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Darwin Correspondence Project
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To G. R. Waterhouse   [January–June 1850]

Summary

Wishes to propose John Lubbock as a member of the Entomological Society.

Asks for B. H. Hodgson’s pamphlet on sheep ["Tame sheep and goats", J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 16 (1847): 1003–26]. Asks for odd numbers of GRW’s work [A natural history of the Mammalia (1846–8)]. Regrets that this work has stopped.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  George Robert Waterhouse
Date:  [Jan–June 1850]
Classmark:  Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (Archives DF PAL/100/6/6)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1144

To Richard Owen   [January – 23 March 1850]

Summary

CD regrets the trouble RO has had about C. G. Ehrenberg’s parcel.

He is reading On the nature of limbs [1849] with uncommon interest and admires the way Owen worked out the toes.

Also has read On parthenogenesis [1849] with great interest.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Richard Owen
Date:  [Jan – 23 Mar 1850]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1231

To N. T. Wetherell   8 [August 1850]

Summary

Has not completed description of NTW’s Loricula. Wants permission to have it figured by James de Carle Sowerby. Does NTW have other fossil cirripedes?

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nathaniel Thomas Wetherell
Date:  8 [Aug 1850]
Classmark:  Kotte Autographs (dealers) (April 2019)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1267

DCP-LETT-1282

Summary

Cancelled: part of 1014. Has been dissecting an animal about the size of a pin-head for the last half month. Could spend another month on it 'and daily see some more beautiful structure'.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert FitzRoy
Date:  [1850?]
Classmark:  DAR 144: 120
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1282

To W. J. Hooker   [January 1850]

Summary

Thanks WJH for information about J. D. Hooker; CD was very anxious to hear something about his safety.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Jackson Hooker
Date:  [Jan 1850]
Classmark:  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence English letters A–H 1850, 29: 201)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1285

To Adam White   [January–March 1850]

Summary

Requests AW to ask Arthur Adams, who is going on a polar expedition to Lancaster Sound, to collect cirripedes.

Asks location of "Cape Rivers".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Adam White
Date:  [Jan–Mar 1850]
Classmark:  Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology MSS 405 A. Gift of the Burndy Library)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1286

To Charles Lyell   [3 January 1850]

Summary

Discusses CL’s paper, "On craters of denudation" [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 6 (1850): 207–34], which "will be a thorn in the side of É[lie] de B[eaumont]". Notes evidence from Galapagos overlooked by CL. Mentions other examples of craters.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  [3 Jan 1850]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.90)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1287

To Robert Fitch   6 January [1850]

Summary

Asks to borrow some more cirripede specimens.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  6 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1288

From Charles Pickering   9 January 1850

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Summary

Lists plants of Metia or Aurora Island collected during visit in Sept 1839. Flora same as that of neighbouring Tahiti.

Author:  Charles Pickering
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  9 Jan 1850
Classmark:  DAR 205.4: 99
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1289

To Robert Fitch   10 January [1850]

Summary

Thanks him for sending fossil cirripede specimens. Unfortunately one was broken in transit. Asks if James de Carle Sowerby may draw specimens.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  10 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1290

To Robert Fitch   15 January [1850]

Summary

Discusses fossil cirripede specimens from RF’s collection. Comments on problems of describing their valves.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  15 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1291

To W. D. Fox   [17 January 1850]

Summary

Account of the birth of Leonard Darwin, during which he administered the chloroform to Emma.

Continues the water-cure.

Has begun work on fossil cirripedes.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Darwin Fox
Date:  [17 Jan 1850]
Classmark:  Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 75)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1292

To J. S. Henslow   17 January [1850]

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Summary

Announces birth of his fourth son, Leonard.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Stevens Henslow
Date:  17 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  DAR 93: A96–A97
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1293

To J. S. Bowerbank   19 January [1850]

Summary

Describes result of his dissection of one of JSB’s cirripede specimens, "now a hundred fold more instructive". Awaits fossils from Copenhagen Chalk for comparison with British specimens. Asks permission for J. de C. Sowerby to draw specimens.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  James Scott Bowerbank
Date:  19 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1294

To Robert Fitch   [23 January 1850]

Summary

Thanks for fossil cirripede specimens. "Yours is incomparably the finest collection in the world of fossil Secondary cirripedes."

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  [23 Jan 1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1295

To J. S. Bowerbank   [24 January – 7 March 1850]

Summary

Thanks JSB for specimens of fossil Balanidae.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  James Scott Bowerbank
Date:  [24 Jan – 7 Mar 1850]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.91)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1296

To Japetus Steenstrup   25 January [1850]

Summary

Thanks JS for fossil cirripedes. Discusses the specimens. Sends thanks to J. G. Forchhammer for specimens.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Johannes Japetus Smith (Japetus) Steenstrup
Date:  25 Jan [1850]
Classmark:  Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen (NKS 3460 4to)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1297

To Robert Fitch   [28 January 1850]

Summary

Thanks him for cirripede specimens. Discusses RF’s collection.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  [28 Jan 1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1298

To Robert Fitch   1 February [1850]

Summary

Mentions illness.

Describes work on fossil cirripedes. Asks to keep specimens somewhat longer.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Robert Fitch
Date:  1 Feb [1850]
Classmark:  Norwich Castle
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1299

To J. D. Hooker   3 February [1850]

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Summary

Hooker’s imprisonment.

Birth of Leonard Darwin.

Barnacles will never end; on to fossils.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  3 Feb [1850]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 117
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1300
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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: 3 hits

  • … to work his passage to Sydney, Australia. Darwin wrote a letter of recommendation for him in 1839, …
  • … Covington still assisted Darwin in his work:  in 1850 he sent a box of barnacles to London , some …
  • … office, and possibly a general store. Darwin’s  last letter  to Covington was enclosed with a …

What is an experiment?

Summary

Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … ‘all kinds of facts’ across a wide range of fields ( letter to W. D. Fox [25 January 1841] ). He …
  • … men, with a curb on make far the best observers’ ( letter to C. H. L. Woodd , 4 March 1850 ). He …
  • … speculation there is no good & original observation’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 December …
  • … of an engineer on his early experiments with Drosera ( letter to Edward Cresy, 12 December …
  • … ‘I have become very fond of little experiments’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [21 March 1857] ; …
  • … ‘all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 7 May [1855] ). But …
  • … at Science … & am never happy except when at work’ ( letter to J. M. Herbert, 25 December [1880 …

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: 10 hits

  • … voyage. Darwin expressed his current enthusiasm in a letter to William Darwin Fox, 23 May 1833 ( …
  • … was challenged in 1859 by August Krohn. As he admitted in a letter to Charles Lyell, 28 September …
  • … (as Darwin called it in his Autobiography and in his letter to Lyell), was more than a matter of …
  • … occasions in his correspondence with Hooker. On 13 June [1850] , for example, Darwin wrote:    …
  • … Toward the end of his study of Balanus , in a letter to Hooker on 25 September [1853] ( …
  • … latter instrument suited his purposes well; he reported in a letter to Richard Owen, 26 March 1848 …
  • … and mounting his specimens is well demonstrated by a letter he wrote to Charles Spence Bate, 13 …
  • … Informing Darwin about the award ( Correspondence vol. 5, letter from J. D. Hooker, [4 November …
  • … it was empirically invalid ( Calendar nos. 2118 and 2119, letter to T. H. Huxley, 5 July [1857] …
  • … ^9^ CD discussed his conception of archetype in a letter to Huxley, 23 April [1853] ( …

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: 24 hits

  • … | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of …
  • … with detailed correspondence about barnacles. Letter 1514 — Darwin, C. R. to Huxley, T. …
  • … of one idea. – cirripedes morning & night.” Letter 1480 — Darwin, C. R. to Huxley, …
  • … on embryological stages than Huxley thinks. Letter 1592 — Darwin, C. R. to Huxley, T. H …
  • … and difficulties of botanical experimentation. Letter 4895 — Darwin, C. R. to Müller, J …
  • … on Anelasma which he thinks seems probable. Letter 5173 — Müller, J. F. T. to …
  • … and on some plants which seem to be dichogamous. Letter 5429 — Müller, J. F. T. to …
  • … and crossed with pollen of other species. Letter 5480 — Müller, J. F. T. to Darwin, C. …
  • … Claus, Die freilebenden Copepoden [1863]. Letter 5551 — Darwin, C. R. to Müller, J. …
  • … on the use and importance of the microscope. Letter 207 — Darwin, C. R. to Fox, W. D., …
  • … with a microscope ranks second only to geology. Letter 1018 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, …
  • … “take advantage of your wicked offer of assistance”. The letter is full of observations on barnacles …
  • … ed., Manual of scientific enquiry (1849)]. Letter 1167 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, …
  • … finds this microscope “wonderfully superior”. Letter 1174 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. …
  • … specimens and information for his barnacle book. Letter 1140 — Darwin, C. R. to Ross, J …
  • … to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin. Letter 1262 — Darwin, C. R. to Hancock, …
  • … discusses Lithotrya and its burrowing habits. Letter 1495 — Darwin, C. R. to …
  • … at his collection to check on his suspicions. Letter 1370 — Darwin, C. R. to Covington, …
  • … only one specimen is known to exist in the world. Letter 1251 — Darwin, C. R. to Gould, …
  • … between theory and practice in natural history. Letter 1202 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, …
  • … first describer’s name to specific name. Letter 1220 — Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, C. R., …
  • … perpetuity of names in species descriptions. Letter 1260 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. …
  • … with the former and deferring the species paper. Letter 1319 — Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, …
  • … have progressed but Hooker is not converted. Letter 1339 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. …

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: 3 hits

  • … state of indecision’ (Darwin to W. D. Fox,  10 October [1850] ) as he and Emma tried to choose …
  • … were favourite family games, and in 1859 he ended a letter to his oldest son with the exclamation ‘I …
  • … (Darwin to his son William,  [30 October 1858] ). In one letter in 1856, he explained his paternal …

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

  • … in his health was indicated by his comment in a letter to Hooker on 29 [May 1854] : ‘Very far …
  • … large-scale geological changes. As he told Hooker in a letter of 5 June [1855] , ‘it shocks my …
  • … when he first wrote out his species essay in full. In 1850, he had written to Hooker ( …
  • … interested in animal breeding. As Darwin told Fox in a letter of 27 March [1855] , the object of …
  • … ‘all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 7 May [1855] ). But …

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: 23 hits

  • … and colonial authorities. In the nineteenth-century, letter writing was one of the most important …
  • … in times of uncertainty, controversy, or personal loss. Letter writing was not only a means of …
  • … botanist Asa Gray. Darwin and Hooker Letter 714 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D. …
  • … and he is curious about Hooker’s thoughts. Letter 729 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., …
  • … to Hooker “it is like confessing a murder”. Letter 736 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D. …
  • … wide-ranging genera. Darwin and Gray Letter 1674 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, …
  • … and asks him to append the ranges of the species. Letter 1685 — Gray, Asa to Darwin, C. …
  • … and relationships of alpine flora in the USA. Letter 2125 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, …
  • … and their approach to information exchange. Letter 1202 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D …
  • … first describer’s name to specific name. Letter 1220 — Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, C. R., …
  • … perpetuity of names in species descriptions. Letter 1260 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. …
  • … ends with a discussion of lamination of gneiss. Letter 1319 — Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, …
  • … up his doubts about Darwin’s doctrines. In his second letter he talks about his visit with Falconer. …
  • … was on the Beagle voyage and afterwards. Letter 152 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, J. …
  • … is Henslow’s “bounden duty to lecture me”. Letter 196 — Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, C. R. …
  • … sends home a copy of his notes on the specimens. Letter 249 — Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, …
  • … sends news of Cambridge and mutual friends. Letter 251 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, J. S …
  • … illness and specimens are sent to Henslow. Letter 272 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, J. S. …
  • … collection and plans to cross the Cordilleras. Letter 1189 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, …
  • … Hermann Müller. Darwin and Lubbock Letter 1585 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, …
  • … and it has reawakened his passion for entomology. Letter 1720 — Darwin, C. R. to …
  • … 147 (1857): 79–100]. Darwin and Müller Letter 5457 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, …
  • … of the floral anatomy of Lopezia miniata . Letter 5471 — Darwin, C. R. to Müller, H. …

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: 16 hits

  • … hurrah for my species-work’ ( Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, [5 or 12 November …
  • … William Herschel, to write the chapter on geology ( letter to J. F. W. Herschel, 4 February [1848] …
  • … by Darwin on the use of microscopes on board ship ( see letter to Richard Owen, [26 March 1848] ). …
  • … to Milne directly, he sent a long rejoinder in the form of a letter for publication in the Scotsman. …
  • … asked for it to be destroyed. Only the draft of Darwin’s letter remains ( letter to the  Scotsman …
  • … that his original fieldwork was ‘time thrown away’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 8 [September 1847] ) …
  • … that it would be a ‘thorn in the side of É de B.’ (letter to Charles Lyell, 3 January 1850 ). …
  • … marine invertebrates himself (see Correspondence vol. 2, letter to Leonard Jenyns, 10 April [1837]) …
  • … opinion that such a monograph was a ‘desideratum’ ( letter to J. L. R. Agassiz, 22 October 1848 ), …
  • … abortive stamens or pistils ( Correspondence  vol. 2, letter from J. S. Henslow, 21 November …
  • … care what you say, my species theory is all gospel.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 May 1848 ). …
  • … sacrifice the rule of priority for the sake of expedience ( letter to H. E. Strickland, [4 February …
  • … it as ‘the greatest curse to natural History’ ( letter to H. E. Strickland, 29 January [1849] ). …
  • … Museum of Zoology, has been transcribed with Darwin’s letter to H. E. Strickland, 29 January [1849 …
  • … the battle, he gave up only from fatigue and ill health ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 April 1849 ). …
  • … In the year between September 1849 and September 1850, Darwin’s Account Books (Down House MSS) …

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: 26 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 …
  • … Memoirs of Plumer Ward by Hon Phipps [E. Phipps 1850] L d . Harveys Memoirs [Hervey 1848] …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … & will lend me— Pickering Races of Man [Pickering 1850]. (has a good chapter). …
  • … Collins R.A. [Collins 1848] Phases of Faith [Newman 1850] Burnetts Hist. of own time …
  • … Miss. Fennimore Cooper. Rural Scenes in N.A [Cooper 1850] G. Cummings South African Huntsmans …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … Dana’s Geology. U.S. Expedition [J. D. Dana 1849] 1850 March Forbes Cystideæ & …
  • … [Harvey 1849] —— Agassiz Lake Superior [Agassiz 1850] Nov. Memoirs of Pal. Soc [ …
  • … 12. Sedgwicks Discourse on Study of Univers [Sedgwick 1850] 28 Steenstrup on …
  • … Feb. 3 d . Hutchinson on Dog-breaking [Hutchinson 1850] 27. Chambers. Sanatory Reform [Anon …
  • … 5. Collin’s Autobiography [?Collins 1848]. good 1850 . Jan 15 th  Lives of …
  • … March 16 th . Newman Phases of Faith [Newman 1850] excellent —— Lord Cloncurry Memoirs …
  • … 1846] May 20 G. Cumming S. African Hunter [Cumming 1850] goodish July 1 st . …
  • … Sept 12 th . B. Franklins life by Sparks [Sparks ed. 1850] very good Oct 3 Martineau …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … ( 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 …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …
  • … by Bekhur to   Garoo and the Lake Manasarowara: with a letter from … J.   G. Gerard, Esq. …
  • … 1830. On the dying struggle of the dichotomous sytem. In a letter to N. A. Vigors.  Philosophical …
  • … *119: 8v., 22v.; *128: 165 ——. 1850a. Letter to the Rev. John Bachman, on the question of …
  • … art of improving the   breeds of domestic animals. In a letter addressed to the   Right Hon. Sir …
  • … 1820.  Remarks on the improvement of   cattle, &c. in a letter to Sir John Saunders Sebright, …

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: 22 hits

  • … & I can see it even through a grove of Palms.—’ (letter to Caroline Darwin, 25–6 April [1832] …
  • … wrote to the contrary: ‘I am sorry to see in your last letter that you still look forward to the …
  • … near the British Museum or some other learned place’ (letter from E. A. Darwin, 18 August [1832] …
  • … it is a sort of scene I never ought to think about—’ (letter to W. D. Fox, [9–12 August] 1835 ). …
  • … However, what remains is cordial; in the first extant letter of the correspondence, Darwin wrote to …
  • … (a local charity), which he administered from 1848 to 1869 (letter to J. B. Innes, [8 May 1848] …
  • … he would make an excellent Guardian [of the Poor Fund]’ (letter to J. W. Lubbock, 28 March [1854] …
  • … club the use of his own lawn for its meetings (Moore 1985; letter to J. S. Henslow, 17 January …
  • … the family’s dog, Quiz, when he moved away from Down (letter to J. B. Innes, 15 December [1861] ) …
  • … was considered to be a cross between a cow and a red deer (letter from J. B. Innes, 7 December …
  • … ancestor. Please think of my request favourably—’ (letter from J. B. Innes, 26 May 1871 ). Indeed …
  • … and leaves Moses to take care of himself. Letter from J. B. Innes, 1 December 1878 …
  • … take care of the financial complications he left behind (letter from S. J. O’H. Horsman, 2 June …
  • … seemed to have made off with the church’s organ fund (letter to J. B. Innes, 15 June [1868] ). So …
  • … by Horsman relating to the Down school and organ funds (letter to J. B. Innes, 13 January 1871 ). …
  • … Dissenters’ chapel, rather than the Down parish church (letter to J. B. Innes, 1 December 1868 ). …
  • … in the Parish, but preaches, I hear, very dull sermons’ (letter to J. B. Innes, 18 January [1871] …
  • … capital testimonials to his wife’s qualifications’ (letter from J. B. Innes, 5 June 1871 ). …
  • … support, and presented their answer to the School Committee (letter to Down School Board, [after …
  • … of letters to both men, vainly seeking to reconcile them (letter from John Lubbock, 5 April [1875] …
  • … During the reign of Ffinden, there is an interesting letter from Darwin to the evangelist J. W. C. …
  • … do not know that there is a drunkard left in the village’ (letter to J. W. C. Fegan, [December …

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: 7 hits

  • … year on cirripede anatomy, Darwin wrote a rather reflective letter to his former professor and …
  • … his conclusions about larval-adult homologies in a letter to Dana in December 1853 . …
  • … I have not yet thought’, Darwin told Bowerbank in January 1850, ‘ your mentioning the Palæont. Soc. …
  • … was accepted by the Palaeontographical Society by February 1850 , and in the end, Darwin was …
  • … many parcels I have no doubt they wd aid me’. By April 1850, he reported to Steenstrup that he had ‘ …
  • … and after requiring late changes by Sowerby in September 1850, told him, ‘ I hope to God I have now …
  • … the first fossil volume approached completion in September 1850, Darwin had reported on his progress …

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: 5 hits

  • … York: Grove Press. (p.1 - 83) Letters Letter Packet: Darwin's Barnacles …
  • … to London to have Mr. Arthrobalanus illustrated. Letter 1022 —Darwin to J. D. Hooker, …
  • … the unusual anatomy of Mr. Arthrobalanus. Letter 1140 —Darwin to J. C. Ross, 31 Dec 1847 …
  • … in search of the lost explorer John Franklin. Letter 1253 —Darwin to Albany Hancock, [21 …
  • … to ask him to share preserved specimens with him. Letter 1370 —Darwin to Syms Covington, …

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: 25 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 …
  • … 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 ). …
  • … 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 ). …
  • … by the American educator Emily Talbot (Talbot ed. 1882). His letter to Talbot written the previous …
  • … by the flippant witlings of the newspaper press’ ( letter from A. T. Rice, 4 February 1882 ). Rice …
  • … men, and their role as providers for the family. In his letter, he conceded that there was ‘some …
  • … of our homes, would in this case greatly suffer’ ( letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). …
  • … she be fairly judged, intellectually his inferior, please ( letter from C. A. Kennard, 28 January …
  • … he has allied himself to so dreadful a man, as Huxley’ ( letter to John Collier, 16 February 1882 …
  • … Would my actions be the same without my consciousness?’ ( letter from John Collier, 22 February …
  • … a solid scientific foundation cannot be overestimated’ ( letter to William Jenner, 20 March [1882] …
  • … to delight in his children’s accomplishments. In a letter to Anthony Rich, he shared several of his …
  • … to take a long trip to Jamaica ‘for complete rest’ ( letter to Anthony Rich, 4 February 1882 ). …
  • … me more than anything else. I am now 73 years old’ ( letter to A. A. Reade, 13 February 1882 ). …
  • … myself on you’ ( letter to Wilhelm Dunker, 3 March [1850] ). In the mid-1850s, Darwin was …

1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph

Summary

< Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged to a series of about sixty lithographic portraits of naturalists and other scientists drawn by Thomas Herbert Maguire. They were successively commissioned over a…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … Darwin’s Cambridge mentor – as its second (appointed in 1850). Henslow’s parish was only about …
  • … DCP-LETT-1283; 20 Nov. [1849], DCP-LETT-1272; 17 Jan. [1850], DCP-LETT-1293. Letters from Darwin to …
  • … Electrical Engineers, 1991–2012), vol. 4, pp. 305–306, letter 2433. Report on ‘British Association …

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

  • … 1847; Francis, born 16 August 1848; Leonard, born 15 January 1850; and Horace, born 18 May 1851. It …
  • … our door N o  12 and N o  11 is in the slit for the Letter box.— he decidedly ran past N o  11 …
  • … has learned them from my sometimes changing the first letter in any word he is using—thus I say …
  • … , pp. 131–2. [6]  Correspondence  vol. 2, letter from Emma Wedgwood, [23 January 1839] . …
  • … memoirs and reminiscences. [61] Leonard Darwin, born 1850. [62] Francis Darwin, born …

Bartholomew James Sulivan

Summary

On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, …
  • … clothes & dry blankets for the first time for weeks.’ ( Letter from B. J. Sulivan, 25 December …
  • … was the first British subject to be born there.  In 1850 he proposed mounting a fossil-hunting …

Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest

Summary

The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of  Origin. Darwin got the fourth…

Matches: 28 hits

  • … Pound foolish, Penurious, Pragmatical Prigs’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1866] ). But …
  • … able to write easy work for about 1½ hours every day’ ( letter to H. B. Jones, 3 January [1866] ). …
  • … once daily to make the chemistry go on better’ ( letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866] ). …
  • … see you out with our beagles before the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 …
  • … work doing me any harm—any how I can’t be idle’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 August [1866] ). …
  • … production of which Tegetmeier had agreed to supervise ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January …
  • … of “Domestic Animals & Cult. Plants” to Printers’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1866] …
  • … good deal I think, & have come to more definite views’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 December …
  • … to have discovered the principle of natural selection in 1850: ‘This belief in Professor Owen that …
  • … ‘I quite follow you in thinking Agassiz glacier-mad’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 8[–9] September …
  • … ten times more than the belief of a dozen physicists’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [28 February 1866] …
  • … past few years. Emma described the Royal Society event in a letter to George: ‘Your father … entered …
  • … you—& told me to worship Bence Jones in future—’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 May 1866 ). …
  • … 3 calls! & then went for ¾ to Zoolog. Garden!!!!!!!!!’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [28 April 1866 …
  • … delighted to come on those terms so you are in for it’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [  c . 10 May …
  • … very much to see him, though I dread all exertion’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [12 May 1866] ). …
  • … to Madeira. His visit to Down House is described in a letter from Henrietta to George: ‘when first …
  • … most magnificent eulogium which it has ever received’ ( letter to Ernst Haeckel, 18 August [1866] …
  • … like myself weak in his Greek, is something dreadful’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 December [1866] …
  • … progressive, teleological development ( see for example, letter to C. W. Nägeli, 12 June [1866] ). …
  • … His drawings of  C. scoparius , sent to Darwin with his letter of 8 May [1866] , allowed …
  • … initial state of dimorphism’ (Correspondence vol. 9, letter from Asa Gray, 11 October 1861 ). …
  • … that the species was ‘merely ordinaryly diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, [7 May – 11 June 1866 …
  • … the Rhamnus is a case of dimorphic becoming diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, 20 June [1866] ) …
  • … blows up— I am well accustomed to such explosions’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 22 June [1866] ). He …
  • … be honest, & admit how little is known on the subject’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 and 4 August …
  • … to see how differently we look at every thing’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 August [1866] ). Yet …
  • … a world of good, & we have been at it many a long year’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 15 February …

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: 11 hits

  • … Soon after Origin was published, Darwin received a letter from Asa Gray offering to arrange an …
  • … Darwin responded favourably to Gray’s proposal in his letter of 21 December [1859] ( Correspondence …
  • … had been fixed through the process of stereotyping (see letter from Asa Gray, 23 January [1860] and …
  • … of species; Darwin sent this off to Gray enclosed in his letter of [8 or 9 February 1860]. He had …
  • … [1860] and 1 February [1860]). A month later, in his letter of 8 March [1860], Darwin sent …
  • … (especially that given by Hewett Cottrell Watson in his letter of [3? January 1860]) that Darwin …
  • … changes he intended to make in the American edition in the letter to Lyell, 18 [and 19 February 1860 …
  • … corrected Second Edition with additional corrections” (letter to Asa Gray, 1 February [1860]). …
  • … resulting from three separate printings of Origin (see letter to Asa Gray, 22 May [1860] and …
  • … Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, in his Lectures delivered in 1850 (of which a Résumé appeared in the …
  • … of Origin ( Origin 3d ed., pp. 363–6). See also letter from John Lubbock, [after 28 April …

Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications

Summary

This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics.  Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … F1660.] —Remarks on the preceding paper, in a letter from Charles Darwin, Esq., to Mr. …
  • … Lepadidæ.   Proceedings of the Geological Society  6 (1850): 439-40.  [ Shorter publications , …

What did Darwin believe?

Summary

What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…

Matches: 17 hits

  • … often seeking direction for their own. Mary Boole’s letter In December 1866 Darwin …
  • … of Science & the promises of religion. See the letter Boole, like a number …
  • … meeting point should still be far off. See the letter In his response to Boole …
  • … feeling. But he does not venture into such territory in this letter to a stranger. Emma …
  • … description of my state of mind. See the letter In this letter, Darwin is …
  • … & I cannot help being open with you. See the letter We know from Darwin’s …
  • … means so in eternity. There is a marked tension in Emma’s letter between reason and feeling, and …
  • … as a guide to moral conduct, as in his remarks on Paul’s letter to Galatians, chapter six: ‘read …
  • … it derive from inner feelings or instincts? In a letter written to Charles several months …
  • … trying to learn the truth, you cannot be wrong … See the letter Yet she is concerned …
  • … by adopting … the first fashionable view. Letter from T. H. Huxley to H. A. Heathorn, …
  • … life. Huxley could not accept this, but Kingsley’s letter opened a line of communication that …
  • … conception of entire surrender to the will of God.’ (Letter from T. H. Huxley to C. Kingsley, …
  • … blows are everywhere necessary. See the letter Darwin is often portrayed as …
  • … potential allies and disturb old allegiances. Haeckel’s letter had been prompted by an admonition …
  • … of the truth of his own conclusions. See the letter Cautious style and self …
  • … clergyman and religious writer. Newman, Francis, 1850. Phases of faith; or, passages from the …
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