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From Joseph Beete Jukes   27 February 1860

Summary

Believes in the "perfect indefiniteness & frequently the vast length of the interval" between consecutive geological formations. Thus has little respect for arguments against CD based on the absence of transitional forms in the geological record. States that species found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are really varieties of greatly differing ages. CD’s theory accounts for the progressive inprovement, multiplication and increase in complexity that can be seen, but which may often be only relative.

Author:  Joseph Beete Jukes
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  27 Feb 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 125–7)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2716A

Matches: 3 hits

  • … P.  Woodward, 27 May 1856 . …
  • … on the variability of species of fossil shells in 1856. See Correspondence vol.  6, letter …
  • … from S.  P.  Woodward, 2 May 1856 , and letter to S.   …

To Charles Lyell   20 November [1860]

Summary

Admires Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions, but it will discourage investigation of distribution.

Mentions Oswald Heer’s proposed map of Atlantis.

Discusses extinction of plants caused by the glacial era. Migration of plants and animals during glacial period.

Encourages CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].

Comments on unfriendly reviews. Asks CL’s opinion about including a reply to reviewers in next edition of Origin.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  20 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.233)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2989

Matches: 7 hits

  • … Forbes 1846 . See preceding letter. In 1856, when he was composing his species manuscript, …
  • … 6, letter to Charles Lyell, 25 June [1856] . Heer 1855 . Lyell was more disposed toward …
  • … vol.  6, letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 . See, for example, Correspondence vol.   …
  • … 6, letter from J.  D.  Hooker, 4 August 1856 , and letter to J.   …
  • … D.  Hooker, 5 August [1856] . Natural selection , pp.  534– …
  • … this chapter with Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  6). Origin , p.   …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …

To Charles Lyell   14 January [1860]

Summary

Review of Origin in Gardeners’ Chronicle [31 Dec 1859].

Criticises views of J. G. Jeffreys on non-migration of shells. Cites case of Galapagos shells.

Mentions Edward Forbes’s theory of submerged continental extensions. Cites Hooker’s [introductory] essay [in Flora Tasmaniae (1860)] for evidence against any recent connection between Australia and New Zealand.

Discusses Huxley’s views of hybrid sterility.

Questions whether Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire believed in species change. Mentions views of Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

The distribution of cave insects.

CD’s study of man.

The problems of locating French and German translators.

Huxley’s criticism of Owen’s views on human classification.

The sale of Origin.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  14 Jan [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.192)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2650

Matches: 6 hits

  • … in Annals & Mag.  of Nat. History for Feb.  1856. He refers, to another paper on British …
  • … G.  Jeffreys, 29 December [1859] ). Jeffreys 1856 . There is an annotated offprint in the …
  • … 2d ser. 3: 12–20. Jeffreys, John Gwyn. 1856. On the marine Testacea of the Piedmontese …
  • … a prior state of things. ’ ( Jeffreys 1856 , p.  171). On the question of plant migration …
  • … and Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1846 and again in 1856 (see Correspondence vols.  3 and 6). CD …
  • … 6, letter to Charles Lyell, 25 June [1856] ). Hooker 1859 , p.  lxxxvii. In his copy ( …

To Charles Lyell   8 [May 1860]

Summary

Did not know about separation between Silurian and Cambrian.

Cannot attend Geological Society meeting.

Etty [Henrietta Darwin] ill.

Sedgwick in his attack at Cambridge Philosophical Society states "there must be [on CD’s theory] large genera not varying".

Discusses migration of plants and animals from Old World to New.

Views of Asa Gray on Aster.

Mentions flora of coal period.

Has been elected to Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  8 [May 1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.211)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2788

Matches: 5 hits

  • … Charles Lyell , 17 June 1856  and [ …
  • … 1 July 1856] . CD was drafting chapters on pigeons that were eventually published in …
  • … ocean. He and Lyell had discussed the subject at length in 1856. See Correspondence vol.   …
  • … 6, especially letters to Charles Lyell , 16 [June 1856] and …
  • … 25 June [1856] , and letters from …

To J. M. Rodwell   5 November [1860]

Summary

Comments on relationship between eye-colour and deafness in cats [discussed in Origin]. Asks for more information.

Mentions criticism of Origin.

Thanks for information about horses.

Hopes JMR writes his book on language. Mentions Hensleigh Wedgwood’s work [A dictionary of English etymology, 3 vols. (1859–65)].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Medows Rodwell
Date:  5 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  DAR 147: 328; Bradford Museums and Galleries: Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley (NH.6.40 p. 641)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2976

Matches: 4 hits

  • … CD with this information at some point before 1856. See Correspondence vol.  6, letters …
  • … to W.  D.  Fox, 8 [June 1856] and …
  • … 14 June [1856] . Sichel 1847 . CD cited this paper in Variation 2: 329. See letter from …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …

From Andrew Murray   3 May 1860

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Summary

Responds to CD’s comments on his review of the Origin. Regrets lack of space often causes him to do injustice to CD and to himself. Agrees to alter some of his statements

and offers some evidence for his opinions on plant hybridising.

Sends references to papers mentioning cave insects. Paussi are not blind, as CD thinks, though some other insects that live in ants’ nests are. Each country over the world has its peculiar species of Paussi, though they all live in ants’ nests. "Physical condition I say – Natural Selection you say".

Author:  Andrew Dickson (Andrew) Murray
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  3 May 1860
Classmark:  DAR 47: 153–153a
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2780

Matches: 4 hits

  • … p.  27. Sturm 1844  and 1847. H.  Müller 1856 . H.  Müller 1857 . Afzelius 1798 . The …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … de France 3d ser. 7: 71–3. Müller, Hermann. 1856. Beschreibung eines augenlosen Käfers ( …
  • … Laibach (Müller) Stettiner&Ent: Zeitung (1856— 17 th .  year) p.  310 D o . Carniola—( …

To Richard Kippist?   1 February [1860]

Summary

CD is sending some books by carrier. Requests that he be given the 1st and also the 10th editions of Vestiges of creation [1844, 1853], and also the 2d edition of Baden Powell’s Unity of worlds [1856]. "No other editions will be of any service." [See Origin (1861), "Historical sketch".]

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Richard Kippist
Date:  1 Feb [1860]
Classmark:  Gallery of History (dealers) (1997)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2678

Matches: 3 hits

  • … of Baden Powell’s Unity of worlds [1856]. "No other editions will be of any service." [See …
  • … spirit of the inductive philosophy ( Powell 1856 ) was much enlarged. See CD’s two letters …
  • … John Murray. 1859. Powell, Baden. 1856. Essays on the spirit of inductive philosophy, …

To J. D. Hooker   [20 February 1860]

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Summary

Comments on W. H. Harvey’s article on a monstrous Begonia [Gard. Chron. 18 Feb 1860].

Is astonished at being attacked for not allowing great and abrupt variations under nature. More evidence needed to make CD admit that forms have often changed "by saltum".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  [20 Feb 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 115: 41
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2705

Matches: 3 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … 318–21. See Correspondence vol.  6, letters to George Bentham , 30 November [1856] and …
  • … 3 December [1856] . Hooker published a response to Harvey’s letter in the Gardeners’ …

To Edward Cresy   [12 November 1860]

Summary

Thanks for information about the weight of water.

Describes experiments on Drosera.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Edward Cresy, Jr
Date:  [12 Nov 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 143
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2620

Matches: 2 hits

  • … 6, letter to S.  P.  Woodward, 15 May [1856] ). There is an annotated copy of the work in …
  • … 1851–6 ), which he had read and praised in 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  4, Appendix IV, …

From Williams & Norgate   29 March 1860

Summary

W&N have not yet received the German edition of the Origin.

Recommend French–English and French dictionaries.

Author:  Williams & Norgate
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  29 Mar 1860
Classmark:  DAR 91: 82
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2735

Matches: 2 hits

  • … John Murray. 1859. Poitevin, Prosper. 1856–60. Nouveau dictionnaire universal de la langue …
  • … was not published until 1878. Poitevin 1856–60 . Fleming and Tibbins 1841– 4. CD had a …

From Daniel Oliver   25 September 1860

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Summary

His results with pure gum on Drosera spathulata entirely support CD’s opinion. Other observations on insectivorous plants.

Author:  Daniel Oliver
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  25 Sept 1860
Classmark:  DAR 58.1: 1–3
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2927

Matches: 2 hits

  • … in 1861 ( Oliver 1861 ). Bromfield 1856 . See letter to Daniel Oliver, 15 [September  …
  • … 1: i–xxiv, 1–47. Bromfield, William Arnold. 1856. Flora Vectensis: being a systematic …

To Charles Lyell   10 January [1860]

Summary

Comments on corrections [in Origin, 2d ed. (1860)], especially on use of Wallace’s name.

Discusses human evolution with respect to CL’s work. Cites expression as a source of evidence.

Andrew Murray’s criticisms of the Origin involving blind insects in caves [Edinburgh New Philos. J. n.s. 11 (1860): 141–51].

Humorously describes human ancestors.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  10 Jan [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.191)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2647

Matches: 4 hits

  • … See Correspondence vol.  6, letters from Thomas Hutton , 8 March 1856 , and from W.  F. …
  • … Daniell, 8 October – 7 November 1856; and vol.  7, letter to Asa Gray, 18 November [ …
  • … Spencer 1855 , which Herbert Spencer presented to CD in 1856 (see Correspondence vol.   …
  • … 6, letter to Herbert Spencer, 11 March [1856] ). CD’s copy of this work is in the Darwin …

From Charles James Fox Bunbury   30 January 1860

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Summary

On the Origin. Before expressing his disagreements, CJFB praises CD’s labour, patience, fairness, and other qualities which make the work "one of the most important that has ever appeared in Natural History". [See 2690.]

Author:  Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  30 Jan 1860
Classmark:  DAR 98 (ser. 2): 26
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2669

Matches: 1 hit

  • … after 2 August 1845] ; and vol.  6, letter to C.  J.  F.  Bunbury, 21 April [1856] . …

To Asa Gray   26 November [1860]

Summary

Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.

Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.

Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  26 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (27)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2998

Matches: 3 hits

  • … Harvard University. Olmsted, Frederick Law. 1856. A journey in the seaboard slave states, …
  • … great interest, remarking that Olmsted 1856  was ‘excellent’ ( Correspondence vol.  4, …
  • … s copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Gray 1856 , p.  350. CD remembered the plant growing …

To Charles Lyell   3 October [1860]

Summary

Comments on letter from Jeffries Wyman.

Discusses reprinting reviews by Asa Gray.

Mentions views of W. S. Symonds on the geological record.

Discusses descent of turtles and tortoises.

The universality of variation.

Notes only a few species leave modified descendants.

Discusses Apteryx.

Variation among pigeons.

Comments on fertility among hybrids.

Does not agree that he makes natural selection do too much work.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  3 Oct [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.230)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2935

Matches: 3 hits

  • … letter. CD had asked James Dwight Dana in 1856 whether the blind rats and other fauna from …
  • … See Correspondence vol.  6, letter to J.  D.  Dana, 14 July [1856] , and letter from J.   …
  • … D.  Dana, 8 September 1856 . [Gray] 1860c. See letter to Asa Gray, 26 September [1860] . …

To H. G. Bronn   5 October [1860]

Summary

Answers HGB’s criticism of Origin.

Explains HGB’s case of differences in rats by adaptation.

CD’s view explains homological and embryological resemblances of each type.

Does not believe all development is at same rate. Cites Australian forms.

Does not see force of objection that origin of life must be explained.

Asks if C. L. Brehm’s subspecies of birds are really characteristic of regions of Germany.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Heinrich Georg Bronn
Date:  5 Oct [1860]
Classmark:  Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2940

Matches: 3 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … See Correspondence vol.  6, letters to E.  W.  V.  Harcourt, 19 August [1856] and …
  • … 23 August [1856] . He mentioned Christian Ludwig Brehm’s reputation for describing as …

To J. S. Henslow   16 July [1860]

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Summary

Discusses Charles Daubeny’s views on sexuality of plants [Rep. BAAS 30 (1860) pt 2: 109–10]. "There is no greater mystery in the whole world, as it seems to me, than the existence of sexes, – more especially since the discovery of Parthenogenesis."

Says apropos of the FitzRoy Bible incident [at Oxford BAAS meeting], "I think his mind is often on verge of insanity."

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Stevens Henslow
Date:  16 July [1860]
Classmark:  DAR 93: A74–5
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2869

Matches: 2 hits

  • … 39–44. Siebold, Karl Theodor Ernst von. 1856. Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmetterlingen …
  • … s research on parthenogenesis ( Siebold 1856 ), which demonstrated that the ova of bees …

From Charles Lyell   [after 3 October 1860]

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Summary

CD would have carried the public more if he had explained adaptations by multiple causes, some unknown and some well known, i.e., natural selection.

Discusses Hooker’s views of extinction on St Helena.

Work on antiquity of man suspended.

Stopped by 11th edition of Principles of geology [1872].

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [after 3 Oct 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 205.9: 397
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2937

Matches: 2 hits

  • … 1867–8 ). There are copies of all these works in the Darwin Library–CUL. [Hooker] 1856. [ …
  • … Hooker] 1856, p.  156 n. Joseph Dalton Hooker there described Alphonse de Candolle’s view …

From Leonard Jenyns   4 January 1860

Summary

Has read Origin and considers it one of the most valuable contributions to present-day natural history. Believes, however, that there are difficulties in the extensive generalisation that all taxonomic groups are related by descent. Does not understand how Genesis is to be read unless at least the human species was created independently of other animals. Cannot bring himself to the idea that man’s reasoning and moral sense could have been obtained from "irrational progenitors": the "Divine Image" is the unsurmountable distinction between man and brutes. [See 2644.]

Author:  Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  4 Jan 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 95–103)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2637A

Matches: 2 hits

  • … a paper on the species question ( Jenyns 1856 ). In 1858, he sent CD his notes on the …
  • … University Press. 1985–. Jenyns, Leonard. 1856. On the variation of species. Report of the …

To Baden Powell   18 January [1860]

Summary

To avoid possible misundertanding of his letter [2654] of that morning, CD wishes to make clear that he did not wish to imply that BP’s essay and the Vestiges of creation were in the same class. The more he thinks of it the more difficult he feels it would be to give a fair account of the authors who have maintained the modification of species. CD finds that he referred to BP’s views in the preface to his larger work [Natural selection], which was replaced by the Origin.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Baden Powell
Date:  18 Jan [1860]
Classmark:  Linnean Society of London (Quentin Keynes collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2655

Matches: 2 hits

  • … the manuscript on species that he wrote between 1856 and 1858 ( Natural selection ), from …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
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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…

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…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … 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 …

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 …
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