Circular to John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, …
  • from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] ). He tried to persuade John Murray to publish a second edition
  • Tyndall, 12 August [1874] ). Hooker reported thatLubbocks Lecture went off admirablybut

John Lubbock

Summary

John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…

Matches: 23 hits

  • John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring
  • two men lived as close neighbours for most of their lives.  Lubbock's fatherJohn William
  • banking family, and the family seat of High Elms, which Lubbock inherited in 1865, was at the heart
  • and wide-ranging studies in anthropology and prehistory, John Lubbocks childhood interest in
  • mountain must come some Sunday to Mahomet.   ( to John Lubbock, 26 March [1867] ) …
  • meetings leave in the documentary record, it is clear that John Lubbock played a significant part in
  • and strategist.  As early as 1857 Darwin wrote to thank Lubbock for saving him from a ' …
  • on variationDarwin made constant requests of Lubbock, bombarding him with questions and
  • with me on general issue, or against me. ( to John Lubbock, 14 December [1859] ) …
  • In the weeks immediately after publication, Darwin wrote to Lubbock not once but twice demanding to
  • opinion of men like you & Hooker & Huxley & Lyell’. Lubbock spoke in Darwin&#039
  • Darwin's supporters) in 1864. Pre-historic Times (1865), Lubbock's account of human
  • to humans.  After his election as MP for Maidstone in 1870, Lubbock tried at Darwins request to
  • such as James Torbitt's research into potato blight. Lubbock was one of those consulted on
  • Descent In Descent of man , Darwin referred to Lubbocks published work on the secondary
  • much interest for the good of my internal viscera’ ( to John Lubbock, 21 July [1870] ). It seems
  • a daughter? or scrupled to carry off anothers wife? ( from John Lubbock, 18 March [1871] ). …
  • complained that he remained 'not a little in the dark' ( to John Lubbock, 26 March [1867] …
  • William, up in a banking career, and Darwin's last known letter to John Lubbock, sent
  • children were strained.  ‘I am afraid our feeling to Sir JohnFrancis Darwin later wrotedid not
  • And relations with Darwin were not always easyIn 1874 Darwin asked Lubbock to sell him the piece
  • He signed himself, with unusual formality, “My dear Sir John, yours sincerely”. By this stage
  • down.”   In the last year of his life Darwin provided a letter of introduction for Lubbock's

St George Jackson Mivart

Summary

In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…

Matches: 11 hits

  • … In 1874, the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart caused Darwin and his son …
  • … appeared to have created very little stir, until, in July 1874, Mivart published an anonymous review …
  • … also wondering whether he should break off relations with John Murray, his own publisher and also …
  • … it for publication in the next issue of the Quarterly ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 29 July 1874
  • … kind of thing Murray would be likely to wish to circulate ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 1 August [1874] …
  • … them explicitly, he might be thought to endorse them ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 5 August 1874 ). …
  • … of encouraging licentiousness. A postscript to Darwin’s letter, which may belong to another letter, …
  • … on board Darwin’s comments and sent a fair copy of his letter with his letter of 6 [August] 1874
  • … George’s letter to Murray with his letter of 11 August 1874 , and was no doubt relieved to …
  • … having been used in a Pickwickian sense’ ( letter to John Murray, 18 October 1874 ). In other …
  • … the president, George Allman: he had already spoken to John Tyndall ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 …

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: 24 hits

  • … Observers Women: Letter 1194 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [12 August …
  • … silkworm breeds, or peculiarities in inheritance. Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to …
  • … observations of cats’ instinctive behaviour. Letter 4258 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, …
  • … to artificially fertilise plants in her garden. Letter 4523 - Wedgwood, L. C. to …
  • … be made on seeds of Pulmonaria officinalis . Letter 5745 - Barber, M. E. to …
  • … Expression from her home in South Africa. Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L …
  • … Expression during a trip to Egypt. Letter 7223 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L. C., …
  • … expression of emotion in her pet dog and birds. Letter 5817 - Darwin to Huxley, T. …
  • … is making similar observations for him. Letter 6535 - Vaughan Williams , M. S. …
  • … of a crying baby to Darwin's daughter, Henrietta. Letter 7179 - Wedgwood, …
  • … briefly on her ongoing observations of wormholes. Letter 8611 - Cupples, A. J. …
  • … expression of emotion in dogs with Emma Darwin. Letter 8676 - Treat, M. to Darwin, …
  • … birds, insects or plants on Darwin’s behalf. Letter 8683 - Roberts, D. to …
  • … of an angry pig and her niece’s ears. Letter 8701 - Lubbock, E. F . to Darwin, …
  • … on her experiments with fly-catching Drosera . Letter 9426 - Story …
  • Letter 9616 - Marshall, T. to Darwin, [September 1874] Theodosia Marshall sends …
  • … 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s queries …
  • … 9606 - Harrison, L. C. to Darwin, [22 August 1874] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, sends a …
  • Letter 9616  - Marshall, T.  to Darwin, [September 1874] Theodosia Marshall details …
  • Letter 9485 - Treat, M. to Darwin, [8 June 1874] Mary Treat details her experiments …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …
  • … J., [5 April 1859] Darwin asks his publisher, John Murray, to forward a manuscript copy of …
  • … writing. Letter 3001  - Darwin to Lubbock, J., [28 November 1860] Darwin …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

Summary

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…

Matches: 24 hits

  • attack upon Darwins son George, in an anonymous review in 1874 (see Correspondence vol. 22, …
  • On 8 January , he told Hooker: ‘I will write a savage letter & that will do me some good, if I
  • … .’ Hooker also directed some of his anger toward John Murray, the publisher of the
  • to the EditorPoor Murray shuddered again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January
  • laid to rest, another controversy was brewing. In December 1874, Darwin had been asked to sign a
  • Instead of supporting her, he worked closely with Huxley and John Burdon Sanderson to draft an
  • Edward Emanuel Klein, a German histologist who worked with John Burdon Sanderson at the Brown Animal
  • botanical research and had visited Down House in April 1874 (see Correspondence vol. 22, letters
  • offered to pay the costs for printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). …
  • the book in the Academy , 24 July 1875, by Ellen Frances Lubbock: ‘in Utricularia they are
  • … & bless the day That ever you were born (letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 2
  • further research on the effects of grafting by George John Romanes. A scientific friendship had
  • that the originally red half has become wholly white’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [before 4
  • pp. 18890). He drew attention to this discussion in a letter to George Rolleston, remarking on 2
  • Darwin wrote, ‘I beg ten thousand pardon & more’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [ c . February
  • signed himself, ‘Your affect sonthe proofmaniac’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875
  • in parish affairs (see Correspondence vol. 21). Lubbock tried to bring about a
  • also you intended to slight him.’ Darwin assured Lubbock that he never meant to show
  • 24 December , Emma wrote triumphantly to the former vicar, John Brodie Innes, that a new reading
  • both critical and reverential. On 16 July he received a letter from an advocate of womens
  • her presentation copy of Insectivorous plants ( letter to D. F. Nevill, 15 July [1875] ). Such
  • Darwin had hoped to arrange for the meeting to take place at Lubbocks home, High Elms, so that he
  • within the short time I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). Finally it
  • had learned of Lyells failing health from Hooker in 1874 and January 1875. On 22 February, he was

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

  • … What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • … anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace,  27 July …
  • … to spread my views’, he wrote to his publisher, John Murray, on 30 January , shortly after …
  • … best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • … condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September …
  • … translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November …
  • … to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart,  11 January …
  • … comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • … a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • … Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January …
  • … was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872 …
  • … hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart,  10 January …
  • … have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letter.  He promised to send a copy of the …
  • … partly in mind, `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] …
  • … Darwinism is to be the theme. Surely the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872 …
  • … to find that Weismann accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I …
  • … few naturalists in England seem inclined to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … reached the buzzing place where I myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … ‘as for myself it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was …
  • … to stand closer (a serried mass) and to be more erect’ ( letter to Briton Riviere, 19 May [1872] ) …
  • … Hooker’s cause was taken up by his friends, in particular John Lubbock and John Tyndall, as one …
  • … to Gladstone a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 …
  • … photographic plates with his overseas publishers, and with John Murray’s assistant, the excitable …
  • … of the booksellers, encouraged an originally cautious John Murray to gamble on the book’s success: & …
  • … attractive dishes in his `Literary Banquet’ (letters from John Murray, 6 November [1872] and 9 …
  • … to supply comparative observations, and Darwin’s protégé John Scott, now employed as a curator in …
  • … Ruck, the sister of an old schoolfriend; he married Amy in 1874.  Francis, still a medical student …
  • … a copy of  Expression  to another old Cambridge friend, John Maurice Herbert, who when they were …

Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small

Summary

In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…

Matches: 23 hits

  • … ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run’ ( letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1882 ) …
  • … fertility of crosses between differently styled plants ( letter from Fritz Müller, 1 January 1882 …
  • … In January, Darwin corresponded with George John Romanes about new varieties of sugar cane produced …
  • … François Marie Glaziou (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Arthur de Souza Corrêa, 20 …
  • … quite untirable & I am glad to shirk any extra labour’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 6 January …
  • … probably intending to test its effects on chlorophyll ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). …
  • … we know about the life of any one plant or animal!’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). He …
  • … of seeing the flowers & experimentising on them’ ( letter to J. E. Todd, 10 April 1882 ). …
  • … find stooping over the microscope affects my heart’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). …
  • … Quarterly Review , owned by Darwin’s publisher John Murray, carried an anonymous article on the …
  • … sooner or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The …
  • … leaves into their burrows ( Correspondence vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 …
  • … on the summit, whence it rolls down the sides’ ( letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 ). The …
  • … light on it, which would have pleased me greatly’ ( letter from J. H. Gilbert, 9 January 1882, …
  • … annelid seemed to have rather the best of the fight’ ( letter from G. F. Crawte, 11 March 1882 ). …
  • … Darwin had a less heated discussion with the painter John Collier on the topic of science and art. …
  • … himself to so dreadful a man, as Huxley’ ( letter to John Collier, 16 February 1882 ). Collier had …
  • … be the same without my consciousness?’ ( letter from John Collier, 22 February 1882 ; T. H. Huxley …
  • … and admirers. One of the most touching was from John Lubbock, whose interest in natural history at …
  • … we adjourned as a small tribute of respect’ (letter from John Lubbock to Francis Darwin, 20 April …
  • … ). Darwin’s former mentor at University of Cambridge, John Stevens Henslow, was not a …
  • … Origin, a number of Darwin’s friends, Huxley, John Lubbock, and Charles Lyell, each addressed the …
  • … father confessor. ( Letter from Charles Lyell, 1 September 1874 .) Darwin’s fame continued …

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: 22 hits

  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824 …
  • … 1834–40]: In Portfolio of “abstracts” 34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm …
  • … The Emigrant, Head [F. B. Head 1846] St. John’s Highlands [C. W. G. Saint John 1846] …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … B.M. 6. 6. Black Edin. Longman [Ramsay 1848] St. John’s Nat. Hist. of Sutherlanshire, Murray …
  • … Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China during the War and Peace …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … d . Series. vol 3. p. 1 to 312 30 th  Colquhoun (John) The Moor & the Loch [Colquhoun …
  • … Buffon [Milne-Edwards 1834–40]. March 5 th  St. John’s Highlands [Saint John 1846] 8 …
  • … Tone Autobiography [Tone 1826] very amusing March 10 John Galt Autobiography [Galt 1833] poor …
  • … 1848] Madam Malguet [Torrens] 1848] —— Lives of John & Alex. Belthune [?Bethune 1840 and …
  • … Ireland [Thompson 1849–56]. Vol. I. II & 3 May. St. John’s Tour in Sutherlandshire [Saint …
  • … 171] Pagets Travels in Hungary & Transylvania [John Paget 1839]— account of Dogs like …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … Empire [Huc 1855] Feb 16 th  Pagets Hungary [John Paget 1839] —— Bechsteins …
  • … 23] 1858 Life of Montaigne by B. St. John [B. Saint John 1858].— Miss …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … in the  Botanist , 5 vols. (1837–41), edited by John Stevens Henslow and B. Maund. 37 …
  • … may have reissued both parts in 1844. 39  John Lindley served as assistant secretary …
  • … ( Notebooks , pp. 319–28). 55  The letter was addressed to Nicholas Aylward Vigors …
  • … to William Jackson Hooker. See  Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, [5 or 12 November …
  • … design . (Bridgewater Treatise no. 4.) London. [9th ed. (1874) in Darwin Library.]  119: 5a …

Darwin and vivisection

Summary

Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…

Matches: 24 hits

  • … in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the …
  • … experiments on live animals in Britain. In December 1874, Darwin was asked to sign a memorial …
  • … me) attack on Virchow for experimenting on the Trichinae’ (letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January …
  • … progress of physiology. He reiterated these concerns in a letter to Thomas Henry Huxley ten days …
  • … into close contact with England’s leading physiologists, John Scott Burdon Sanderson, Thomas Lauder …
  • … I love with all my heart’ ( Correspondence vol. 19, letter to ?, 19 May [1871] ). As a …
  • … farmers and their staff (see Correspondence vol. 14, letter to a local landowner, [1866?] ). …
  • … by the prospect of animals suffering for science. In a letter to E. Ray Lankester, he wrote: ‘You …
  • … I shall not sleep to-night’ ( Correspondence vol. 19, letter to E. R. Lankester, 22 March [1871 …
  • … was a sensitive subject within Darwin’s family. In his letter of 14 January 1875 to Huxley, …
  • … ones (men of course) or I might get one or two’ (letter from Emma Darwin to F. P. Cobbe, 14 …
  • … to serve as the basis for a petition, and gave it to Huxley (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, …
  • … with Huxley, who produced a new sketch for a petition (letter from T. H. Huxley, [4 April 1875] ) …
  • … who drafted a memorial, sending it to Darwin on 7 April (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 7 …
  • … in order to gather signatures. More alterations were made (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 10 …
  • … had already been prepared for the House of Lords (see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April …
  • … a sketch that was approved by Huxley, Burdon Sanderson, and John Simon, a London pathologist and …
  • … his approval as president of the Royal Society of London (letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 April [1875] …
  • … his counsel: ‘we wd do whatever else you think best’ (letter to E. H. Stanley, 15 April 1875 ). …
  • … alternative title and preamble, which had been suggested by John Lubbock:    A Bill entitled …
  • … Sanderson both expressed their dismay at this alteration (letter from T. H. Huxley, 19 May 1875 , …
  • … version, and that only minor corrections had been made (letter to Lyon Playfair, 26 May 1875 , …
  • … the only one before Parliament. On 5 May, Lord Hartismere (John Major Henniker-Major) had submitted …
  • … and expertise. It included Huxley, a professor of surgery, John Erichsen, and several critics of …