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To a Bookseller   4 March [1860]

Summary

Orders J. B. Jukes’s Student’s manual of geology [1857] and Macmillan’s Magazine (Dec 1859).

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Bookseller.
Date:  4 Mar [1860]
Classmark:  The Morgan Library and Museum, New York (MA 1492)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2721

Matches: 3 hits

  • … J. B. Jukes’s Student’s manual of geology [1857] and Macmillan’s Magazine (Dec 1859). …
  • … Press. 1985–. Jukes, Joseph Beete. 1857. The student’s manual of geology. Edinburgh. …
  • … Jukes 1857 . CD recorded reading this work in 1860 ( Correspondence vol.  4, Appendix IV, …

From Charles Lyell   25 September 1860

Summary

Returns "excellent" MS in which CD favours hybrid origin of domestic dog, which CL believes strengthens case for common progenitor of wild species.

Doubts CD’s authorities for antiquity of dingo.

Variation will raise many points for investigation.

"Leporine" hare–rabbit hybrid should be investigated.

Has re-read passages in Origin that CD suggested.

Annals of Natural History would probably reprint Gray’s review of Origin at their own expense.

CD’s thought that modern reptiles could not develop into existing Mammalia but only into another high form is a "grand notion" compatible with "the infinite capacity of the creative power".

Comments on New Guinea marsupials.

Still thinks that the Australian genera and species are so well fitted for extraordinary droughts that they would get the better of the dingo.

Suggests that once there were more races of man, though from common stock. Competition and then hybridity checked divergence.

Falconer’s views on elephant classification. CL attaches little value to Falconer’s objection that mastodons and elephants do not come in chronologically, as they should in CD’s view.

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  25 Sept 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 3–12)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2927A

Matches: 6 hits

  • … University Press. 1985–. Falconer, Hugh. 1857–8. On the species of mastodon and elephant …
  • … America. He published a paper on the British and European species in 1857 and one on the …
  • … American forms in 1863 ( Falconer 1857–8  and 1863). He had recently discovered a ‘small …
  • … of the Geological Society of London 13 (1857): 307–60; 14 (1858): 81–4. Göppert, Heinrich …
  • … first questioned Owen’s identification in 1857; in 1863, he published a full history …
  • … and refutation of Owen’s claim (see Falconer 1857–8 , ‘Synoptical table of the species of …

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: 5 hits

  • … and 1847. H.  Müller 1856 . H.  Müller 1857 . Afzelius 1798 . The number of CD’s portfolio …
  • … Zeitung 17: 308–12. Müller, Hermann. 1857. Ueber die Lebensweise der augenlosen Käfer in …
  • … de la Société Entomologique de France (1857), Bulletin, pp. xciii–xcv). Delarouzée 1859 , …
  • … Low Pyrenees— Annales de la Soc: Ent: de France 1857. (Bulletin p.  xciii) Trou des Fades— …
  • … year) p.  310 D o . Carniola—(Müller)&D o . 1857— (18 th .  y r . ).  p. 65 This is a good …

To T. H. Huxley   8 August [1860]

Summary

News of K. E. von Baer’s support is magnificent – far outweighs Owen and Agassiz. Asks THH to tell Baer that a statement from him would be of utmost value.

R. Wagner [in an article on Louis Agassiz’s principles of classification, Göttingsche gelehrte Anzeiger (1860) pt 2: 761–800] "goes half way" between Agassiz and Origin.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:  8 Aug [1860]
Classmark:  Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 133)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2893

Matches: 4 hits

  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … of the United States of America. 4 vols. 1857–62. ] [Reprint edition. Edited by Edward …
  • … history of the United States ( Agassiz 1857–62 ). Wagner 1860b . A separately paginated …
  • … by Agassiz in the first volume of Agassiz 1857–62 , reprinted separately as Agassiz 1859 . …

To W. E. Darwin   [8 December 1860]

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Summary

Asks identity of [Henry] Fawcett, who wrote a capital article on the Origin in Macmillan’s Magazine [3 (1860): 81–92], "A popular exposition of Mr Darwin".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Erasmus Darwin
Date:  [8 Dec 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 210.6: 60
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3014

Matches: 3 hits

  • … E.  Darwin, [November 1857] ). According to Emma Darwin’s diary, Emily Catherine Darwin …
  • … children during the years 1856 and 1857 ( Freeman 1978 ). Afterwards, she maintained close …
  • … s diary). William had begun to paint in 1857 (see Correspondence vol.  6, letter to W.   …

To William Bernhard Tegetmeier   20 January [1860]

Summary

Gives the results of crossing experiments; some interesting and curious facts.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:  20 Jan [1860]
Classmark:  Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2656

Matches: 3 hits

  • … unexpected colours like Pigeons do. —’ in 1857 (see Correspondence vol.  6, letters to …
  • … W.  B.  Tegetmeier, 12 [May 1857] and …
  • … 18 May [ 1857] ). In 1859, CD acquired several different breeds of fowl from Tegetmeier …

From Charles Lyell   18 September 1860

Summary

It is strange that Agassiz, who is for the "sanctity of species", should favour Pallas’s view of hybrid origin of domestic dog.

CL has not meant to advocate successive creation of types but to question assumption that all mammals descended from single stock. Why should a Triassic reptile or bird not move towards mammalian form because an ancestral marsupial has appeared? Believes recent appearance of rodents and bats in Australia explains their lack of development.

Can CD supply a reference on plant extinction on St Helena?

Believes marsupials better adapted for surviving drought in Australia than higher mammals.

Will not press argument about lack of development of mammalian forms on islands, but CD should note objection.

Does CD’s belief in multiple origin of dogs affect faith in single primates in different regions?

Does time lapse between putative independently descended mammalian forms mean first form will "keep down" later incipient one? Thus Homo sapiens has prevented improvement of other anthropomorphs; bats and rodents on islands would prevent improvement of lower forms into mammalian.

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  18 Sept 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 187–95d)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2920C

Matches: 4 hits

  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … in a letter prefixed to Nott and Gliddon eds.  1857, p.  xiv: ‘I have already alluded, on …
  • … States of America , where he stated ( Agassiz 1857–62 , 1: 164): where is the unprejudiced …
  • … Manual of elementary geology ( C.  Lyell 1857 , pp.  17–24). These new fossils were even …

To Charles Lyell   15 and 16 [February 1860]

Summary

Auguste Bravard’s discoveries magnificent.

Bravard has sent pamphlets [Observaciones geológicas (1857) and Monografia de los terrenos marinos terciarios (1858)] with strange doctrine that Pampean deposit is subaerial.

Review of Origin by Wollaston [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 5 (1860): 132–43] clever and misinterprets CD only in a few places.

Wallace’s MS ["Zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 4 (1860): 172–84] admirably good.

Henslow "will go very little way with us". "He, also, shudders at the eye!"

Baden Powell says CD’s statement about eye is conclusive.

Leonard Jenyns cannot go as far as CD, yet cannot give good reason.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  15 and 16 Feb 1860
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.198); The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/B1/ Lyell Temp Box 3.1 Folder_6)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2700

Matches: 3 hits

  • … sent pamphlets [ Observaciones geológicas (1857) and Monografia de los terrenos marinos …
  • … London: Collins. 1958. Bravard, Auguste. 1857. Observaciones geológicas sobre diferentes …
  • … Lyell, [13–14 February 1860] . Bravard 1857  and 1858. Both works are in the Darwin …

From Thomas Vernon Wollaston   [16 September 1860]

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Summary

Has received a batch of S. African specimens which contain many of the Atlantic genera he found in Madeira and the Canaries.

Author:  Thomas Vernon Wollaston
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [16 Sept 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 205.3: 302
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2919

Matches: 3 hits

  • … The date is taken from CD’s annotation. In 1857, Wollaston gave his collection of Madeiran …
  • … catalogue of the collection ( Wollaston 1857 ). From 1858 to 1862, he contributed a series …
  • … John van Voorst. Wollaston, Thomas Vernon. 1857. Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of …

To P. L. Sclater   4 February [1860]

Summary

Thanks PLS for list of Galapagos birds.

Mentions note he will add to Journal [of researches (1860)]

and correction he will make in Origin [3d ed. (1861)].

Asks PLS about variability in "abnormal parts of birds".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Philip Lutley Sclater
Date:  4 Feb [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.195)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2684

Matches: 2 hits

  • … structures had particularly engaged CD in 1857 while he was writing the chapter on ‘Laws …
  • … pp.  309–11, and Correspondence vol.  6, letter to J.  D.  Hooker, 16 [May 1857] ). …

To Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny   16 July [1860]

Summary

Confirms CGBD’s impression given in a letter to J. S. Henslow that CD in the Origin did not touch directly upon the final causes of sexuality, which CD considers one of the "profoundest mysteries in nature". CD is inclined to stress sexuality as the means of keeping forms constant and checking variation although he grants its role in the origination of varieties. [See 2869.]

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny
Date:  16 July [1860]
Classmark:  Magdalen College, Oxford (MC:F26/C1/118)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2869A

Matches: 3 hits

  • … 16: 270–87. Siebold, Karl Theodor Ernst von. 1857. On a true parthenogenesis in moths and …
  • … for example R.  Owen 1849  and Siebold 1857 , annotated copies of which are in the Darwin …
  • … to T.  H.  Huxley, [before 12 November 1857] ). In the first edition of Origin there is no …

To Andrew Murray   28 April [1860]

Summary

Has read MS of AM’s review [of Origin, read at Edinburgh Royal Society, 20 Feb 1860]; has no complaints. Has never heard of a hostile reviewer’s doing so kind and generous an action [as sending his MS for CD’s criticism?]. Sends some remarks on details.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Andrew Dickson (Andrew) Murray
Date:  28 Apr [1860]
Classmark:  Dartmouth College Library (MSS 000566); R. D. Pyrah (private collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2772

Matches: 4 hits

  • … University Press. 1985–. Murray, Andrew. 1857. On insect-vision and blind insects. …
  • … had no need for them in their search for food ( Murray 1857 ). Murray 1860a , p.   …
  • … 288. Murray 1857 , pp.  132–4. …
  • … blind insects living in ants‘ nests in Murray 1857 , p.  130. Paussus , however, was not …

To Charles Lyell   23 [September 1860]

Summary

Hopes to get Asa Gray’s review of Origin republished.

Argues for single origin of mammals.

Encloses two phylogenetic diagrams indicating possible descent of mammals.

Comments on rodents, marsupials, and dingo in Australia,

and on a paper on the survival of stumps as a result of root grafting.

Argues that man had a single progenitor and consists of a single species.

Comments on destruction of non-white races.

Discusses introduction of rodents to islands by man.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  23 [Sept 1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.227)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2925

Matches: 3 hits

  • … probably that made in Nott and Gliddon eds.  1857, p.  xiv. See letter from Charles Lyell, …
  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … sheets of the third volume of Agassiz 1857–62  and first printed in the American Journal …

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: 3 hits

  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. Agassiz 1857–62 , 2 (pt 1): 89–99. See letter to T.   …
  • … die gesammten Naturwissenschaften n.s. 5 (1857): paper 2. Hopkins, William. 1860. Physical …

To Charles Lyell   23 February [1860]

Summary

Gradation in the eye.

Hooker intends to reply [to W. H. Harvey’s article in Gard. Chron. (1860): 145–6].

Discusses Aspicarpa with respect to correlation.

Comments on monstrous animals.

Discusses objections of Bronn and Asa Gray to natural selection. Cites parallel between natural selection and Newton’s concept of gravitation.

Mentions German experiments on spontaneous generation.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  23 Feb [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.200)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2707

Matches: 3 hits

  • … University Press. 1985–. Dana, James Dwight. 1857. Thoughts on species. American Journal …
  • … Herbert Spencer, 22 February 1860 . Dana 1857 . There is a copy in the Darwin Pamphlet …
  • … 6, letter to J.  D.  Hooker, 25 December [1857] . Lyell may have mentioned the paper in …

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

  • … to India and Tibet between 1854 and 1857. CD corresponded with Robert Schlagintweit about …
  • … of the offspring of a cross between a yak and a cow in 1857. See Correspondence vol.   …
  • … from Robert Schlagintweit, 25 September 1857 . It has not been possible to establish CD’s …

To Charles Lyell   17 June [1860]

Summary

Discusses relationship between natural selection and more general laws. Law of gravity is not seen as requiring design. Mentions mathematicians’ judgment of probability.

Notes gestation periods for hounds.

Etty is somewhat better.

Mentions his paper on fertilisation of orchids by insects [Collected papers 2: 32–5].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  17 June [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.217)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2833

Matches: 1 hit

  • … vol.  6, letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 18 October [1857] and Collected papers 1: 275–7. …

To T. H. Huxley   16 November [1860]

Summary

Thanks THH for his lecture ["On the study of zoology", Lay sermons, addresses and reviews (1870), pp. 104–31]. Best exposé and classification of the higher objects of natural history he has ever read. On reading and observation.

Henrietta’s lack of improvement.

R. McDonnell’s work on rays and electric organs of fishes.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:  16 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 145)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2986

Matches: 3 hits

  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … Charles Darwin and the Reverend G. V. Reed, 1857–1864. Notes and Records of the Royal …
  • … published towards the end of 1860 in Agassiz 1857–62 , 2 (pt 1): 89–99. The section was …

To A. D. Bartlett   24 August [1860]

Summary

Sends copy of Origin.

Discusses stripes on hybrid of donkey and wild ass.

Will let ADB know if lady consents to sending rabbits to [Zoological] Gardens.

Asks about gestation of Canidae.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Abraham Dee Bartlett
Date:  24 Aug [1860]
Classmark:  Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-4273

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Bibliography Bartlett, Abraham Dee. 1857. Description of a rabbit said to be found on the …
  • … provisionally named Lepus nigripes ( Bartlett 1857 ; see also Variation 1: 108–10). The …

To James Dwight Dana   30 July [1860]

Summary

Has been able to do nothing in science of late due to illness [of Henrietta].

When JDD reads Origin, CD knows he will be opposed to it, but he will be liberal and philosophical, which is more than he can say for his English opponents.

Has not yet seen L. Agassiz’s attack, but in principle avoids answering.

No one understands Origin so well as Asa Gray.

At BAAS meeting at Oxford, CD’s side seems almost to have got the best of the battle.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  James Dwight Dana
Date:  30 July [1860]
Classmark:  Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2882

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Bibliography Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United …
  • … of the United States of America ( Agassiz 1857–62 ). The discussion, taken from advance …
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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 …

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: 11 hits

  • … of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed aspects of …
  • … as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test …
  • … the alpine plants pretty effectually’ complained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May …
  • … of calculation was wrong ( letter to John Lubbock, 14 July [1857] ). Darwin thought his results …
  • … experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden vegetables like …
  • … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette  in October 1857, to be followed by a second notice in 1858. …
  • … find the work: am I not a kind Father?’ Darwin wrote in 1857, soon followed by the complaint ‘You …
  • … to end!’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, [17 February 1857] and 21 [July 1857] ). The problem of …
  • … of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and hardly the veiled …
  • … are all vividly displayed in Darwin's letters. By the end of 1857, Darwin was well on the way …
  • … long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] ). From this letter it is evident …

Darwin and Down

Summary

Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842.   The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow.  The village combined the…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … was in Darwin’s day.  To J. D. Hooker,  3 June [1857] :  on the struggle for existence in …

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

  • … 2070: Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, C. R., [before 29 Sept 1857] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …

Abstract of Darwin’s theory

Summary

There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same …
  • … to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). …
  • … was sent to A. Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October 1857 [‘or perhaps’  del ]’. The printed …

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: 4 hits

  • … the Origin of Species…’ FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: 1857-1858 In which Gray and Hooker …
  • … JUNE 1855 20  C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 21  A GRAY TO C DARWIN, …
  • … MARCH 1862 35  C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 36  A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
  • … OCTOBER 1858 59 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, 12 OCTOBER 1857 60 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, …

The "wicked book": Origin at 157

Summary

Origin is 157 years old.  (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859.  To celebrate we have uploaded hundreds of new images of letters, bringing the total number you can look at here to over 9000 representing more than…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … ’s appearance, but there is a fascinating scrap from 1857 comparing his views on species to …

Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia

Summary

Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … a high compliment when he touched upon this matter in his 1857 lecture on cirripedes. In his praise …
  • … and not an anatomist ex professo .’ (T. H. Huxley 1857, p. 238 n.).    While Darwin’s …
  • … nos. 2118 and 2119, letter to T. H. Huxley, 5 July [1857] , and letter from T. H. Huxley, 7 …

What is an experiment?

Summary

Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … observation’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 December 1857 ). Much of his research and many …
  • … little experiments’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [21 March 1857] ; letter to J. S. Henslow, 27 June …

Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I

Summary

Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared.  Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … written in 1842 , and, as he told Asa Gray in September 1857 , he intended to call the ‘ big …

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: 7 hits

  • … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
  • … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
  • … 5 3 March 1857 The struggle for existence as bearing on …
  • … 6 31 March 1857 On natural selection (DAR 10.2; …
  • … 7 29 September 1857 Laws of variation: varieties & …
  • … 8 29 September 1857 Difficulties on the theory of …
  • … 9 29 December 1857 Hybridism (DAR 12; Natural …

The evolution of honeycomb

Summary

Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … of other cells. (Letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 14 April 1857 .) In a later letter …

Darwin's bad days

Summary

Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …

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: 2 hits

  • … the Rock’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 13 December [1857] ). In May 1857, Darwin wrote to …
  • … class with Lyell’ ( letter to William Sharpey, 22 May [1857] ). There are a few letters …

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: 2 hits

  • … Letter 2125 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 20 July [1857] Darwin writes a challenging letter …
  • … of the ephippium”, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 79–100]. Darwin and Müller …

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

  • … 2055  - Langton, E. to Darwin,  F., [21 February 1857] Darwin’s nephew, Edmund, …
  • … Letter 2069  - Tenant, J. to Darwin, [31 March 1857] James Tenant, keeper of the …

Alfred Russel Wallace

Summary

Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … and most famously, the problem of species change. In 1857, Darwin and Wallace exchanged …
  • … observations and theoretical abilities. In a letter of 1 May 1857, he alluded to his own unfinished …
  • … Science … may all your theories succeed” (22 December 1857). It may have been this shared interest …

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: 7 hits

  • … ago’, he wrote to the American botanist Asa Gray in July 1857, it occurred to me that …
  • … staggered about the permanence of species.— By 1857, Darwin had found the confidence to …
  • … And this much acceleration I owe to you. ’ In February 1857, the rate of this acceleration was …
  • … the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of strength …
  • … in theory of the descent of species ’. In December 1857, Darwin had expressed his satisfaction that …
  • … there is no good & original observation ’. In 1857, Darwin recorded in his journal that …
  • … varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I am now preparing …

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: 3 hits

  • … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
  • … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
  • … with an abstract of his views sent to Asa Gray in September 1857. The correspondence between Darwin, …

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: 21 hits

  • … 112 Jukes. “Students Manual of Geology” [Jukes 1857]— published a few years ago, good on …
  • … Lucas l’Heredite Naturelle [Lucas 1847–50] 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami …
  • … Thackeray English Humourists [Thackeray 1853] 1857 Jan. Cockburn life of Selby [ …
  • … 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6]: Quits [Tautphoeus] 1857] 29 Lutfullah. Life of …
  • … Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 Sir J. Mackintosh …
  • … Oct. 22. Olmstead Journey through Texas [Olmsted 1857] Dec. Motley’s History of Dutch …
  • … 1853]— Aug.— Sherard Osborne’s Quedah [Osborn 1857] d[itt]o d[itt]o Arctic Journal …
  • … Harris 1842] Jukes Student Manual of Geology [Jukes 1857] Azara’s Quadrupeds [Azara …
  • … *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857.  History of civilization in   …
  • … 21v., 22; 119: 19a Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. 1857.  The life of Charlotte   Brontë . …
  • … [Abstract in DAR 205.3: 138.]  119: 20a ——. 1857.  The student’s manual of geology. …
  • … [Other eds.]  *119: 15v. Livingstone, David. 1857.  Missionary travels and   researches …
  • … 3 vols. Vivay. [Other eds.]  *119: 22 Lutfullah. 1857.  Autobiography of Lutfullah: a …
  • … *119: 23; 128: 5 Napier, William Francis Patrick. 1857.  The life and opinions of General …
  • … of   Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 1858,   1859 . 2 vols. Edinburgh and …
  • … on their economy . New York.  128: 25 ——. 1857.  A journey through Texas; or, a winter …
  • …  an Arctic journal\. London.  128: 25 ——. 1857.  Quedah; or, stray leaves from a journal …
  • … Rouvroy, Louis de, Duke de Saint-Simon Vermandois. 1857.  The memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on …
  • … [Other eds.]  *119: 1v.; 119: 12a Smiles, Samuel. 1857.  The life of George Stephenson, …
  • …  New York.  *128: 178 [Tautphoeus, Jemima von]. 1857.  Quits; a novel . 3 vols. London.  …
  • … . Edited by J. C. Morris. Madras. 1833–51. Second series, 1857–. [Abstract in DAR 74: 177.]  *119: …
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