To P. L. Sclater 22 May [1860–81]
Summary
CD has signed the enclosed with great pleasure.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
Date: | 22 May [1860-81] |
Classmark: | John Wilson (dealer) (1987) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13839A |
To Cottage Gardener [after 8 May 1860]
Summary
Inquires whether "a Devonshire Bee-keeper" [T. W. Woodbury] who reported a common drone entering a hive of Ligurian bees [Cottage Gard. 24 (1860): 94] believes, with Andrew Knight, that queen bees are seldom fertilised by their own blood-relations. Asks how far a hive of common bees was from that of the Ligurians.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Cottage Gardener |
Date: | [after 8 May 1860] |
Classmark: | Cottage Gardener 24 (1860): 143 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2777 |
From B. P. Brent [May–June 1860?]
Summary
Cannot supply a case of atavism in canaries.
Will lend CD back issues of Cottage Gardener.
Cites case of bird (tumbler hen) laying egg in another’s nest.
Author: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [May–June 1860?] |
Classmark: | DAR 160.3: 297 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2778 |
To Roderick Impey Murchison 1 May [1860]
Summary
Much obliged for note from Alexander von Keyserling. Geologist going one inch with CD more important than naturalist going two or three.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st baronet |
Date: | 1 May [1860] |
Classmark: | The British Library (Surrogate RP 7400) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2779 |
From Charles Lyell 2 May 1860
Summary
It is small comfort to be told you will be succeeded in lineal descent by angels when Lamarck and Darwin have made your ancestors without souls. However, can the progressive system not be seen as most consonant with a higher destiny if all spiritual natures advance? The link of common descent to inferior beings like idiots should be obvious. Infants die before they become responsible. Pope’s An essay on Man [1733] shows how man was "In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast", without speculation on his genealogy.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 May 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 176–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2779A |
From Andrew Murray 3 May 1860
Summary
Responds to CD’s comments on his review of the Origin. Regrets lack of space often causes him to do injustice to CD and to himself. Agrees to alter some of his statements
and offers some evidence for his opinions on plant hybridising.
Sends references to papers mentioning cave insects. Paussi are not blind, as CD thinks, though some other insects that live in ants’ nests are. Each country over the world has its peculiar species of Paussi, though they all live in ants’ nests. "Physical condition I say – Natural Selection you say".
Author: | Andrew Dickson (Andrew) Murray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 153–153a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2780 |
From Henry Doubleday 3 May 1860
Summary
Has read Origin with pleasure.
Has performed many experiments which confirm his opinion that primrose, oxlip, and cowslip are three distinct species.
Author: | Henry Doubleday |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 162.2: 237 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2781 |
To Charles Lyell 4 May [1860]
Summary
Is sending CL an arrow-head. Says John Lubbock tells of vast numbers of flint tools in peat in France. Urges CL to conduct further research on the subject.
Comments on paper by J. S. Newberry concerning palaeozoic deposits in America [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 208–18]
and on A. von Keyserling’s view of species change.
Mentions J. W. Salter’s chart arranging Spirifer.
Comments on Andrew Murray’s paper on the Origin ["On Mr Darwin’s theory of the origin of species", Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh 4 (1860): 274–91].
A Manchester newspaper article says CD has proved "might is right".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 4 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.210) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2782 |
From J. S. Henslow 5 May 1860
Summary
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 186: 47 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2783 |
To Andrew Murray 5 May [1860]
Summary
Thanks for AM’s kindness.
CD did not understand him about "prepotency".
With respect to cave animals CD believes that on reflection AM will admit "that on creation doctrine, there has been surprising diversity for such similar habitation".
Has heard from A. von Keyserling who "makes no difficulty about imperfection of Geological Record".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Andrew Dickson (Andrew) Murray |
Date: | 5 May [1860] |
Classmark: | R. D. Pyrah (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2784 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 May [1860]
Summary
To understand Leschenaultia pollination CD requires field observations in the native country.
Has observed two forms of cowslips, which he calls male and female. The same two forms are found in primroses.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 7 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 52 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2785 |
To T. H. Huxley 7 May [1860]
Summary
Observations on changes in physical proportions of pigeons.
The Saturday Review of 5 May has a defence of CD and THH by "a jolly good fellow".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 7 May [1860] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 117) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2786 |
From Charles Lyell 7 May 1860
Summary
Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.
Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.
Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 396 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2787 |
To Charles Lyell 8 [May 1860]
Summary
Did not know about separation between Silurian and Cambrian.
Cannot attend Geological Society meeting.
Etty [Henrietta Darwin] ill.
Sedgwick in his attack at Cambridge Philosophical Society states "there must be [on CD’s theory] large genera not varying".
Discusses migration of plants and animals from Old World to New.
Views of Asa Gray on Aster.
Mentions flora of coal period.
Has been elected to Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 8 [May 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.211) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2788 |
To Thomas Stewardson 8 May 1860
Summary
Acknowledges his election as Correspondent of Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Stewardson |
Date: | 8 May 1860 |
Classmark: | Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2789 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 8 May [1860]
Summary
Thanks WBT for observations on colours of newly-hatched pigeons of different breeds. Asks if breeders have noticed any differences in lengths of time eggs were incubated in different breeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 8 May [1860] |
Classmark: | Yale University: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Yale Collection of American Literature: De Forest Family Papers (YCAL MSS 582) Box 2, folder 58, item 82 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2790 |
To J. S. Henslow 8 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on Richard Owen’s review of the Origin [in Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532]. Considers Owen unfair to CD and most ungenerous toward Hooker.
Expects Sedgwick to be fierce against him. Sedgwick also misrepresented CD in his Spectator review [24 Mar and 7 Apr 1860].
Compares natural selection to the undulatory theory of light as a hypothesis explaining a large number of facts.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 8 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A67–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2791 |
From William Masters 8 May 1860
Author: | William Masters |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 166–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2792 |
From H. C. Watson 10 May 1860
Summary
Returns reviews of Origin.
F. J. Pictet [Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] goes further than he himself realises.
Naturalists will resist CD’s views until faith in certain "impassable" barriers between existent species is shaken.
Gives CD an instance of convergence.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 160–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2793 |
From J. S. Henslow to J. D. Hooker 10 May 1860
Summary
Describes Sedgwick’s attack on CD’s views [at Cambridge Philosophical Society] and his own defence, though he believes CD has pressed his hypothesis too far.
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 10 May 1860 |
Classmark: | MS Add. 9537/2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2794 |
Darwin, C. R. | (34) |
Cattell, John | (2) |
Doubleday, Henry | (2) |
Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (12) |
Hooker, J. D. | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Henslow, J. S. | (3) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (46) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Lyell, Charles | (6) |
Henslow, J. S. | (5) |
Cattell, John | (2) |
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
- … brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5 April 1878 . Müller was a German …
My most solemn request: To Emma Darwin, 5 July 1844
Summary
Alistair Sponsel talks about a touching letter Darwin sent to his wife Emma in 1844. Having just completed a sketch of his species theory, Darwin wrote detailed instructions about what to do with his manuscript in the event of his death.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Alistair Sponsel talks about a touching letter Darwin sent to his wife …
4.48 'Puck', cartoon 5
Summary
< Back to Introduction Following on from Reason Against Unreason and The Sun of the Nineteenth Century, another cartoon in the American humorous magazine Puck depicted Darwin as the epitome of philosophical enlightenment. The Universal Church of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Following on from Reason Against Unreason and The Sun of …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
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…
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: 5 hits
- … appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). Piqued, Mivart flung …
- … accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I wanted some …
- … to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Müller had sent him a …
- … myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Finishing …
- … to me, which have ever been made’ ( letter to Mary Treat, 5 January 1872 ). In June, Lady …
Darwin's Fantastical Voyage
Summary
Learn about Darwin's adventures on his epic journey.
Matches: 1 hits
- … These activities explore Darwin’s life changing voyage aboard HMS Beagle. Using letters home, …
Detecting Darwin
Summary
Who was Charles Darwin? What is he famous for? Why is he still important?
Matches: 1 hits
- … Pupils act as Darwin detectives, exploring clues about Darwin’s life and work. No prior knowledge …
Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
Summary
Darwin made a famous comment about parallels between changes in language and species change. Gregory Radick, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University, talks about the importance of the development of language to Darwin, what…
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 20 hits
- … (1) Austen, J. T. (5) Austin, A. D. …
- … H. (7) Ball, John (5) Ball, Robert …
- … (1) Beaufort, Francis (5) Becher, A. B. …
- … (8) Beneden, Édouard van (5) Bennet, C. A. (b) …
- … (1) Birch, Samuel (5) Birkett, Thomas …
- … (2) Boner, Charles (5) Bonham-Carter, Alice …
- … (2) Bookseller. (5) Boole, M. E. (3) …
- … (29) Brace, C. L. (5) Bradfield, Thomas …
- … (3) Canby, W. M. (5) Candolle, Alphonse de …
- … Carneri, Bartholomäus von (5) Carpenter, W. B. (19) …
- … (3) Clark, Andrew (5) Clark, J. W. (a) …
- … (2) Collingwood, Cuthbert (5) Colvile, J. W. …
- … (1) Cross, George (5) Cross, R. A. …
- … (4) Crotch, W. D. (5) Crowe, J. R. …
- … (1) Dew-Smith, A. G. (5) Dicey, A. V. …
- … (2) Doedes, N. D. (5) Dohrn, Anton …
- … (3) Drummond, James (a) (5) Drysdale, …
- … (3) Edmondston, Laurence (5) Edwards & …
- … (1) Edwards, Henry (5) Edwards, W. H. …
- … (3) Forchhammer, J. G. (5) Ford, G. H. …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 7 hits
- … as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] . When Huxley’s book described …
- … mentor had not said a word ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). Darwin did …
- … for a fitting opportunity’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863] ). …
- … been filled in the fossil record ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863] ). Only until …
- … the Athenæum in response ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] ). He later expressed …
- … honours like the Copley Medal ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863] ). Plants and …
- … reminder of their loss (see Correspondence vol. 5). Unable to find Annie’s gravestone in 1863, …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 5 hits
- … in Danish (Morlot 1859, Forchhammer et al. 1851–5); Lubbock cited Morlot as the source of many …
- … work in the Brixham cave explorations of 1858 and 1859. 5 Another controversy arose when …
- … editions of Antiquity of man , see Grayson 1985. 5. For two interpretations of Hugh …
- … Correspondence vol. 11, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] . On Lyell’s …
- … 1865 (University of Edinburgh, Lyell 1, Gen. 113: 3644–5). 17. Rough notes for letter …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 5 hits
- … 1865 4 th English edition published, 1866 5 th English edition published, 1869 …
- … Joseph Hooker on the Arctic. 4 th to 5 th edition I have, …
- … von Nägeli, resulting in a substantial addition ( Origin 5 th ed, pp 151–3). Nägeli had …
- … of significant correspondents. 5 th to 6 th edition …
- … French edition which had already begun using the text of the 5 th English edition but had fallen …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 14 hits
- … account book (Down House MS) and Correspondence vol. 5, letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 April [1855 …
- … beauty in each leaf’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). Darwin’s aesthetic …
- … to which they belonged. In his letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] , he announced that the plants …
- … by Darwin; these lists are in DAR 255: 8 and DAR 255: 2–5. The first is a list that Darwin …
- … plants sent to him by Hooker (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] ), since many of the …
- … to Darwin from Kew. Darwin said in the letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] that he had received …
- … Malpighia urens 5 …
- … —— speciosa 5 do. do. …
- … § Gongora atropurpurea 5 § Cyrtopodium Andersonii …
- … § —— maculata 5 —— punctata 10 …
- … Anoectochilus argenteus 12 5 s . § …
- … curassavica. 4. Canna Warszewiczii. 5. ‘speciosa’ deleted in pencil. 6. This …
- … 1863a, p. 10. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] and n. 19. 9. …
- … aurantiaca 12. ‘Anoectochilus argenteus 5 s .’ deleted in ink. 13. ‘—— pictus 8 …
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 3 hits
German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
Matches: 1 hits
- … gewidmete Gedichte sind dem Album besonders beigefügt. 5 Translation …
'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: 3 hits
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … able to throw off thick dictionaries by flexing. On 5 April , Edward Blyth, who had supplied …
- … 3 June 1868 ). ‘It was very kind’, Darwin wrote on 5 June , ‘almost heroic, in you to sacrifice …
- … distributed it in Japan ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 5 September 1868 ); Edward Wilson, a neighbour …
- … Molendo and Alexander Walther addressed themselves on 5 August to ‘the Reformator of Natural …
- … had sent four letters the previous year, wrote again on 5 October , ‘I am quite distressed that …