To Thomas Davidson 30 April 1861
Summary
Thanks TD for his letter. Difficulties with CD’s theory are many and great, but CD thinks the reason is that we underestimate our ignorance. The imperfection of the geological record counts heavily for CD. His greatest trouble is weighing "the direct effects … of changed conditions of life without any selection, with the action of selection on mere accidental (so to speak) variability. I oscillate much on this head, but generally return to my belief that the direct [effects] … have not been great."
Is surprised that any one, like W. B. Carpenter, can go as far as to believe all birds may have descended from one parent, but will not go further and include all the members of the same great division. Such beliefs make "Divine mockeries" of morphology and embryology, the most important of all subjects.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Davidson |
Date: | 30 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 373 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3131 |
From P. L. Sclater 17 April 1861
Summary
Corrects CD’s statement [Origin, 3d ed.] that Madeira does not possess one peculiar bird. There is one, out of the 99.
Author: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 292 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3121 |
To H. W. Bates 4 April [1861]
Summary
CD urges HWB to write on his travels;
asks for facts on domestic variations;
is pleased by HWB’s acceptance of the theory of sexual selection.
He still believes in migration from north to south during glacial age.
Hopes Bates will publish a paper on mimicry.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
Date: | 4 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3109 |
To Abraham Dee Bartlett 26 May [1861]
Summary
Bearer brings three Porto Santo rabbits. Will ADB keep them and see whether they can be crossed with some other breed? CD believes they have become much reduced in size and modified in colour since their introduction into the island.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Abraham Dee Bartlett |
Date: | 26 May [1861] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3159 |
From W. B. Tegetmeier 4 May [1861]
Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 May [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 256 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3139 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … B. Tegetmeier, 24 June [1856], and letter from Charles Lyell, …
- … manifest. See Correspondence vol. 6, letters to W. D. Fox, 15 March [1856] , and to W. …
- … 1856 , n. 10. See also Origin , pp. 445–6, and Variation 1: 178, 248–50. Bernard Peirce Brent was a frequent contributor to both the Cottage Gardener and the Field on various subjects pertaining to domesticated birds and animals. Tegetmeier’s paper on Antwerp carrier pigeons did not appear in the Natural History Review , of which Thomas Henry Huxley was chief editor. See letters …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 25 February [1861]
Summary
Would like to borrow WBT’s collection of fowls’ skulls.
Asks for WBT’s opinion of G. Ferguson, the author of a poultry book [Ferguson’s illustrated book of domestic poultry].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 25 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3070 |
To Samuel Birch 6 April [1861]
Summary
Requests information about Japanese and Chinese encyclopedias,
about the rarity of fowls with black feathers,
and about date of the king Thouthmosis III.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Birch |
Date: | 6 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, Correspondence 1826–67: 1493 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3113A |
To John Crawfurd 25 March [1861]
Summary
Asks for information about JC’s essay, "On the relation of the domesticated animals to civilisation" [read at BAAS meeting 1859].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Crawfurd |
Date: | 25 Mar [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 299 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13786 |
To B. P. Brent 1 April [1861]
Summary
Thanks for informatiion about birds and for copies of the Cottage Gardener (26 March 1861). Discusses ancestor of domestic fowl.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
Date: | 1 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | Richard Brent (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3107F |
To John Lubbock [before 5 February 1861]
Summary
Comments on JL’s paper ["Notes on the generative organs, and on the formation of the egg in the Annulosa", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 11 (1860–2): 117–24].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
Date: | [before 5 Feb 1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 263: 40c (EH 88206451) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3038 |
To Journal of Horticulture [before 14 May 1861]
Summary
Asks D. Beaton whether varieties of the same species of Compositae frequently cross by insect agency or other means. Do the raisers of hollyhocks have to keep each variety separate for raising seed?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Journal of Horticulture |
Date: | [before 14 May 1861] |
Classmark: | Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman, n.s. 1 (1861): 112 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3147 |
To T. C. Eyton 14 May [1861]
Summary
Asks TCE to confirm some general statements on resemblances in skeletons of birds of same genus.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
Date: | 14 May [1861] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.249) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3148 |
To [Robert Chambers?] 13 April [1861]
Summary
Since his previous letter, has unexpectedly arranged to go to London next Tuesday.
Hopes to call on recipient.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Chambers |
Date: | 13 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | John Wilson (dealer) (item 25007) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3117F |
To J. D. Hooker 17 November [1861]
Summary
JDH’s letter on grounds of generalisation in plant morphology.
Faunal distribution and the glacial period.
Orchid homologies.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 17 Nov [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 131 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3322 |
To H. W. Bates 15 December [1861]
Summary
Praises MS of first chapter of HWB’s book [The naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)]. Suggests he give common names and make comparisons to familiar English species to help readers. Suggests a few changes. Will speak strongly to Murray about publishing whenever HWB is ready.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
Date: | 15 Dec [1861] |
Classmark: | Leeds University Library Special Collections (Brotherton collection) (tipped into a copy of Bates 1892) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3345 |
To the Field [before 4 May 1861]
Summary
Information is sought from correspondents regarding the mental powers of Polish and other tufted fowls. CD finds it hard to believe that the protuberance of the front part of the skull, which is accompanied by a change in the shape of the brain, would not produce a change in mental powers. References to Bechstein, Pallas, and Tegetmeier regarding the stupid behaviour of these birds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | The Field |
Date: | [before 4 May 1861] |
Classmark: | The Field, the Farm, the Garden, the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper 17 (1861): 383 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3137A |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 6, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 20 March [1856] , and n. 3, below). …
- … letter appeared. It was headed: ‘Influence of the form of the brain on the character of fowls’. William Bernhard Tegetmeier read a short paper on the ‘remarkable peculiarities’ of the skulls of feather-crested Polish fowls at the Zoological Society of London in November 1856 ( …
From J. D. Hooker [30 December 1861 or 6 January 1862]
Summary
Glad CD has given up on Acropera ovules.
Doubts phanerogams less different in extreme forms [than Crustacea].
No systematic parallelism between plants and animals.
Offers list of Arctic plants with their colours. Asks CD whether it is useful to add colour to [descriptions of] plants.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [30 Dec] 1861 or [6 Jan] 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 3–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3375 |
Matches: 2 hits
To Daniel Oliver 30 November [1861]
Summary
Requests that DO examine enclosed microscope slides of Acropera ovules, to confirm CD’s opinion that females are non-functional.
Can DO comment on disagreement between Robert Brown and John Lindley over the number of Acropera carpels?
O. Heer’s Atlantis theory vs CD’s hypothesis of a migration north during warm periods.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 30 Nov [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 2 (EH 88205986) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3333 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … see especially Correspondence vol. 6, letters to Charles Lyell , 16 [June 1856] and …
- … 1856] ). Oliver’s critique of Heer’s work was published in the Natural History Review ( Oliver 1862a ). CD postulated that during a pre-glacial warm period, northern temperate forms lived at latitudes further north and nearer to the pole than at present, and were able to migrate freely across the almost continuous land between western Europe and eastern America via Siberia ( Origin , pp. 369–70; see also Correspondence vol. 7, letter …
To T. C. Eyton 12 [May 1861 – April 1863]
Summary
Thanks TCE for telling him of his crossed pigs. When they are grown, he would like to know whether they resemble each other.
Doubts the half-bred Gallus sonnerati will be productive, though he was assured many years ago that such a fertile half-breed once occurred.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
Date: | 12 [May 1861 - Apr 1863] |
Classmark: | Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham (EYT/1/45) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13804 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … C. Eyton, 21 August [1856] ). See Correspondence vol. 10, letter from T. C. Eyton, [ …
- … 1856 about the offspring of an African pig, belonging to Rowland Hill , and a common pig (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
- … letter may be a reply) may have been Gallus sonneratii . In Natural selection , p. 435 n. 12, CD wrote, ‘several years ago I myself saw at the Zoological Gardens young birds, which were the offspring of hybrids inter se from a Sonnerat cock & Bantam Hen’. ( Natural selection , the manuscript of CD’s ‘big book’ on species, was written between 1856 …
To Daniel Oliver 7 December [1861]
Summary
Trusts DO’s opinion on Acropera ovules.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 7 Dec [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 3 (EH 88205987) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3340 |
letter | (34) |
Brent, B. P. | (1) |
Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (26) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Sclater, P. L. | (1) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (1) |
Wyman, Jeffries | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Journal of Horticulture | (3) |
Bates, H. W. | (2) |
Eyton, T. C. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (34) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Gray, Asa | (3) |
Journal of Horticulture | (3) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (3) |
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 …