From Daniel Oliver 14 June 1864
Summary
Will be glad to do diagram for CD;
asks whether he has read a Hugo von Mohl paper [see 4349].
| Author: | Daniel Oliver |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 June 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 173: 27 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4534 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 [May 1864]
Summary
CD’s pleasure at JDH’s willingness to help Scott find a position in India.
Naudin underrates contamination of his experiments by insects. Thus CD doubts Naudin’s results on rapidity and universality of reversion in hybrids.
Wallace’s paper on man [see 4494] reflects his genius, although CD does not fully agree with it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 [May 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 236 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4506 |
From A. R. Wallace 2 January 1864
Summary
Remarks on ARW’s review of Samuel Haughton’s paper on bees’ cells
and Origin.
Agassiz’s strength as geologist and weakness in natural history theory.
Work problems.
His butterfly collection.
Problems with book on Malay journey.
Recommends Herbert Spencer and his Social statics.
Spencer’s "masterly" nebular hypothesis.
| Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Jan 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: B8–11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4378 |
From A. R. Wallace 29 May [1864]
Summary
Argues the antiquity of the human species because natural selection acts differently with respect to men. Changes in man are largely confined to head and brain. Warfare and sex are very uncertain as means of selection.
Gives CD complete credit for theory of natural selection.
Is beginning his narrative of his travels.
Lyell argues against tracing man as far back as Miocene times. R. I. Murchison’s argument that Africa is the oldest existing land implies that Africa is the place to look for early man.
| Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 May [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: B14–19 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4514 |
From William Marshall 12 June 1864
Summary
Informs CD of two distinct forms of Plantago lanceolata.
| Author: | William Marshall |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 June 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 109: A88–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4530 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to Marshall of 9 April [1860] ( Correspondence vol. 8). Marshall had published two papers on the plant ( Marshall 1852 …
- … 1852 ). CD was interested in the geographical distribution of the plant, the means by which it was dispersed, the animals that fed on it, and the vegetation that was killed as it spread (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter …
From Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker [28 April 1864]
Summary
Emma prepares JDH for his visit to Wedgwood factory and Barlaston.
| Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [28 Apr 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 232 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4473 |
From Daniel Oliver [1 April 1864]
Summary
References to and résumés of articles on climbing plants.
| Author: | Daniel Oliver |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1 Apr 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 157.2: 106 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4443 |
From J. D. Hooker 20 April 1864
Summary
Again refuses to help Scott as "unfitted" to make his way in the world. Scott is unwilling to take his part in the "struggle for life", unlike Tyndall, Faraday, Huxley, and Lindley, who established themselves. Scott’s work is not science, but "scientific horticulture".
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 208–13 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4469 |
From Ernst Haeckel 26 October 1864
Summary
Thanks CD for notes concerning the development of his ideas about the origin of species. Says August Schleicher and Carl Gegenbaur also interested.
Names new supporters of CD’s theory, including Max Schultze, Rudolf Leuckart, and Alexander Braun. Zoologists have been more interested than botanists.
He is writing a general work on the relationships among animals [Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866)].
Comments on Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin [1864].
Gegenbaur is revising his Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie [2d ed. (1870)] to accord with evolution.
Thanks CD for copy of book on balanids [Living Cirripedia, vol. 2].
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Oct 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 39 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4646 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to Fritz Müller, 16 March [1868] ( Calendar no. 6014), Möller ed. 1915–21, and DSB ). Before leaving Prussia in 1852, …
- … 1852 ( Hemleben 1964 , p. 23; Uschmann 1984 , p. 15). Braun had expressed some ideas on evolution in plants as early as 1848 (see Henfrey trans. 1853), and although he was never convinced by CD’s theory of natural selection, he did try to reconcile his own teleological approach to transformation with CD’s (see Hoppe 1971 , p. 405). For an overview of the reaction among German botanists, see Junker 1989 . For further discussions of the reception of CD’s theory in Germany, see letter …
From Frederick Ransome 7 March 1864
Summary
Acknowledges cancelled bond and thanks CD for declining to accept interest. Suggests 4 Mar 1865 as date for payment of the bill CD holds.
| Author: | Frederick Ransome |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Mar 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 99: 24–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4421 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1852, CD had invested in, and made several loans to, the Patent Siliceous Stone Company, which was owned by Ransome and David Thomas Ansted (CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), pp. 59–60). CD became acquainted with Ransome and Ansted through John Stevens Henslow (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter …
| letter | (10) |
| Oliver, Daniel | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Oliver, Daniel | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
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 …
