To A. R. Wallace 28 [May 1864]
Summary
Response to ARW’s papers on Papilionidae ["On the phenomena of variation and geographical distribution", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 1–71; abstract in Reader 3 (1864): 491–3],
and man ["The origin of human races", J. Anthropol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1864): clviii–clxxxvi].
The former is "really admirable" and will be influential.
The idea of the man paper is striking and new. Minor points of difference. Conjectures regarding racial differences; the possible correlation between complexion and constitution. His Query to Army surgeons to determine this point. Offers ARW his notes on man, which CD doubts he will be able to use.
On sexual selection in "our aristocracy"; primogeniture is a scheme for destroying natural selection.
[Letter incorrectly dated March by CD.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 28 [May 1864] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add. MS 46434: 39) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4510 |
From J. D. Hooker 6 April 1864
Summary
J. H. Balfour gives Scott excellent character reference, but says he is unfit either to superintend or be subordinate.
Herbert Spencer’s review of J. M. Schleiden is interesting [see 4457].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Apr 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 204–5; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence English letters Balfour 1866–1900 vol. 78: 311) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4452 |
To B. D. Walsh 21 October [1864]
Summary
Thanks for letter and memoirs.
Suggests a "rather hopeless experiment" of introducing poisons into tissues of plants on the chance that monstrous growths may be produced.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Date: | 21 Oct [1864] |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4640 |
From J. D. Hooker 29 March 1864
Summary
John Scott’s career.
Huxley’s vicious attack on anthropologists.
Critique of Joseph Prestwich’s theory of rivers.
Bitter feelings between the Hookers and the Veitch family of nurserymen.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Mar 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 193–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4439 |
From John Scott 14 April [1864]
Summary
Thanks for CD’s consoling letter. His mind cannot concentrate after losing his position, and he feels "an inward dread of life’s future". Would have been glad to work for CD. Understands why Hooker cannot recommend him.
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Apr [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 104 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4463 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 [May 1864]
Summary
CD’s pleasure at JDH’s willingness to help Scott find a position in India.
Naudin underrates contamination of his experiments by insects. Thus CD doubts Naudin’s results on rapidity and universality of reversion in hybrids.
Wallace’s paper on man [see 4494] reflects his genius, although CD does not fully agree with it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 [May 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 236 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4506 |
From C. V. Naudin 6 December 1864
Summary
Congratulates CD on the Copley Medal.
Directs CD to his short memoir on crossing ["De l’hybridité", C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. 59 (1864): 837–45].
| Author: | Charles Victor Naudin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Dec 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4703 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1856 are in DAR 205.7: 141. Naudin’s major work on Cucurbitaceae was not published in full until 1865 ( Naudin 1865 ; see also Correspondence vol. 10, letter …
- … letters to J. D. Hooker, 22 [May 1864] and 13 September [ 1864] and nn. 3 and 4). See also Geison 1969 , pp. 404–11, and J. Harvey 1997b . In Variation 1: 357–60, CD cited Naudin’s early work on Cucurbitaceae ( Naudin 1856 …
To J. D. Hooker 10 December [1864]
Summary
Has found incipient stages of adhesive discs in Hanburia tendrils.
Huxley was probably right to have challenged Sabine, but the poor old man is sick.
CD remembers the old Disraeli novel [Tancred (1847)] that sneers at transmutation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Dec [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 256 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4712 |
From George Bentham 10 July 1864
Summary
Sends specimens of two species of Aegiphila [see Forms of flowers, p. 123]. Discusses similar forms in other plants.
| Author: | George Bentham |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 July 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 110: B107–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4556 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 December 1864
Summary
Recounts row at the Royal Society over exclusion of mention of Origin from Sabine’s address awarding Copley Medal to CD.
Encloses two letters to JDH from James Hector in New Zealand.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Dec 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 260–1; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ correspondence 174: 429–31 & 433–4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4692 |
To William Erasmus Darwin [1 May 1864]
Summary
Writes of dimorphic plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [1 May 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 122 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5127 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter of 3 May [1864] ( Correspondence vol. 12), CD sent flowers of long-styled and short-styled P. angustifolia and asked William to outline the size of the anthers of the two forms. CD refers to Flora Vectensis: being a systematic description of the phænogamous or flowering plants and ferns indigenous to the Isle of Wight ( Bromfield 1856 ). …
To J. D. Hooker [1 September 1864]
Summary
CD continues to have trouble reconciling the Veitch’s names for Bignonia plants and Kew names.
Lyell and Falconer called on CD in London.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [1 Sept 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 248 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4605 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, 30 August 1864 . Charles Lyell and Hugh Falconer . CD refers to a fragment of human skull recovered from Forbes Quarry, Gibraltar. George Busk had argued that the find was of immense significance because the cranium resembled the disputed Neanderthal skull specimen found in 1856 …
To J. D. Hooker [10 and 12 January 1864]
Summary
CD very ill.
Suspects F. Boott’s widow is illegitimate granddaughter of Erasmus Darwin.
CD, like JDH, has speculated that agrarian weeds have become adapted to cultivated ground. Suggests comparison with country of origin.
Wallace’s praise of Herbert Spencer’s Social statics baffles CD.
[Letter completed by E. A. Darwin.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 and 12 Jan 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 216 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4389 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, 24 January 1864 , and Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 8 (1865): xxiii–xxvii). CD refers to his paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin , the author of Zoonomia; or, the laws of organic life (1794–6). Between his two marriages, Erasmus Darwin had two daughters with Mary Parker (1753–1820): Susanna Parker (1772–1856) …
From Charles Wright to Asa Gray 20, 25, and 26 March and 1 April 1864
Summary
Describes the flower and mode of action of a particular orchid.
Has been examining Spiranthes and is experimenting to see whether insects are necessary for its fertilisation.
It seems that Oncidium is designed so as not to be fertilised.
| Author: | Charles Wright |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 20, 25 and 26 Mar 1864 and 1 Apr 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 163 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4433 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letters from Gray to Hooker are in the Director’s Correspondence, Library and Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Much of Wright’s correspondence was forwarded through Gray, who also purchased his collections and sent him books and supplies (see Dupree 1959 , pp. 165–6, 211, and Howard 1988 , p. 20). Wright had been collecting plants in Cuba since 1856. …
From John Lubbock 28 July 1864
Summary
Has obtained microscopes for CD.
| Author: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 July 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 170: 46 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4575 |
From Ernst Haeckel 9 [July 1864]
Summary
No book has made such a powerful impression on EH as the Origin. Most older German scholars opposed to it, but number of supporters growing among the young. Fortunately strength of religious dogmas now small among educated Germans. Situation in Jena especially favourable. Defended CD’s theory last year at Congress of German Scientists in Stettin.
Intends special study of jellyfish.
Plans general work on natural history.
Hard fate [death of Anna Sethe Haeckel] has made EH indifferent to criticism.
Colleagues August Schleicher and Carl Gegenbaur also convinced by CD’s theory.
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 [July 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 35 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4555 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1856, Haeckel had been Virchow’s assistant at the Würzburg pathologisch–anatomische Anstalt (see Krauße 1987 , p. 31). Haeckel published several works in 1864 and 1865 on the Coelenterata, a class of invertebrates that included sea anemones and medusae (see Haeckel 1864b , 1865a, 1865b). He eventually sent CD copies of these papers (see letter …
| letter | (16) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (1) |
| Lubbock, John | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (1) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Lubbock, John | (1) |
| Naudin, C. V. | (1) |
| Scott, John | (1) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (1) |
| Walsh, B. D. | (1) |
| Wright, Charles | (1) |
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: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
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
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to …
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘ Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
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
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
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: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
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: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a …
Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
