From James R. Garrett to Robert Patterson 1 December 1854
Summary
Discusses the transport of seeds by birds. William Thompson received letters on this subject from CD in 1848 and from Edward Forbes in 1850. Encloses copies of Thompson’s reply to Forbes’s letter of 23 Feb 1850 and of Thompson’s notes (1848–51) on transport of seeds by birds.
| Author: | James R. Garrett |
| Addressee: | Robert Patterson |
| Date: | 1 Dec 1854 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 232 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1608 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … this subject from CD in 1848 and from Edward Forbes in 1850. Encloses copies of Thompson’ …
- … s reply to Forbes’s letter of 23 Feb 1850 and of Thompson’s notes (1848–51) on transport …
- … been found. The Athenæum , no. 1168, 16 March 1850, p. 290, reported on Edward Forbes’s …
- … productions by birds; and in Feb. y . 1850 Professor E. Forbes, who was then preparing a …
- … copies. — The Athenæum of 16 th . March 1850, contains a notice of the Professor’s paper, …
To J. S. Henslow 17 November [1854]
Summary
Asks JSH to inquire about drift-wood at Kerguelen Land.
Hooker’s observation on similarity of Kerguelen plant species to those of Tierra del Fuego strikes CD as a great anomaly, so he is searching for an answer, "however improbable".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 17 Nov [1854] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.109) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1602 |
To J. S. Henslow 20 February [1854]
Summary
Honoured and gratified by the dedication [to CD] of Hooker’s book [Himalayan journals].
News of Lyell from Madeira.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 20 Feb [1854] |
| Classmark: | California State Library, San Francisco, Sutro Library (Crocker collection: folder #11) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1554 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 September [1854]
Summary
On individuality.
Huxley’s review exquisite, but too severe on Vestiges; sorry for ridicule of Agassiz’s embryonic fishes.
Stonesfield mammals.
J. O. Westwood deserves Royal Society Medal.
Will begin species work in a few days.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 Sept [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 124 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1588 |
To T. H. Huxley 2 September [1854]
Summary
Second Living Cirripedia volume published. Asks THH’s advice on presentation copies for continental naturalists.
THH’s review of Vestiges of creation in [Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 13 (1854)]. CD is almost as unorthodox on species as the author of Vestiges, but hopes not quite so unphilosophical.
Hopes L. Agassiz was sounder on embryological stages than THH thinks.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 2 Sept [1854] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 8) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1587 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ancestors: palaeontology in Victorian London, 1850–1875. London: Blond & Briggs. Living …
To J. D. Hooker 27 [June 1854]
Summary
CD gives his definition of "highness" and "lowness" as "morphological differentiation" from a common embryo or archetype. JDH’s view, with which CD agrees when it can be applied, is the same as Milne-Edwards’, i.e., the physiological division of labour. There is little agreement among zoologists and CD admits his own lack of clarity.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 27 [June 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 121 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1573 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 4, letter to W. D. Fox, [17 January 1850] and n. 3. [Brodie] 1854 . See letter …
To J. D. Hooker 15 November [1854]
Summary
Calculating small number of species in aberrant genera of insects and plants.
Joachim Barrande’s "Colonies", Élie de Beaumont’s "lines of Elevation", Forbes’s "Polarity" make CD despair, as these theories lead to conclusions opposite to CD’s from the same classes of facts.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 Nov [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1601 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Dr. Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti. Florence 1850. Journal of the Horticultural Society of …
From J. D. Hooker [29 June 1854]
Summary
JDH on "highness" of Coniferae: they are genuine Dicotyledons, not a link to cryptogams; that is a geologists’ fallacy. Thus they are highest plants in Carboniferous.
Does not agree with CD’s "elastic" species theory. Long correspondence with Lyell on this.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [29 June 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 383 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1576 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 4, letter to W. D. Fox, [May 1850] , for the problems of administering chloroform. …
From J. D. Hooker [c. 25 March 1854]
Summary
JDH summarises letter from Humboldt.
JDH answers CD’s questions on glacial action in Himalayas.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 25 Mar 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 382 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1559 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … s companion during the Indian expedition of 1850 and co-author of Flora Indica (J. D. …
To J. D. Hooker 10 March [1854]
Summary
More praise for Himalayan journals.
How remote was glacial action in Himalayas?
Implies Himalayas were birthplace of many plants.
Final volume of Cirripedia to be printed in two or three months.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Mar [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 119 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1558 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 4, letter to W. J. Hooker, [January 1850] . Hooker described the Himalayan flora as …
From J. D. Hooker 25 August 1854
Summary
JDH and F. W. Binney identify Calamites specimens as pith casts. They are cryptogams related to, but higher than, Lycopodiaceae and contradict progression.
Insects found in coal.
Lyell says Stonesfield slate marsupials are actually placentals.
JDH reading Alexander Braun on individuality ["Das Individuum der Pflanze in seinem Verhältniss zur Species", Abh. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (Phys. Kl.) (1853): 19–122].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Aug 1854 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 384 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1581 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1853a . Leonard Darwin , born 15 January 1850. William Bowman was professor of physiology …
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Garrett, J. R. | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Patterson, Robert | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
| Garrett, J. R. | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Covington still assisted Darwin in his work: in 1850 he sent a box of barnacles to London , some …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … the best observers’ ( letter to C. H. L. Woodd , 4 March 1850 ). He made the point more …
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: 1 hits
- … occasions in his correspondence with Hooker. On 13 June [1850] , for example, Darwin wrote: …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … state of indecision’ (Darwin to W. D. Fox, 10 October [1850] ) as he and Emma tried to choose …
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…
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: 1 hits
- … when he first wrote out his species essay in full. In 1850, he had written to Hooker ( …
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
- … Memoirs of Plumer Ward by Hon Phipps [E. Phipps 1850] L d . Harveys Memoirs [Hervey 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 …
- … 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 …
- … Podrome de Paleantologie stratigraphique [Orbigny 1850–2] 24 fr: 3. vols. The Vegetation of …
- … Danicorum Mammalium Domesticorum by Prof. Benddz [Bendz 1850]— Plates very expensive Coll. of …
- … Anat. der Wirbellosen Thiere. 1848 [K. T. E. von Siebold 1850].— [DAR *128: 180] …
- … Botany, Horticulture, Floriculture and Natural Science ] (1850? 1851?) must positively be read …
- … to aid me on skeletons Knox Races of Mankind [R. Knox 1850] a curious Book. (Blyth). in …
- … of the Horticultural Society of London ]. Vol I. to V. (1850) VI & VII May 27 th . …
- … [Agassiz 1835] —— 30 Bairds Entomostraca [Baird 1850] May 22 d . Madras Journal of …
- … 1853. Jan. 27 th Life of D r . Coombe [Combe 1850]. good Feb. 6. Letters of Ray …
- … Histoire du Pommier, Poirier, Pêcher [Duval 1852, 1849, 1850] —— 27 th . Hist. Nat. Gen. de …
- … Sept. 4. Nunn’s Shipwreck in the Favorite [Nunn 1850] —— 16 Pepys Diary. Vol 1. 2. 3 d …
- … Facultes Interieurs des animaux invertebres [Macquart 1850]. —— 8 th Gosse Naturalist …
- … 1854] —— Johnston Physical Atlas [A. K. Johnston 1850]. March 28 th Sebastian …
- … [DAR 128: 13] Aug. 20 Weber der Taubenfreund 1850 [Weber 1850] Sept. 1 st . Puvis …
- … [Veith 1856].— 3 d Knox Races of Man.— 1850 [R. Knox 1850] 7. Willughby by Ray …
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…
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: 1 hits
- … (Moore 1985; letter to J. S. Henslow, 17 January [1850] and n. 6; and letter to J. B. Innes, …
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: 6 hits
- … 1853 . Preparing for publication Until 1850, Darwin had probably expected the Ray …
- … 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 …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Matches: 3 hits
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,…
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: 1 hits
- … Letter 1370 —Darwin to Syms Covington, 23 Nov 1850 In this letter, Darwin thanks his …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …
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: 1 hits
- … myself on you’ ( letter to Wilhelm Dunker, 3 March [1850] ). In the mid-1850s, Darwin was …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
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…
Leonard Darwin born
Summary
The Darwins' eighth child and fourth son, Leonard, is born
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Darwins' eighth child and fourth son, Leonard, is born …
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…
