From J. D. Hooker [12 October 1862]
Summary
Has sent two Impatiens flowers; curious to know what CD makes of the floral whorls and their vascular bundles.
Cassia is another genus that has different [coloured] anthers in same flower.
Continues to work on Welwitschia.
Feels as CD does about his work, which after a time seems flat and stale. He could never have done what CD did in his Orchids.
CD’s facts about Verbascum have horrible bearing on JDH’s practice of lumping species together.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [12 Oct 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 59–60, 86 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3757 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … From J. D. Hooker [12 October 1862] …
- … DAR 101: 59–60, 86 Joseph Dalton Hooker Kew [12 Oct 1862] Charles Robert Darwin …
- … 5, below); the intervening Sunday fell on 12 October. Augé de Lassus 1861 . In his letter …
- … Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. …
- … Gray, 9 August [1862] and n. 13. See n. 12, above. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, …
From J. D. Hooker [14 December 1862]
Summary
On Asa Gray’s letter; has written why he avoids alluding to the war.
Has read Max Müller [see 3752] – last part unphilosophical.
On CD’s pigeon example, long-beaked and short-beaked pigeons must be either sterile or not inter se. There is "no such thing as Equality – hence no such thing as chance and Nat. Sel. is the sword of Damocles hanging over your head if you make a slip in your premisses."
Has read note on Lythrum sent several weeks ago. Its consequences are of most prolific order to CD’s doctrine.
Kew has no wild gooseberries.
JDH praises the Saturday Review reply [14 (1862): 589] to the Duke of Argyll’s bitter review of Orchids ["The supernatural", Edinburgh Rev. 116 (1862): 378–97].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [14 Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 83–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3846 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … the relationship to the letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] , and the letter from …
- … 1862 with his letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] . Hooker and Gray held …
- … and nn. 8 and 9. See letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] . See letters to J. …
- … D. Hooker, [after 26] November [1862] and 12 [December 1862] . See letter to J. D. …
- … November 1862] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] . The references are to …
- … Dutrochet 1837 . In his letter to Hooker of 12 [December 1862] , CD inquired about John …
- … November 1862] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] and n. 18. According to …
From J. D. Hooker [15 and] 20 November [1862]
Summary
Sends CD West Ireland soundings.
More detail on his review "a la Lindley" [see 3797].
Bates’s paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 495–566] is capital.
Andrew Murray’s article plays into CD’s hands through sheer ignorance.
JDH is on Royal Society Council.
Has no recollection of applying natural selection to Polynesians. None but a German would dig out such a passage if it exists [see 3812].
Has caused Tyndall to modify his pseudo-geology.
Has not seen Duke of Argyll’s review [Edinburgh Rev. 116 (1862): 378–97]. [The Duke] did not understand Orchids the least little bit, nor the Origin, when JDH saw him.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 and 20 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 71–2, 79 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3807 |
Matches: 10 hits
- … to the letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] ; the Saturday following that …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 4 November [1862] and [10–]12 November [1862] ). Hooker refers to the …
- … 1862c). See letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] . [J. D. Hooker] 1862c, …
- … Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 12 (1863): 299). Hugh Falconer . Thomas Henry …
- … Variability’. See letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] . The second part of …
- … John Tyndall . See letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] and n. 23. [G. D. …
- … 1862 . See letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] and n. 26, and letter to …
- … G. D. Campbell] 1862 is confirmed by the Wellesley index 1: 511–12. See letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] . Hooker refers to specimens in the herbarium of the …
- … 1862] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] and n. 20. The governess …
From J. D. Hooker 12 November 1862
Summary
Samuel Haughton was the prejudiced reviewer of the Origin. JDH’s opinion of SH.
Has heard from a W. African collector that P. B. Du Chaillu’s accounts [Explorations and adventures in equatorial Africa (1861)] are all false.
R. F. Burton has impudently stolen credit for Gustav Mann’s Cameroon expedition.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 75–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3802 |
From J. D. Hooker [8 February 1862]
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [8 Feb 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 12 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3434 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … DAR 101: 12 Joseph Dalton Hooker Kew [8 Feb 1862] Charles Robert Darwin …
From J. D. Hooker 26 November 1862
Summary
Returns Asa Gray letter. Gray has made a great blunder in his criticism of Oliver: he mistakes perpetuation of a variety for "propagation of variation". Confusion between "action of physical causes" and "effects of physical causes". Neither crossing nor natural selection has made so many divergent individuals, but simply variation. "If once you hold that natural selection can create a character your whole doctrine tumbles to the ground." CD’s failure to convey this, and the false doctrine that "like produces like" is at bottom of half the scientific infidelity to CD’s doctrine. There is something to the objection that CD has made a deus ex machina of natural selection since he neglects to dwell on the facts of infinite incessant variations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 61–2, 77–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3831 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. …
- … Hooker, 29 [ May 1860] , 5 June [1860] , and 12 [June 1860] , letters from Charles Lyell , …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 3 November [1862] and [10–]12 November [1862] , and letters from J. D. …
- … from J. D. Hooker, 20 August 1862 and [12 October 1862] ). See also L. Huxley ed. …
From J. D. Hooker [23 March 1862]
Summary
Lighthearted thoughts on "the development of an Aristocracy" after a visit to Walcot Hall, Shropshire.
On CD’s point about the effect of changed conditions on the reproductive organs, JDH does not see why this is not "itself a variation, not necessarily induced by domestication, but accompanying some variety artificially selected".
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [23 Mar 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 27–9; American Philosophical Society Library (Hooker papers, B/H76.2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3480 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … to J. D. Hooker, 18 March [1862] and n. 12. Nil desperandum: ‘an exhortation to have …
- … Hooker, 29 [May 1860] , 5 June [1860] , and 12 [June 1860] ). CD discussed his ideas on …
- … Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. …
- … simplest form—no one ever supposed that of 12 peas in one pod, 6 grown in England would be …
- … distributed in certain proportions amongst the 12 peas in the pod; & except to arrest or …
From J. D. Hooker [21 December 1862]
Summary
"Throttled off" Welwitschia paper at Linnean Society [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 24 (1863): 1–48].
Has read Tocqueville’s Democracy in America [1835–40] – disagrees with it. Tocqueville says democracy in America is a success. Democracy has persisted because there has been no cause for its overthrow (i.e., no struggle for existence, too much mobility).
Sends J. W. Dawson’s unsatisfactory letter.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [21 Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 80–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3856 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 November 1862
Summary
Stupefied by CD’s five forms of Lythrum.
Asa Gray busy with Cypripedium. JDH offers some to CD if he wants to challenge Gray.
J. W. Dawson’s review of JDH’s paper on Arctic plants.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte’s views on Basque and Finnish language [Langue basque et langues finnoises (1862)] suggest to JDH that Basques are Finns left behind after the glacial period, like the Arctic plants!
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 66–7, 70 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3792 |
From J. D. Hooker 7 November 1862
Summary
JDH admits he wrote Gardeners’ Chronicle and Natural History Review articles on orchids [Gard. Chron. (1862): 789–90, 863, 910; Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 371–6].
JDH’s objections to CD’s idea of how Greenland was repopulated. Temperate Greenland has as Arctic a flora as Arctic Greenland – a fact of astounding force. Why should certain Scandinavian species be absent? Migration by sea-currents can no more account for the present distribution in Greenland than can special creation.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 68–9, 73–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3797 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … this letter is given by CD’s reply ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [10–]12 November [1862] ). …
From J. D. Hooker 19 [June 1862]
Summary
Household problems: wife’s health, visitors to Kew.
Will go to sale of J. C. Ross’s effects looking for glacial and Kerguelen Land works not at British Museum.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 [June 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 38–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3611 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 July 1862
Summary
Will see to Masdevallia and Bonatea.
Domestic matters.
Lyell’s health.
CD’s eczema.
Hopes CD will solve the mystery of Melastoma.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 July 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 44–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3636 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June 1862] and n. 12. See letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June …
From J. D. Hooker [19 January 1862]
Summary
JDH castigates the Americans after the Trent affair. The value of an aristocracy. How will CD answer Asa Gray’s letter?
His "remarkable plant" [Welwitschia mirabilis] exhibited at Linnean Society.
Genera plantarum is in press.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [19 Jan 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 8–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3395 |
From J. D. Hooker [31 January – 8 February 1862]
Summary
Wrote a "frightful screed" about aristocracy’s being a necessary consequence of natural selection, and then burnt it.
H. W. Bates is the only man "thinking out" natural selection to any purpose. "I think I have driven Bates back to Nat. Sel. as the only way of solving his difficulties."
HWB’s mimetic butterflies.
JDH wishes he had time to do the same thing with plants.
Owen and Huxley involved in a "contemptible" squabble in the Edinburgh newspapers.
Maximovitch reports Stellaria bulbifera is a Siberian form which never ripens its seeds.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [31 Jan – 8 Feb 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 14; DAR 111: 93 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3430 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. …
From J. D. Hooker [18 October 1862]
Summary
Does CD want Masdevallia?
Sends addresses of persons in S. America who would send Melastomataceae seeds.
Has ordered Matthieu Bonafous on maize [Histoire naturelle du maïs (1836)].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [18 Oct 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 63 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3774 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1862 ). See letter from J. D. Hooker, [12 October 1862] , and letter to J. D. Hooker, …
From J. D. Hooker [10 March 1862]
Summary
Returns Asa Gray’s letter. Disappointed with Gray. Comments on America. British–American relations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [10 Mar 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 20–2; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (probably JDH/2/1/2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3469 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. …
From J. D. Hooker 16 September 1862
Summary
Wife’s health better.
Visited Duke of Argyll.
Thanks CD for Cruciferae diagram; will ponder it.
Staggered by complexity of Welwitschia.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 Sept 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 56–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3725 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … meeting (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [12 October 1862] ). Catherine and George Downing …
From J. D. Hooker [27 or 28 December 1862]
Summary
Hostile to Spencer’s application of natural selection to society.
JDH on J. E. Gray’s views on collecting.
JDH collecting Wedgwood ware.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [27 or 28] Dec 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 93–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3891 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 7, letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [October 1858] ). Hooker refers to his whimsical …
From J. D. Hooker 20 September 1862
Summary
Asks his opinion of A. C. Ramsay’s glacial lake theory. Encloses Julius Haast’s communication on glacial phenomena.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Sept 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 58, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Director’s Correspondence 174 (New Zealand letters, 1854–1900): 273) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3731 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … flora (see J. D. Hooker 1864–7 , p. 12*). See also H. F. von Haast 1948 , pp. 247– …
letter | (19) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Hooker, J. D. | (19) |
Lost in translation: From Auguste Forel, 12 November 1874
Summary
You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections on your favourite topic—ants. If only you had paid attention when your mother tried to teach you English you might be able to read it. But you didn’t, and you…
Matches: 1 hits
- … barely understand a word. Writing in French on 12 November 1874 to thank Darwin for the …
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: 9 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] and n. 13). Initially, …
- … Stove [that is, cool hothouse]’ ( Correspondence vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26[–7] March …
- … of different temperatures’ (letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March [1869] , Calendar no. 6661) …
- … 100 yards’ to the greenhouses ( Correspondence vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, [25 January …
- … in mid-February (see letter from L. C. Treviranus, 12 February 1863 ). The second list is …
- … Anoectochilus argenteus 12 5 s . …
- … punctatum. 11. Mormodes aurantiaca 12. ‘Anoectochilus argenteus 5 s .’ deleted in …
- … Bolbophyllum barbigerum 12 major …
- … Ampelidae. 11. Alloplectus chrysanthus. 12. Bulbophyllum barbigerum. 13. …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 12 hits
- … Seventy years old Darwin’s seventieth birthday on 12 February was a cause for international …
- … and good as could be’ ( letter from Karl Beger, [ c. 12 February 1879] ). The masters of …
- … ). The botanist and schoolteacher Hermann Müller wrote on 12 February to wish Darwin a ‘long and …
- … well, and with little fatigue’ ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 12 July 1879 , and letter from Leonard …
- … ever about life of D r . D’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 12 July [1879] ). It was little …
- … Thiselton-Dyer, 5 June 1879 , and letter to G. H. Darwin, 12 July 1879 ). Darwin’s final task …
- … inn ‘ very comfortable’, but told Leonard Darwin on 12 August that there were ‘too many human …
- … not to have come up when the Darwins lunched with him on 12 August (Darwin’s ‘Journal’). Nor did …
- … the world. At the end of the year he was awarded a prize of 12,000 francs by the Turin Academy of …
- … which greatly pleased Darwin ( letter from Grant Allen, 12 February 1879 ). One of Allen’s targets …
- … engagement being made public ( letter from T. H. Farrer, 12 October 1879 ). Darwin’s response not …
- … accurate in its treatment’ ( letter from Francis Galton, 12 November 1879 ). The comment that …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 11 hits
- … (letters from George Cupples, 21 February 1874 and 12 March 1874 ); the material was …
- … the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii; letters from T. N. Staley, 12 February 1874 and 20 February 1874 …
- … was published in November 1874 ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 ). Though containing …
- … print runs would be very good ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 ). Darwin's …
- … Review & in the same type’ ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George’s letter …
- … he finally wrote a polite, very formal letter to Mivart on 12 January 1875 , refusing to hold any …
- … & snugness’ ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ). More …
- … vicar of Deptford ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ), but to her …
- … mechanism that Darwin agreed with ( letter to F. J. Cohn, 12 October 1874 ). Darwin’s American …
- … bank with enormous tips to his ears ( letter from Asa Gray, 12 May 1874 ). The Manchester …
- … excellent, & as clear as light’ ( letter to John Tyndall, 12 August [1874] ). Hooker …
1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more may once have existed. In a letter of 1873 an old Shrewsbury friend, Arthur Mostyn Owen, offered to send Darwin a watercolour sketch of him, painted many years…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 6 hits
- … made a small omission ’. Stephen’s reply on 12 January was flattering, reassuring, and …
- … books being ‘a game of chance’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 12 April 1881 ). On 18 May he described …
- … Darwin had difficulty in obtaining mature plants. On 12 April, he reported to Müller , ‘I have …
- … to make me happy & contented,’ he told Wallace on 12 July , ‘but life has become very …
- … fight’ (letters to J. D. Hooker, 6 August 1881 and 12 August 1881 ). Darwin may have …
- … else’s judgment on the subject ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 12 July 1881 ). However, some requests …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 3 hits
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 6 hits
- … Hooker: ‘he is no common man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). Two sexual …
- … of the year, he wrote to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ): ‘my notions on …
- … least 3 classes of dimorphism’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 12 [April 1862] ), and experimenting to …
- … passed so miserable a nine months’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 12 September [1862] ). A family …
- … ‘Botany is a new subject to me’ ( letter to John Scott, 12 November [1862] ), but, impressed by …
- … into Tyndall’s ears’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10–12 November [1862] ). Another of Darwin’s …
German and Dutch photograph albums
Summary
Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made…
Matches: 1 hits
- … their generous sympathy. ( Letter to A. A. van Bemmelen, 12 February 1877 ) View the …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 5 hits
- … than insectivorous plants. As he confessed to Hooker on 12 December , ‘I have not felt so angry …
- … from his family, he sent a curt note to Mivart on 12 January , breaking off all future …
- … of a bill that was presented to the House of Commons on 12 May, one week after a rival bill based on …
- … The author, Fritz Schultze, contacted Darwin himself on 12 June , describing the aims of his book …
- … scientific Socy. has done in my time,’ he told Hooker on 12 December . ‘I wish that I knew what …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 3 hits
Diagrams and drawings in letters
Summary
Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have been added to the online transcripts of the letters. The contents include maps, diagrams, drawings, sketches and photographs, covering geological, botanical,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Rubiaceae with enclosures containing bud samples, 12 May 1878 G. H. Darwin's …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
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…
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…
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…
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 3 hits
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 3 hits
Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…