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To George Dickie   [5 July 1861]

Summary

Thanks for Listera specimen, which arrived withered from being sent in a wooden box.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  George Dickie
Date:  [5 July 1861]
Classmark:  Liverpool Central Library
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3198

Matches: 1 hit

  • … near Aberdeen (see Correspondence vol.  6, letter from George Dickie, 1 December  1856 ). …

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: 4 hits

  • … vols. Berlin. Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1856. On the remarkable peculiarities existing …
  • … of feather-crested Polish fowls at the Zoological Society of London in November 1856 ( …
  • … Tegetmeier 1856 ). CD had provided him with a reference for this paper (see Correspondence …
  • … 6, letter to W.  B.  Tegetmeier, 20 March [1856] , and n.  3, below). Pyotr Simon Pallas …

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

Matches: 4 hits

  • … whom CD had corresponded on this topic in 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  6, letter from …
  • … E.  W.  V. Harcourt, 31 May 1856 , and letters to E.  W.   …
  • … V.  Harcourt, 19 August [1856] and …
  • … 23 August [1856] ). An annotated copy of Harcourt’s paper on the ornithology of Madeira ( …

From Jeffries Wyman   8 January [1861]

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Summary

Responds to CD’s inquiries about rattlesnake.

Author:  Jeffries Wyman
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  8 Jan [1861]
Classmark:  DAR 89: 18–21
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3045

Matches: 4 hits

  • … Zoologie 8: 294–301. Hoeven, Jan van der. 1856–8. Handbook of zoology. Translated from the …
  • … Zeitsch.  f. wissench. Zool. Vol VIII 1856. This last I have not seen, & only know it …
  • … and Bibron 1834–54. Czermak 1857 . Hoeven 1856–8 , 2: 259–60. Spencer Fullerton Baird was …
  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …

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

Matches: 5 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … intended for his ‘big book’ on species, in 1856 (see Correspondence vol.  6, letters to …
  • … J.  D.  Hooker, 13 July [1856] and [ …
  • … 16 October 1856] , and letter from J.   …
  • … D.  Hooker, 9 November 1856 ). Hooker also read the ‘abstract’ of this chapter that CD …

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

  • … s ‘big book’ on species, was written between 1856 and 1858. ) See also Variation 1: 234, …
  • … been found. CD and Eyton had corresponded in 1856 about the offspring of an African pig, …
  • … 6, letter to T.  C.  Eyton, 21 August [1856] ). See Correspondence vol.  10, letter from …

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

Matches: 3 hits

  • … In 1856, CD had asked Birch, then assistant keeper in the department of antiquities of the …
  • … vol.  6, letter to J.  E.  Gray, 14 January [1856] ). Birch subsequently provided CD with …
  • … letter to Samuel Birch, 8 April [1856] ). Apparently Birch was unable to provide a firm …

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

Matches: 3 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … letters to George Bentham , 30 November [1856] , and to W.  D.  Fox, 22 February [1857]. …
  • … issues from October 1855 through March 1856 and from January 1860 to February 1866,—are in …

To J. D. Hooker   18 March [1861]

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Summary

Argument, based on geographical distribution and competition, for a mundane glacial period rather than cooling of one longitudinal belt at a time.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  18 Mar [1861]
Classmark:  DAR 115: 90
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3091

Matches: 3 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … distribution, see Correspondence vol.  6, letters to Charles Lyell , 16 [June 1856] and …
  • … 25 June [1856] . The Swiss palaeobotanist Oswald Heer had invoked a hypothetical …

To Asa Gray   17 September [1861]

Summary

U. S. politics and relations with England.

Wants examples of dimorphism similar to Primula.

Structure and function of Spiranthes flower.

Observations and experiments on Drosera.

CD’s views on design.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  17 Sept [1861]
Classmark:  Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (72)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3256

Matches: 4 hits

  • … University Press. Olmsted, Frederick Law. 1856. A journey in the seaboard slave states, …
  • … the southern slave states ( Olmsted 1856 , 1857, and 1860) CD had read. See Correspondence …
  • … s Journeys in the Slave States [ Olmsted 1856 ], a book he had lately been reading; and in …
  • … Asa Gray, 16 September [1861] . A.  Gray 1856 , p.  80. The passage is marked in CD’s copy …

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

Matches: 2 hits

  • … it. CD experimented on Lychnis dioica in 1856, using seeds that were given to him by John …
  • … 6, letters to J.  S.  Henslow, 16 June [1856] , and to J.  D.  Hooker, 12 April [1857]). …

From W. B. Tegetmeier   4 May [1861]

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Summary

Sends some replies to CD’s queries and data on pigeon flights between Bordeaux and Verviers.

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

  • … manifest. See Correspondence vol.  6, letters to W.  D. Fox, 15 March [1856] , and to W.   …
  • … B.  Tegetmeier, 24 June [1856], and letter from Charles …
  • … Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 , n.  10. See also Origin , pp.  445–6, and Variation 1: 178, 248–50. …

To Charles Lyell   2 February [1861]

Summary

Quotes passage from letter from Asa Gray dealing with views of Francis Bowen on heredity and Agassiz "(foolish man)" on heredity and languages.

Sent CL the Calcutta Review [with Edward Blyth’s review of Origin, 35 (1860): 64–88].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  2 Feb [1861]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.238)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3054

Matches: 2 hits

  • … of Chicago Press. Max Müller, Friedrich. 1856. Comparative mythology. In vol. 2 of Oxford …
  • … essay by Friedrich Max Müller ( Max Müller 1856 ) that had greatly impressed him (see K.   …

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

Matches: 2 hits

  • … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
  • … 6, letter to W.  B.  Tegetmeier, 31 May [1856] , and letters from Edward Hewitt , 18  …

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

Matches: 2 hits

  • … vol.  6, letter from T.  V.  Wollaston, [February 1856] , and letter to W.   …
  • … D.  Fox, 8 [June 1856] . The Darwins were planning to leave soon for Torquay (see letter …

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

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Correspondence vol.  6, letter to Thomas Davidson, 23 December [1856] , and letter from …
  • … Thomas Davidson, 29 December 1856 . See letter from Thomas Davidson, 3 May 1861 . The …

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 …
  • … 25 June [1856] ). Oliver’s critique of Heer’s work was published in the Natural History …

From J. D. Hooker   [30 December 1861 or 6 January 1862]

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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

  • … distribution (see Correspondence vol.  6, letters to Charles Lyell , 16 [June 1856] and …
  • … 25 June [1856] ). The existence of a sunken continent, ‘Atlantis’, had been invoked by …

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

Matches: 1 hit

  • … 6, letter from Edward Blyth, 23 February 1856  and n.  21, and this volume, letter to W.   …

To Journal of Horticulture   [before 9 July 1861]

Summary

CD thanks correspondents for information relating to the fertilisation of Pelargonium and of wheat. Suggests further observations and experiments.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Journal of Horticulture
Date:  [before 9 July 1861]
Classmark:  Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman n.s. 1 (1861): 280–1
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3204A

Matches: 2 hits

  • … and carried on his own investigations in 1856 and 1857. One of the ‘great names’ to which …
  • … vol.  6, letters to J.  D. Hooker, 13 July [1856] , and to Asa Gray , 18 June [1857]. The …
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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 …

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…

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  • … `big book’,  Natural selection , begun in 1856.  Coming hard on the heels of  The descent of man …

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 …
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