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From H. C. Watson   [19 November 1854]

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Summary

In response to CD’s query, HCW says he cannot supply "any list of species as the flora of a single and sterile soil". Suggests a possible source of information, and provides some figures for Britain, but these apply to diverse soils.

Author:  Hewett Cottrell Watson
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [19 Nov 1854]
Classmark:  DAR 205.9: 402
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1604

From H. C. Watson   20 November [1854]

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Summary

Sends a count of the number of species of flowering plants and ferns on the islands of Fayal and Flores in the Azores.

Author:  Hewett Cottrell Watson
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  20 Nov [1854]
Classmark:  DAR 205.4: 101
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1605

To A. C. Ramsay   22 November [1854]

Summary

Grief at the death of Edward Forbes.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Andrew Crombie Ramsay
Date:  22 Nov [1854]
Classmark:  Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1606

From J. D. Hooker   [15 November 1854]

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Summary

George Bentham’s list of aberrant plant genera. JDH appended the number of species in each genus according to E. G. Steudel’s catalogue [Nomenclator botanicus (1840–1)] and according to JDH and Bentham.

JDH speculates on effect of splitting Australia longitudinally on distribution; it becomes an argument for new creations.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [15 Nov 1854]
Classmark:  DAR 205.9: 386
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1607

From James R. Garrett to Robert Patterson   1 December 1854

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Summary

Discusses the transport of seeds by birds. William Thompson received letters on this subject from CD in 1848 and from Edward Forbes in 1850. Encloses copies of Thompson’s reply to Forbes’s letter of 23 Feb 1850 and of Thompson’s notes (1848–51) on transport of seeds by birds.

Author:  James R. Garrett
Addressee:  Robert Patterson
Date:  1 Dec 1854
Classmark:  DAR 205.2: 232
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1608

To J. D. Hooker   2 December [1854]

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Summary

JDH’s "grand speech" on receiving the Royal Medal.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  2 Dec [1854]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 158
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1609

To J. D. Hooker   4 December [1854]

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Summary

Is Bentham’s list of aberrant genera biased by exclusion of genera with many species?

JDH’s belief that Aquilegia varieties are one species is consistent with their great interfertility.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  4 Dec [1854]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 159
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1610

To Saba Holland   4 December [1854]

Summary

Thanks for Lady Holland’s kind present. Will only lend it to his sister-in-law and his aunt.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Saba Smith; Saba Holland
Date:  4 Dec [1854]
Classmark:  John Wilson (dealer) (19 January 2011)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1610F

From J. D. Hooker   5 December [1854]

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Summary

Bentham’s list of aberrant genera: CD’s worry that he eliminated large genera a priori is half right. He eliminated those large, anomalous genera that virtually constitute natural orders. JDH criticises CD’s tabulations of aberrants.

Difficulty of distinguishing affinity and analogy in plants.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  5 Dec [1854]
Classmark:  DAR 205.9: 388–90
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1611

To J. D. Hooker   11 [December 1854]

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Summary

Debates aberrant species, e.g., Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, with JDH. CD argues they are result of extinction having removed intermediate links to allied forms.

Studying effects of disuse in wings of tame and wild ducks.

Tabulations showing that number of species in a genus is not correlated with number of genera in an order.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  11 [Dec 1854]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 148
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1612

To G. H. Turnbull   12 December [1854]

Summary

Thanks for subscription to Down Coal and Clothing Club, whose finances are improving.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  George Henry Turnbull
Date:  12 Dec [1854]
Classmark:  DAR 261.11: 3 (EH 88206055)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1613

To John Higgins   25 December 1854

Summary

Discusses his account. Mentions health of children.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Higgins
Date:  25 Dec 1854
Classmark:  Lincolnshire Archives (HIG/4/2/1/83)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1615

From J. D. Hooker   [3 November 1854]

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Summary

JDH’s contempt for R. I. Murchison.

There is a Cyperus species and a Pteris species endemic to hot volcanoes of Ischia. Why are there no other migrators?

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [3 Nov 1854]
Classmark:  DAR 104: 214–15
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1629

To Francis Galton   28 May [1854]

Summary

Discusses how Fuegians and other primitive peoples light fires.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Francis Galton
Date:  28 May [1854]
Classmark:  UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/2)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1881
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Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter

Summary

The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…

Matches: 5 hits

  • … cirripedes and culminated in  Living Cirripedia  (1854) and  Fossil Cirripedia  (1854), again …
  • … series of letters pertaining to the Royal Society. In April 1854, when his cirripede study was …
  • … indicated by his comment in a letter to Hooker on 29 [May 1854] : ‘Very far from disagreeing with …
  • … Back to species theory In September 1854, as soon as the final proofs of the last barnacle …
  • … do as I wish it Throughout the correspondence of 1854 and 1855, the overwhelming …

Darwin and Down

Summary

Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842.   The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow.  The village combined the…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … [24 July 1842] To P. G. King,  21 February 1854 : ‘I live in the country about 16 miles …

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: 3 hits

  • … Letter 1587 — Darwin, C. R. to Huxley, T. H., 2 Sept [1854] Darwin mentions that the second …
  • … of creation in [ Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 13 (1854)], but notes that he himself is …
  • … Letter 1592 — Darwin, C. R. to Huxley, T. H., 13 Sept [1854] Letter 1635 — Darwin, …

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: 23 hits

  • … [Wellesley 1832] Sir. W. Nott’s Life [W. Nott 1854].— [DAR *119: 15v.] From …
  • … de la Boheme [Barrande 1852–1911] must be deeply studied 1854 The Zoologist by E. Newman [ …
  • … [Pepys 1825] (Read).— Sir W. Notts life [W. Nott 1854] read [DAR *128: 177] …
  • … r . Nott & Gliddon: Trübner & Co [J. C. Nott and Gliddon 1854] (read) A Lecture by …
  • … not published but reported fully in Literary Gazette Sept 30 1854 91 Agricult. Journal …
  • … d’un Naturaliste A. de Quatrefages [Quatrefages de Bréau 1854]. (light reading) (??) read …
  • … Domestic animals. 94 Lloyd Scandinavian Adventures 1854 [L. Lloyd 1854]. praised in …
  • … sur les Migration des Vegetaux 4 to  Pamphlet [Godron 1854] (read) Journal of Asiatic Soc. …
  • … specially of central platform of France 8 fr. [Lecoq 1854–8] Read Journal de la Soc. Imp. d …
  • … Sir J. Lubbock. member Ferguson on Poultry [Ferguson 1854], recommended by M r  Brent, but …
  • … D r . Badham “Ancient & Modern Tattle” on Fish [Badham 1854]. M r  Tegetmeier says very …
  • … (read) From Nott & Gliddon [J. C. Nott and Gliddon 1854] Roselini Monumenta [ …
  • … Carboniferous strata, translated in Bull. General [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important …
  • … I ought to read Murchinson’s Siluria [Murchison 1854]— I  must  read it. & buy it.— …
  • … W. R. Wilde in Dublin University Magazine early month of 1854 on food of Irish. ( Pig ) [Wilde] …
  • … translated into French by Gaudin—with additions [Heer 1854]. Archives du Museum [ Archives …
  • … Himmalaya [T. Thomson 1852] [DAR 128: 7] 1854 Jan 11 th . Pulsky Red, …
  • … 1848]. March 7 th . Hooker’s Himmalaya [Hooker 1854].— —— 23 Stansbury. Exploration …
  • … July 3 d . Sir B. B. Psychological Essays [Brodie] 1854] —— Duval Histoire du Pommier, …
  • … Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire [I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1854–62] Tome I [DAR 128: 9] …
  • … Williams Missionary in T. del Fuego [Hamilton 1854] March 28 th . Sir G. Stephens Lectures …
  • … Richardson 1784] (poor) [DAR 128: 10] 1854.  Microscopical Journal [ …
  • … 1855. Wollastons Insecta Maderensia [Wollaston 1854] —— Johnston Physical Atlas [A. K. …

Darwin and the Church

Summary

The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Lubbock, the principal landowner in Down, in a letter of 1854 in which he said, From all I have seen …
  • … [of the Poor Fund]’ (letter to J. W. Lubbock, 28 March [1854] ). Despite their differences, they …

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: 5 hits

  • … on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on …
  • … in manuscript form to the Ray Society at the beginning of 1854 , where it took longer than the ‘ …
  • … to tell his friend Thomas Henry Huxley in early September 1854, ‘ My second volume on the …
  • … Society; the monograph itself was printed in 1854. This volume appears not to have been discussed …
  • … but he wrote to the Palaeontographical Society in February 1854 and the society confirmed that he …

Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles

Summary

Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … sub-class of Crustacea,  Living Cirripedia  (1851, 1854) and  Fossil Cirripedia  (1851, 1854). …
  • … spermatozoa’ attached to the female (Living Cirripedia (1854): 23). Darwin had previously worked out …
  • … from monoecious forms (Living Cirripedia (1851): 214; (1854): 29, 528 n.) and, at another level, to …

Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia

Summary

Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…

Matches: 13 hits

  • … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. …
  • … In both volumes of Living Cirripedia (1851 and 1854), Darwin devoted an introductory section to …
  • … was best placed among the Lepadidae ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 527–8).^1^1^    Both …
  • … segments are quite aborted . . . ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 562–3)    Indeed, …
  • … be the most natural arrangement. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 588)    The fact that the …
  • … with his figure of the mature animal ( Living Cirripedia (1854), Plate XXV).    Throughout …
  • … (1851): 37–8)    In Living Cirripedia (1854), Darwin ventured to suggest the possible …
  • … by a new and anomalous course. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 151–2)    Crisp (1983) has …
  • … from bisexuality to unisexuality. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 29)^16^    Darwin’s …
  • … merely varieties (Southward 1983). In Living Cirripedia (1854), Darwin clearly stated the …
  • … be found eminently variable. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 155)    One of the first …
  • … a very direct and curious manner’ ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 529). Modern systematists place …
  • … nature was demonstrated.’ ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 555). See also Rachootin 1984, pp. 235–6.   …

3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1

Summary

< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … the start a cautious and sometimes a difficult one. In 1854-5 the newly established firm of Henry …
  • … who thought that ‘it was probably taken in the year 1854, but he had never seen it’. A slot in the …
  • … Walker, dated 1912; the photograph itself is here dated 1854, and accompanied by a facsimile of …
  • … Polyblank, photographers 
 date of creation 1854 or early 1855 
 computer-readable …

People featured in the Dutch photograph album

Summary

Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …

Matches: 6 hits

  • … Dramatist 23 Middelburg 20 june 1854 Middelburg 13 october …
  • …   Deventer 11 september 1854 Deventer 8 march 1936 Haarlem …
  • … Phil.nat.cand   Leiden 18 july 1854 Batavia 8 march 1896 …
  • … University.   Utrecht 16 april 1854 Amsterdam 4 january 1928 …
  • … Phil.nat.cand.   Utrecht 16 april 1854 Amsterdam 4 january …
  • … Phil.nat.stud   Leiden 19 august 1854 Oud-Beijerland 23 …

Before Origin: the ‘big book’

Summary

Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight …
  • … what he came to call his ‘big book’.   In March 1854, six months before he started sorting …

People featured in the Dutch photograph album

Summary

List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … Dramatist 23 Middelburg 20 June 1854 Middelburg 13 October …
  • …   Deventer 11 September 1854 Deventer 8 March 1936 Haarlem …
  • … Phil.nat.cand   Leiden 18 July 1854 Batavia 8 March 1896 …
  • … University.   Utrecht 16 April 1854 Amsterdam 4 January 1928 …
  • … Phil.nat.cand.   Utrecht 16 April 1854 Amsterdam 4 January …
  • … Phil.nat.stud   Leiden 19 August 1854 Oud-Beijerland 23 …

John Murray

Summary

Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … his barnacle books ( Fossil Cirripedia  (1851 and 1854) and  Living Cirripedia  (1851 and 1854)) …

Editorial policy and practice

Summary

Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of the Correspondence. Transcriptions are made from the original or a facsimile where these are available. Where they are not, texts are taken from the best…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … used in a strict sense. Thus a letter dated ‘after 8 July 1854’ is judged to have been written very …

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: 1 hits

  • … in major cities of the US and Canada on physiognomy in 1854. In 1866 he sought training in anatomy …

Scientific Networks

Summary

Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Letter 1585 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, [Sept 1854] Darwin sends Lubbock a beetle he …

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: 5 hits

  • … of logical thought and language. On 20 May 1854, Darwin again took over the notebook and, …
  • … a bit of red glass at the garden) 47v.  May 1854. Before tea Ch. asked Lenny P. Have you …
  • … give me a kiss if you like”. 48 [74] May 20— 1854.— I saw a pile of sand lying on the lawn …
  • … I could not help it awfully”.— 49  June 1854— About 9 months ago, Lenny defined being in …
  • … Horace Lenny. When ill with Fever & recovering (Dec 1854) used constantly to ask in the …

Charles Darwin’s letters: a selection 1825-1859

Summary

The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University of Edinburgh, to the end of 1859, when the Origin of Species was published. The early letters portray Darwin as a lively sixteen-year-old medical student. Two…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … taxonomic study of the entire order. By this time, 1854, Darwin had become a family man. In …
  • … field notes exist that record the observations made between 1854 and 1861 by five of his children, …

3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2

Summary

< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Darwin (with a caption querying the date, and suggesting ‘1854?’). It was reproduced …

Barnacles

Summary

Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … and wrote about barnacles on a daily basis from 1846 to 1854. Ultimately, Darwin's deep and …
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