To T. H. Huxley 21 September [1871]
Summary
On Mivart’s Genesis of species, and THH’s intention to reply to it.
Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [see 7940].
CD is revising Origin and will answer Mivart on incipient organs. "Pendulum is swinging against us, but will swing back again".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 21 Sept [1871] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 279) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7958 |
To J. V. Carus 8 October [1871]
Summary
Glad to hear of new German edition of Origin. He is revising the English edition, adding a new chapter of "Answers".
No new edition of Descent has appeared.
Would be glad to see a new translation of the Journal of researches, which he revised in 1845.
Comments on white colour of sea-birds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Date: | 8 Oct [1871] |
| Classmark: | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter LC 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 74–77) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7994 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from C. -F. Reinwald, 14 May 1873 ( Calendar no. 8911)). Carus’s own translation appeared in 1875 (Carus trans. 1875), as part of Eduard Koch’s collected edition of CD’s works. Journal of researches was first published by Henry Colburn as Journal and remarks , the third volume of Robert FitzRoy and Phillip Parker King’s Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 …
To Archibald Geikie 27 December [1871]
Summary
His admiration for the papers of AG [see 8119].
Relates his recent discovery that earthworms have brought to surface no less than 161 tons of dry earth over an area of 10 acres, thus creating the conditions for significant denudation. Would welcome information about the persistence of ridges and furrows in old pasture lands ploughed centuries ago. Do they run down the slopes or transversely? Refers to [A. C.] Ramsay, [James] Croll, Elie de Beaumont, and [Henry] Johnson.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Archibald Geikie |
| Date: | 27 Dec [1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 132 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8122F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to A. C. Ramsay, 3 February [1869] . Geikie mentioned the persistence of furrow marks in land that had not been ploughed for a long time as one of Léonce Elie de Beaumont’s arguments for the insignificance of the atmosphere as a cause of denudation ( Geikie 1868b , p. 171; see also Earthworms , p. 290). CD spent time in North Wales regularly between 1826 …
From W. W. Reade 18 September 1871
Summary
There is a primary law of growth and innate improvement. Natural selection is a secondary law that operates to "arrange the details". This is not Lamarckian, because will is not involved.
Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].
Amused by critics who say CD is metaphysically unsophisticated.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 49 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7950 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1826 , 1: 16). Jean Baptiste Lamarck believed that an animal could enhance a feature by its own efforts and that the improvement could then be inherited by its offspring ( Lamarck 1809 , 1: 235). Wright argued that anyone who accepted evolution, or transmutation of species, without accepting natural selection was in fact subscribing to the arguments of Lamarck ( Wright 1871b , p. 5). O utinam : would that (Latin). Reade refers to the proof-sheets of his Martyrdom of man ( Reade 1872 ); see letter …
| letter | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Reade, W. W. | (1) |
| Carus, J. V. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Geikie, Archibald | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Carus, J. V. | (1) |
| Geikie, Archibald | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Reade, W. W. | (1) |
Darwin’s student booklist
Summary
In October 1825 Charles Darwin and his older brother, Erasmus, went to study medicine in Edinburgh, where their father, Robert Waring Darwin, had trained as a doctor in the 1780’s. Erasmus had already graduated from Cambridge and was continuing his studies…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In October 1825 Charles Darwin and his older brother, Erasmus, went to study medicine in Edinburgh …
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 …
Early Days
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment The young Charles Darwin From an early age, Darwin exhibited a keen interest in the natural world. His boyish fascination with naturalist pursuits deepened as he entered college and started to interact with…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment The young Charles Darwin …
Books on the Beagle
Summary
The Beagle was a sort of floating library. Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘Considering the limited disposable space in so very small a ship, we contrived to carry more …
Darwin’s first love
Summary
Darwin’s long marriage to Emma Wedgwood is well documented, but was there an earlier romance in his life? How was his departure on the Beagle entangled with his first love? The answers are revealed in a series of flirtatious letters that Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s long marriage to Emma Wedgwood is well documented, but was there an earlier romance in …
Introduction to the Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle
Summary
'a humble toadyish follower…': Not all pictures of Darwin during the Beagle voyage are flattering. Published here for the first time is a complete transcript of a satirical account of the Beagle’s brief visit in 1836 to the Cocos Keeling islands…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I naturally wished to have a savant at my elbow – in the position of a humble toadyish …
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Journal of researches , Darwin’s account of his travels round the world in H.M.S. Beagle …
Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
Summary
The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of …
George James Stebbing
Summary
George James Stebbing (1803—1860) travelled around the world with Charles Darwin on board HMS Beagle and helped him with measuring temperature on at least one occasion. However, Stebbing barely registers in Darwin’s correspondence. The only mention omits…
Matches: 1 hits
- … George James Stebbing (1803—1860) travelled around the world with Charles Darwin on board HMS …
Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson
Summary
[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … [ f.146r Title page ] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle …
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: 1 hits
- … The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University …
Darwin in letters, 1821-1836: Childhood to the Beagle voyage
Summary
Darwin's first known letters were written when he was twelve. They continue through school-days at Shrewsbury, two years as a medical student at Edinburgh University, the undergraduate years at Cambridge, and the of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's first known letters were written when he was twelve. They continue through his school …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 1 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not …
