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 |
From Jeffries Wyman 8 January [1861]
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: …
From W. B. Tegetmeier 4 May [1861]
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 |
From J. D. Hooker [30 December 1861 or 6 January 1862]
Summary
Glad CD has given up on Acropera ovules.
Doubts phanerogams less different in extreme forms [than Crustacea].
No systematic parallelism between plants and animals.
Offers list of Arctic plants with their colours. Asks CD whether it is useful to add colour to [descriptions of] plants.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [30 Dec] 1861 or [6 Jan] 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 3–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3375 |
From George Maw 27 August [1861]
Summary
Thanks CD for his letter about GM’s review of the Origin.
Sends instances of correlative organisation and functions which he finds difficult to believe could have accumulated by gradual modifications.
[Letter erroneously dated 1862 by GM.]
| Author: | George Maw |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Aug [1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 99: 11–12 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3236 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From B. O’Neile Wilson 22 December 1861
Summary
Variation in instincts among domestic animals.
| Author: | Benjamin O’Neile Wilson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Dec 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 118 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3348 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From William Hugh Gower 23 November 1861
Summary
Sends notes on fertilisation of Victoria regia tending to show that impregnation with foreign pollen increases productivity of seeds.
| Author: | William Hugh Gower |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Nov 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 81 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3327 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From B. P. Brent 15 June 1861
Summary
On his father’s crossing experiments with cacti, in which hybrids were found quite fertile.
On his breeding of guinea-pigs.
Sends Miss E. Watts’s message about crested fowls and Brahmas.
| Author: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 June 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160.2: 300 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3184 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From William A. Wooler 4 February 1861
Summary
Discusses the colouring of the young of various breeds of rabbit.
Observations on results of various poultry crosses and on a character which is linked to sex.
| Author: | William Alexander Wooler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Feb 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3058 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From Asa Gray [27 and 29 August] and 2 September [1861]
Summary
Gives some observations on the sensitivity of Drosera species and comments on cases of "dioecio-dimorphism".
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 and 29 Aug 1861 and 2 Sept 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 110 (ser. 2): 76 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3242 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … included’ stamens and long styles ( A. Gray 1856 , p. 171 n. ). The term had first been …
From H. C. Watson [after 24 July 1861]
Summary
Gives CD an instance of facts that can be read either way as to whether a plant (Veronica humifusa) is a species or a variety.
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 24 July 1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 162 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13853 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From Bernard Peirce Brent 29 May 1861
Summary
Sexual behaviour of fowls.
| Author: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 May 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 1–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3167 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of variation in domesticated animals since 1856 (see Correspondence vols. 6 and 7, and …
From William Branwhite Clarke [August 1861]
Summary
Evidence of glacial action in Australia. [See Origin, 4th ed., p. 443.]
| Author: | William Branwhite Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [Aug 1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 171 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3222 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 6, letter to W. B. D. Mantell, 3 April [1856] ). In the next edition of Origin , CD …
From Asa Gray 11 October 1861
Summary
Notes several cases of "dioecio-dimorphism" in different genera; feels the discovery of pollen that will act only on the pistil of another flower is most important. Believes CD should next turn his attention to investigating cases of "precocious fertilisation".
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Oct 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 109: 82–3, DAR 110 (ser. 2): 117, DAR 111: 83 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3282 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1848–9 . There is an annotated copy of Gray 1856 in the Darwin Library–CUL. Torrey 1857 ; …
From Francis Walker 1 February 1861
Summary
Identifies two dipterous species of parasites [chalcidites].
Was not able to attend to the aphids last year, but will make use of CD’s suggestions and "study as much as I can the inquiry as to species".
| Author: | Francis Walker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Feb 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 46.2 (ser. 3): 54–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3053 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
| letter | (15) |
| Brent, B. P. | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
| Gower, W. H. | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Brent, B. P. | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
| Gower, W. H. | (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…
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
Matches: 1 hits
- … 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),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …
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 …
