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 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 |
To E. A. Darwin 30 June 1864
Summary
Has heard nothing about the Copley Medal. Is grateful for Hugh Falconer’s interest [see 4546].
Supplies details about circumstances of his voyage on the Beagle.
Does not believe that his sea-sickness was the cause of his subsequent ill-health.
Encloses the requested list of publications [see 4550].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Date: | 30 June 1864 |
| Classmark: | ML 1: 247–8; DAR 154: 67 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4548A |
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 |
From Maxwell Tylden Masters 19 September 1864
Summary
Explains several monstrous flowers sent by CD.
| Author: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Sept 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4617 |
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 |
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 |
To Charles William Crocker 31 January [1864]
Summary
Reminds CWC that he offered to give information with respect to his observations on hollyhocks. Wishes he could persuade CWC to undertake experiments on the fertility of some crosses between the most distinct varieties.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles William Crocker |
| Date: | 31 Jan [1864] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3425 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
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 |
To Asa Gray 29 October [1864]
Summary
Sends question [missing] for an ornithologist.
Is plodding on at Variation.
Has added to Climbing plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 29 Oct [1864] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (88) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4647 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and periodicals. London: C. Michell. 1856–1900. Variation : The variation of animals and …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … plants ‘diœciously dimorphous’ (see Gray 1856 , p. 171 n. ). In 1861, Gray had referred …
From E. A. Darwin 15 December [1864]
Summary
Sends a power of attorney to be executed and sent to the Old Bank; asks acknowledgment.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Dec [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B37–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4717 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire, with the City of Bristol. London: Kelly & Co. 1856–79. …
From [C. P.] 29 April 1864
Summary
On rereading the Origin, offers a criticism on two grounds: 1. Blending inheritance; 2. The tendency of species to elude competing species. Also competition within species eliminates the weak and thus preserves the species.
| Author: | Unidentified |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Apr 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 174: 1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4476 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker [20–]22 February [1864]
Summary
Does not know Scott’s qualifications to be curator at Kew.
Frankland’s theory of glaciers is absurd.
Has JDH heard claim that plants in Northern and Southern Hemispheres turn in opposite directions?
Are there plant families with no twining and climbing plants?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [20–]22 Feb [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 221a–c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4412 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From Robert Goodwin Mumbray 18 January 1864
Summary
Has verified J. M. Bechstein’s contention that species of finches hybridise.
Quotes Thomas Bewick’s observations on hybrids between pheasants and common fowl. RGM had often noticed so-called "pheasant fowl", but thought it was a foreign bird.
| Author: | Robert Goodwin Mumbray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Jan 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 318–318/1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4392 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … in 1842 and re-read one volume of it in 1856 (see Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV). …
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
- … disputed Neanderthal skull specimen found in 1856 in a cave above the Neander river, near …
To J. D. Hooker 23 September [1864]
Summary
Pleased with news of BAAS meeting
and Scott’s possible position as Thomas Anderson’s curator.
Suggests Wallace is due for a Royal Medal.
Agrees with JDH’s criticism of Lyell’s address [see 4614].
Bentham’s Linnean Society address treats continuity of life in a vague non-natural sense.
Rereading his old MS [Natural selection] CD is impressed with work he had already done.
Writing Variation much harder than Climbing plants.
Encloses request to JDH to propose, or suggest on his behalf, that the Ray Society publish a translation of C. F. von Gärtner’s Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849).
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 23 Sept [1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 96: 14; DAR 115: 250a–c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4621 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To Asa Gray 28 May [1864]
Summary
Is slowly writing Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].
Thanks for [Charles?] Wright’s observations on orchids
– could he note what attracts insects to Begonia and Melastoma? H. Crüger, who was going to observe Melastomataceae, has died.
Describes the climbing habits of Bignonia capreolata and Eccremocarpus scaber.
How does AG know the perfect flowers of Voandzeia are quite sterile?
He has a case of dimorphism in holly; asks AG to report on American hollies.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 28 May [1864] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (79) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4511 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Richard A. 1988. Charles Wright in Cuba 1856–1867. Alexandria, Virginia: Chadwyck-Healey. …
To Ernst Haeckel [after 10] August – 8 October [1864]
Summary
Can understand EH’s feelings on death of his wife.
CD was impressed by manner in which species in South America are replaced by closely allied ones, by affinity of species inhabiting islands near S. America, and by relation of living Edentata and Rodentia to extinct species. When he read Malthus On population, the idea of natural selection flashed on him.
Agrees with EH’s remarks on Kölliker ["Darwin’sche Schöpfungstheorie", Z. Wiss. Zool. 14 (1864): 174–86].
Asks EH to thank Carl Gegenbaur [for Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere (1864)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Date: | [after 10] Aug – 8 Oct [1864] |
| Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A–Abt. 1: 1–52/5) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4631 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
| letter | (32) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Scott, John | (2) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Brent, B. P. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (16) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
| Crocker, C. W. | (1) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (1) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Brent, B. P. | (1) |
| Crocker, C. W. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (31) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (2) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (4) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (10) |
| Lubbock, John | (1) |
| Masters, M. T. | (1) |
| Mumbray, R. G. | (1) |
| Naudin, C. V. | (1) |
| Parker, Charles | (1) |
| Scott, John | (2) |
| Unidentified | (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: 21 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s …
- … Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker, who were joined in 1856 by Hooker’s friend the American …
- … only source of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed …
- … might work in nature ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 10 ). He was surprised that no …
- … remarked to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 September [1856] ). I mean to make my …
- … on plants. Expanding projects set up during 1855 and 1856 (see Correspondence vol. 5), he tried …
- … first two chapters of his species book, completed by October 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix II). …
- … Gray, vary in the United States ( letter to Asa Gray, 2 May 1856 )? What about weeds? Did they …
- … hermaphrodite’ ( letter to to T. H. Huxley, 1 July [1856] ), which became a source of amusement in …
- … that Asa Gray and Hooker confirmed during the course of 1856. Science at home: the botanical …
- … many different experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden …
- … have grown well.’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 December [1856] ). His faith in his ideas …
- … trees (see letters to William Erasmus Darwin, [26 February 1856] and to Charles Lyell, 3 May …
- … Waring Darwin, the sixth and last, was born on 6 December 1856) was a constant worry, particularly …
- … in New South Wales ( letter to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ). Many other topics, …
- … the geological phenomenon of cleavage, still unresolved in 1856, with John Phillips and entered into …
- … visited the Darwins at Down House for several days in April 1856, and Darwin took this opportunity …
- … made in a letter written by Lyell from London on 1–2 May 1856. Darwin took the suggestion seriously …
- … him to write up his views ( letters to J. D. Hooker, 9 May [1856] ). Darwin had also …
- … At a second weekend party held at Down on 26 and 27 April 1856, he had discussed the question of …
- … doctrine.’ ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 7 ). The excitement and intellectual …
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: 4 hits
- … were built to the area (Darwin to J. D. Hooker, 8 April [1856] ). This meant that most of the …
- … family duties (Darwin to W. B. Tegetmeier, 19 November [1856] ) made him unable to travel to many …
- … his son William, [30 October 1858] ). In one letter in 1856, he explained his paternal feelings …
- … in this world.’ (Darwin to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ) In the late nineteenth century, …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
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…
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: 5 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … as Natural selection ). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by June 1858. At …
- … 2 13 October 1856 [Variation under domestication] [2] …
- … 11 13 October 1856 Geographical distribution (DAR 14; …
- … 3 16 December 1856 On the possibility of all organic …
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
- … research notes, including letters going back to at least 1856 . Among them were accounts of …
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
- … undefinable’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test …
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: 27 hits
- … [DAR *128: 160] Mansfield’s Paraguay [Mansfield 1856] } read Chesterton Prison Life …
- … Hutchison Dog Breaking 3 d . Edit [Hutchinson 1856] new information on Pointer & Retriever …
- … Annal des Sc. Nat. 4 th Series. Bot. Vol 6 [Naudin 1856]. Read Notes to Jardine & …
- … 1855 Sept. Tegetmeier on Poultry [Tegetmeier 1856–7] —— 27 th . Mem. de l’Acad. …
- … Das Ganze der Landwirttschaft [Kirchhof 1835].— 1856. Jan 10 th G. Colin Traite de …
- … [Rudolphi 1812] [DAR 128: 16] 1856 Jan 21. Huc’s Chinese Empire [Huc …
- … Mar 1 Veith Naturgeschichte Haussaugethiere [Veith 1856].— 3 d Knox Races of Man.— 1850 [R …
- … 1741–55] d[itt]o [DAR 128: 17] 1856 . Jan 28. Watt’s Life by Muirhead …
- … [Pepys 1848–9]— April 21 Sandwitt Kars [Sandwith 1856]. [DAR 128: 18] March …
- … 1851–6] —— Wollaston on Variation [Wollaston 1856] F. Smith on Apidæ [F. Smith 1855] …
- … 1835 [H. C. Watson 1835] [DAR 128: 20] 1856 June 26. Davis J. Barnard. …
- … 1855] —— 19 Von Tschudi Alpine life [Tschudi 1856] 30. Brehm Handbuch Vogel …
- … 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami [Andersson 1856] —— 26 Slightly skimmed Forbes …
- … 1765] Oct. 23. Tracings of Iceland Chambers [Chambers 1856]. —— Mansfield Travels in …
- … 2 vols July D r . Kane’s Arctic Voyage [Kane 1856] Sept. 12. Ch. Napiers Life …
- … rubbish yet amusing Nov. 15. Tender & True [Spence] 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6] …
- … Travels I ever read) Sept. Froude Henry VIII [Froude 1856]. 4 vols very interesting. …
- … —— 16 Zoologist [ Zoologist ]. up Vol. 14. 1856 May 9 th Voyage au Pol. Sud. Consid. Gen …
- … 1859 Feb. 28 Olmstead S. States [Olmsted 1856] (excellent) March 21. Mill on Liberty …
- … The revised edition of Johnston’s Physical atlas (1856) included ‘Map of the distribution of …
- … 113 The Cottage Gardener ceased publication in 1856. 114 CD marked this entry …
- … vols. London. 119: 14a Andersson, Carl Johan. 1856. Lake Ngami; or, explorations and …
- … [Darwin Library.] 119: 20a; *128: 173 ——. 1856. Tracings of Iceland and the Faröe …
- … [Other eds.] 119: 9a Chesterton, George Laval. 1856. Revelations of prison life; …
- … 128: 5 Davis, Joseph Barnard and Thurnam, John. 1856–65. Crania Britannica. …
- … Three visits to Madagascar during the years 1853, 1854, 1856 . London. 128: 24 …
- … . Lundæ. *119: 5v. Froude, James Anthony. 1856. History of England from the fall of …
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: 9 hits
- … naturalist Edward Forbes. Darwin declared to Hooker in July 1856 ‘y ou continental extensionists …
- … of his old friend, the geologist Charles Lyell, who, in May 1856, twenty months after Darwin had …
- … urgency to publish and, following Lyell’s advice in May 1856, began to write a sketch his theory. ‘I …
- … without full details. ’ Writing to his cousin Fox in June 1856, Darwin openly confessed his fears …
- … work ’ he had ‘desisted’. By November 1856, he had both good and bad news to report to Lyell: ‘ …
- … press. Although Darwin had decided in the autumn of 1856 to write only from the materials he …
- … wrote ten and a half chapters of his Big Book between May 1856 and June 1858. With a total of …
- … length ’, he had complained to Hooker in December 1856. By mid-1858, only the first chapter on …
- … being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858 (Cambridge University …
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…
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…
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
- … of the human form’, Quarterly Review , 99:198 (Sept. 1856), pp. 452-491. Joseph Simms, Nature’s …
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
- … to me’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 24 June [1856] ). In a follow-up letter, Darwin hinted at …
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
- … it was the subject of his first scientific paper (Müller 1856). In the autumn of 1855, Müller …
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
- … Letter 1979 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, 27 Oct [1856] Darwin provides detailed …
Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
Summary
As he was first developing his ideas, among the potential problems Darwin recognised with natural selection was how to account for developmental change that conferred no apparent advantage. He proposed a ‘mysterious law’ of ‘correlation of growth’ where…
Tenth child born
Summary
The Darwins' tenth and last child, Charles Waring Darwin, is born
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Darwins' tenth and last child, Charles Waring Darwin, is born …
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … work preparing his ‘big book’ on species. Begun in May 1856 at the urging of Lyell, the manuscript …
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
- … `big book’, Natural selection , begun in 1856. Coming hard on the heels of The descent of man …
