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To C. J. Andersson   25 March [1856]

Summary

Thanks for proof sheets of Lake Ngami: or, exploration and discoveries during four years’ wanderings in the wilds of South Western Africa (Andersson 1856).

Is very grateful for the information CJA has provided about cattle in South Africa, and wishes to ask further questions about native breeds.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles John (Carl Johann) Andersson
Date:  25 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  National Library of South Africa, Cape Town
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1845F

Matches: 10 hits

  • … To C.  J.  Andersson   25 March [1856] …
  • … Cape Town Charles Robert Darwin Down 25 Mar [1856] Charles John (Carl Johann) Andersson …
  • … Bibliography Andersson, Charles John. 1856. Lake Ngami: or, explorations and discoveries …
  • … wilds of South Western Africa (Andersson 1856). Is very grateful for the information CJA …
  • … Africa from 1850 to 1852 ( Andersson 1856 ). For Andersson’s reply to this question, see …
  • … Correspondence vol.  6, letter from C.  J.  Andersson, [6 April 1856] . …
  • … letter from C.  J.  Andersson, [6 April 1856] ( Correspondence vol.  6). CD refers to the …
  • … wilds of South Western Africa ( Andersson 1856 ). They have not been found in the Darwin …
  • … s observations of cattle in Andersson 1856 (under the title Travels in South Africa ) in …
  • … 6, letter from C.  J.  Andersson, [6 April 1856] for the surviving part); but CD wrote in …

To M. J. Berkeley   18 March [1856]

Summary

Thanks MJB for information which he is including in his article for the Linnean Society.

Refers to the peas "which produce the black or intensely purple pods". [See 1834 and 1836.]

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Miles Joseph Berkeley
Date:  18 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  Joseph R. Sakmyster, ADS Autographs (dealer) (no date)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1843A

Matches: 8 hits

  • … To M. J. Berkeley   18 March [1856] …
  • … dealer) (no date) Charles Robert Darwin 18 Mar [1856] Down Miles Joseph Berkeley …
  • … In his letter to Berkeley of 29 February [1856] ( Correspondence vol.  6), CD mentioned a …
  • … to impregnation’, and asked for a sample ( letter from M.  J.  Berkeley, 7 March 1856 ). …
  • … the letter from M.  J.  Berkeley, 7 March 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  6). Berkeley had …
  • … vol.  6, letter to M.  J.  Berkeley, 29 February [1856] and n.  3, and letter from M.   …
  • … J.  Berkeley, 7 March 1856 . The notice CD refers to is ‘On …
  • … on the germination of seeds’ (read 6 May 1856; Journal of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) …

To W. D. Fox   15 March [1856]

Summary

Believes WDF’s case of mongrel Scotch deerhound is very valuable for him.

Mentions his work on pigeons and chickens.

Fears sometimes he will break down: "My subject gets bigger and bigger".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Darwin Fox
Date:  15 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 97)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1843

Matches: 9 hits

  • … To W.  D. Fox   15 March [1856] …
  • … Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 97) Charles Robert Darwin Down 15 Mar [1856] William Darwin Fox …
  • … Shropshire Infirmary and CD’s brother-in-law, had died in January 1856 ( Eddowes Salopian …
  • … Journal , 16 January 1856, p.  5). …
  • … See letter from W.  D. Fox, 8 March [1856] , in which Fox related his view that the …
  • … See letter to Samuel Birch, [12 March 1856] . The alula is the ‘bastard-wing’ of birds, …
  • … See letter to W.  D. Fox, 8 March [1856] and n.  7. CD’s series of young pigeons was …
  • … entries in CD’s reading notebooks for March 1856 relating to early ornithological works. …
  • … letter to W.  B. Tegetmeier, 20 March [1856] ). The differences in the number of ribs is …

To W. B. Tegetmeier   20 March [1856]

Summary

Discusses various pigeons and would welcome receiving any odd breed. Some pigeons have died from overeating bag salt.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:  20 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1844

Matches: 10 hits

  • … To W.  B. Tegetmeier   20 March [1856] …
  • … Cox Collection) Charles Robert Darwin Down 20 Mar [1856] William Bernhard Tegetmeier …
  • … letter to W.  B. Tegetmeier, 15 March [1856] . Notes recording the results of CD’s crosses …
  • … my list of friends’ ( Cottage Gardener 16 (1856): 73–4). Tegetmeier concluded that ‘it is …
  • … vols. Berlin. Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1856. On the remarkable peculiarities existing …
  • … s Account book (Down House MS) for 10  March 1856 that reads: ‘Townsend: Skeletons’. There …
  • … work for Tegetmeier’s Poultry book (Tegetmeier ed. 1856– 7), the first number of which …
  • … was issued in May, or to Tegetmeier 1856 (see n.  8, below). Pallas 1767–80 , pt 4, pp.   …
  • … of this breed at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London on 25 November 1856. …
  • … In the written report ( Tegetmeier 1856 ) he mentioned Pyotr Simon Pallas’s earlier …

To Samuel Birch   [12 March 1856]

Summary

Arranges an appointment.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Samuel Birch
Date:  [12 Mar 1856]
Classmark:  British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1489)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1841A

Matches: 6 hits

  • … To Samuel Birch   [12 March 1856] …
  • … 1826–67: 1489) Charles Robert Darwin London, Queen Anne St, 57 [12 Mar 1856] Samuel Birch …
  • … CD was in London between 10 and 14 March 1856 (see the letter to W.   …
  • … D. Fox, 15 March [1856] ) staying with his brother, whose address he gives. He attended a …
  • … Society council minutes). See letters to J.  E. Gray, 14 January [1856] , and to Samuel …
  • … Birch , 6 February [1856]. Birch translated for CD passages referring to pigeons from an …

From M. J. Berkeley   7 March 1856

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Summary

Reports on breeding experiments with various seeds: corn, aubergine, kidney beans, sugar-peas. Speculates that cause of changes in seed colour in sugar-peas may be mere variation rather than result of impregnation.

Author:  Miles Joseph Berkeley
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  7 Mar 1856
Classmark:  DAR 160: 174
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1836

Matches: 5 hits

  • … From M.  J. Berkeley   7 March 1856
  • … DAR 160: 174 Miles Joseph Berkeley King’s Cliffe 7 Mar 1856 Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … letter to M.  J. Berkeley, 29 February [1856] . Lindley 1846 . In his paper, CD stated: ‘I …
  • … letter to M.  J. Berkeley, 29 February [1856] and n.  7. Gärtner 1849 . Berkeley 1857 . …
  • … of the Black Peas King’s Cliff | March 7. 1856. Two or three red peas sowed by themselves …

To Herbert Spencer   11 March [1856]

Summary

Thanks for copy of HS’s Principles of psychology [1855].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Herbert Spencer
Date:  11 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  DAR 147: 484a
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1841

Matches: 3 hits

  • … To Herbert Spencer   11 March [1856] …
  • … DAR 147: 484a Charles Robert Darwin Down 11 Mar [1856] Herbert Spencer …
  • … Down Bromley Kent March 11 th . [1856] M r . Darwin presents his compliments to M r . …

To W. B. Tegetmeier   15 March [1856]

Summary

Asks WBT to try to purchase some specific pigeons.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:  15 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1842

Matches: 5 hits

  • … To W.  B. Tegetmeier   15 March [1856] …
  • … Cox Collection) Charles Robert Darwin Down 15 Mar [1856] William Bernhard Tegetmeier …
  • … letter to W.  B. Tegetmeier, 20 March [1856] . Harrison William Weir was a noted pigeon …
  • … Tegetmeier’s Poultry book (Tegetmeier ed. 1856–7) and was to have provided the text for …
  • … letter to W.  B. Tegetmeier, 14 January [1856] , n.  1. The departure point for the coach …

From Edward Blyth   [c. 22 March 1856]

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Summary

Gives references to works on fowls and pigeons.

Observations on Gallinaceae.

Musk ox skull from southern England is additional evidence for Agassiz’s glacial period. Owen is mistaken in calling it a buffalo.

EB describes the buffalo proper.

Will send domestic pigeon specimens.

Believes pigeons were not bred in India before the Mohammedan conquest. Describes Indian breeds.

Believes the ass is an African rather than an Asian production. Discusses various species of ass and their distribution.

Wild horned cattle on borders of Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur.

[Notes received by CD on 6 May 1856.]

Author:  Edward Blyth
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [c. 22 Mar 1856]
Classmark:  DAR 98: 133–9
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1845

Matches: 9 hits

  • … From Edward Blyth   [ c . 22 March 1856] …
  • … DAR 98: 133–9 Edward Blyth Calcutta [c. 22 Mar 1856] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … cattle on borders of Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur. [Notes received by CD on 6 May 1856. ] …
  • … by Joseph de Guignes. ] Paris. Owen, Richard. 1856. Description of a fossil cranium of the …
  • … hybrid. ’ See letter from Edward Blyth, 23 February 1856  and n.  11. Hermann Schlegel was …
  • … Museum of the Netherlands in Leiden. Owen 1856 . The fossil ox was discovered by John …
  • … W.  E. Darwin, [25 April 1855] ). In August 1856, he began crossing all his kinds ‘to see …
  • … letter to W.  B. Tegetmeier, 30 August [1856] ). The records of his crosses are in DAR …
  • … See letter from Edward Blyth, 8 January [1856] . Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1855a . Bonaparte …

From W. D. Fox   8 March [1856]

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Summary

Is trying to procure some cocks for CD.

Believes Scotch deerhounds are mongrels.

Author:  William Darwin Fox
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  8 Mar [1856]
Classmark:  DAR 164: 174
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1646

Matches: 4 hits

  • … From W.  D. Fox   8 March [1856] …
  • … DAR 164: 174 William Darwin Fox Delamere 8 Mar [1856] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … to the letter to W.  D. Fox, 15 March [1856] . Windham W.  Hornby of Knowsley, Lancashire, …
  • … letter to John Lubbock, [14 January 1856] ). The Post Office directory of Cheshire (1857) …

To John Lubbock    [March? 1856]

Summary

JL is studying Cynipidae. CD sends galls for his examination.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:  [Mar? 1856]
Classmark:  DAR 263: 10 (EH 88206459)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2028

Matches: 3 hits

  • … To John Lubbock    [March? 1856] …
  • … 88206459) Charles Robert Darwin Down [Mar? 1856] John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron …
  • … in the British Museum from 10 to 14 March 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  6, Appendix II). …

From Thomas Hutton   8 March 1856

Summary

TH believes that the progeny of hybrid crosses, in which a domesticated or "artificial" race is involved, tend to resemble the more "natural" of their parents [see Natural selection, p. 486].

Provides some information on local hybrid domestic geese [see Natural selection, p. 439] and pigeons.

Author:  Thomas Hutton
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  8 Mar 1856
Classmark:  DAR 166: 283
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1838

Matches: 4 hits

  • … From Thomas Hutton   8 March 1856
  • … DAR 166: 283 Thomas Hutton Mussooree 8 Mar 1856 Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … Mussooree 8th March 1856 My dear Sir, When in my former letter I stated that the children …

To George Henry Kendrick Thwaites   8 March 1856

Summary

Hopes GHKT will publish on variations in plant species at different elevations. Asks about variations among plants on heights of Ceylon.

Promises to publish on the species question.

Asks for pigeons’ skins from India or Ceylon, and for ducks’ skeletons. Mentions help promised by E. F. Kelaart.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  George Henry Kendrick Thwaites
Date:  8 Mar 1856
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.125)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1837

Matches: 4 hits

  • … To George Henry Kendrick Thwaites   8 March 1856
  • … Mss.B.D25.125) Charles Robert Darwin Down 8 Mar 1856 George Henry Kendrick Thwaites …
  • … See letter to Walter Elliot, 23 January 1856 . Edward Frederick Kelaart is described in …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …

From John Morris   1 March 1856

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Summary

Informs CD on age of land, freshwater, and marine Mollusca.

Author:  John Morris
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  1 Mar 1856
Classmark:  DAR 205.2: 246
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1835

Matches: 2 hits

  • … From John Morris   1 March 1856
  • … DAR 205.2: 246 John Morris Kensington 1 Mar 1856 Charles Robert Darwin …

To Syms Covington   9 March 1856

Summary

Thanks SC for his interesting account of the state of the colony. SC was wise to settle there where his sons have much better prospects.

Has finished his book on barnacles [1854]. Royal Medal awarded him chiefly for this work.

Asks SC whether he has observed any odd imported breeds of poultry, for his work on variation of species.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Syms Covington
Date:  9 Mar 1856
Classmark:  Sydney Mail, 9 August 1884, p. 255
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1840

Matches: 2 hits

  • … To Syms Covington    9 March 1856
  • … Sydney Mail , 9 August 1884, p. 255 Charles Robert Darwin Down 9 Mar 1856 Syms Covington …
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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

Matches: 2 hits

  • … 21 JULY 1855 14  C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 14 JULY 1856 15  A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
  • … 1855 23  JD HOOKER TO C DARWIN, 9 NOVEMBER 1856 24  C DARWIN TO JD …

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: 2 hits

  • … to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856 that he publish a short version of his …
  • … in persuading Darwin not to publish an abstract in 1856 , Darwin explained to whole affair to him …

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…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Owen, and Louis Agassiz (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 9 May 1856 and 21 May 1856). But he considered …

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: 2 hits

  • … Letter 1836  - Berkeley, M. J. to Darwin, [7 March 1856] Clergyman and botanist …
  • … Letter 1836  - Berkeley, M. J. to Darwin, [7 March 1856] Clergyman and botanist Miles …

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…

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  • … 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…

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  • … 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,…

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  • … 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…

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  • … to write up a ‘preliminary essay’ on his views in 1856, he went back to Fox to check his facts, …
  • … the African explorer and army surgeon William Daniell in 1856 was probably in reply to such a …

3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1

Summary

< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…

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  • … burgeoned into a multi-faceted commercial enterprise: by 1856 Maull and Polyblank were offering …
  • … and photography: portrait publications in Great Britain, 1856-1900’, PhD thesis, University of Texas …

Begins 'Natural Selection'

Summary

Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but later formed the basis for On the Origin of Species

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  • … Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but …

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),…

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  • … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …
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