To George Francis 22 February 1878
Summary
Thanks for the specimens: the bulbs have been planted.
He has not attended to the colouring matter of plants, but he will ask H. C. Sorby if he would like the specimens.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Francis |
| Date: | 22 Feb 1878 |
| Classmark: | State Library of South Australia (inserted in Insectivorous plants 583.121 D228) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11371F |
From George Henslow [c. 20 February 1878]
Summary
Discusses various authors’ interpretations of the structure of the embryo of grasses.
| Author: | George Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 20 Feb 1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 209.4: 431 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11219 |
To Edward Frankland 2 December [1878]
Summary
Thanks for the Blue Book [Report to the Local Government Board on the water supplied to London].
Gives instructions for sending the pure water.
Has sent for the Wenham ice.
Enjoyed his talk with EF.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Edward Frankland |
| Date: | 2 Dec [1878] |
| Classmark: | The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (Frankland Collection 2230) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11768A |
From G. H. Darwin 7 November 1878
Summary
Encloses William Thomson’s report on GHD’s paper. Some of it was written in Rayleigh’s hand.
| Author: | George Howard Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Nov 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 71, The Royal Society (RR/8/91) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11738 |
From G. H. Darwin 10 October 1878
Summary
Recounts the experiments on Fechner’s law he has found in Helmholz; they are on the smallest perceptible differences of illumination. Describes how to test whether plants’ responses to lights are in accordance with it.
| Author: | George Howard Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Oct 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11722 |
From W. W. Baxter 7 January 1878
Summary
Constituents of spermaceti ointment supplied to CD. Perhaps effect was caused by substance used to bleach the bees-wax.
| Author: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 209.8: 150 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11315 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … pharmacopœia (1877). Third reprint of the 1867 edition, with additions made in 1874. …
From Alfred Moschkau 26 March 1878
Summary
Describes hereditary defect in ear muscle.
Discusses influence of wet nurse on infant.
Describes talking starlings.
| Author: | Otto Carl Alfred (Alfred) Moschkau |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Mar 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 252 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11446 |
To John Tyndall 4 December [1878]
Summary
Has observed, perhaps erroneously, that certain plants were excited to movement by a prolonged high note on the bassoon. Would now like to try a siren and asks JT to bring one from the Royal Institution.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Tyndall |
| Date: | 4 Dec [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.8: 27 (EH 88205965) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11771 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Institution of Great Britain (see Tyndall 1867 , pp. 67–78; the apparatus is figured on p. …
To Francis Darwin 25 July [1878]
Summary
Is forwarding the writing machine to Carl Semper.
Is glad FD has taken up his old friends, the twiners.
Hopes to get heliotropic aerial roots from J. D. Hooker. Asks FD to find out whether any moulds or roots are apheliotropic. Is puzzled by heliotropism in subterranean roots.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 25 July [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 211: 40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11631 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 9 (1867): 1–118. Medlicott, W. N. 1963. The Congress of …
From Raphael Meldola 26 January 1878
Summary
Returns Kosmos.
Thanks CD for permission to use Fritz Müller’s last letter, which contains new observations.
| Author: | Raphael Meldola |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 125 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11332 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … s observation on Prioneris , see Wallace 1867 , p. 314. For Arthur Gardiner Butler’s …
From B. J. Sulivan [14–20] April [1878]
Summary
Asks whether CD wishes to join other old "Beagles" in supporting an orphan grandson of Jemmy Button.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [14–20] Apr [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 304 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11459 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Society; CD had made a donation in 1867 (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter from B. J. …
From J. D. Hooker 7 October 1878
Summary
Botanical evidence is against F. B. White’s origin of St Helena fauna. JDH holds flora is S. African. Since plants must arrive before insects, if fauna is Palearctic then flora survived glacial period. Flora not Miocene since old and relic orders are absent. Suggests S. African west coastal mountains as insects’ origin.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Oct 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 118–20 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11718 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … had described Sium helenianum in Hooker ed. 1867–91, 1: 23–4, as endemic to St Helena (the …
To W. R. Greg 31 December 1878
Summary
Discusses a chapter on design, written by WRG’s son [Percy Greg, The devil’s advocate (1878)]. Comments on the younger Greg’s criticisms of natural selection and evolution.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Rathbone Greg |
| Date: | 31 Dec 1878 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.557) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11812 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Gaston de Saporta and Saporta 1862–5 and 1867–8; Albert Oppel and Oppel 1856–8 ; Melchior …
| letter | (13) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Darwin, G. H. | (2) |
| Baxter, W. W. | (1) |
| Henslow, George | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Francis, George | (1) |
| Frankland, Edward | (1) |
| Greg, W. R. | (1) |
| Baxter, W. W. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Darwin, G. H. | (2) |
| Francis, George | (1) |
| Frankland, Edward | (1) |
| Greg, W. R. | (1) |
| Henslow, George | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Meldola, Raphael | (1) |
| Moschkau, Alfred | (1) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (1) |
| Tyndall, John | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 30 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The …
- … publisher in the final week of 1866. It would take all of 1867 to correct proofs, and just when …
- … becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in 1867, as he continued to circulate a list of …
- … transmutation theory. Three important new correspondents in 1867 were Hermann Müller and Anton Dohrn …
- … the New Year’s greeting, ‘may you be eupeptic through 1867 & your friends & the world in …
- … publisher, John Murray, he wrote to Murray on 3 January 1867 , ‘I cannot tell you how sorry I am …
- … for selling a Book’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 January [1867] ). A week later, Darwin had …
- … the additional chapter. In a letter written on 8 February [1867] to his close friend, Joseph …
- … Darwin’s time. The first proof-sheets arrived on 1 March 1867 and the tedious work of correction …
- … . In a letter to his son William dated 27 [March 1867] , he admitted, ‘I fear the book is by no …
- … papers with his first letter to Darwin of 15 March 1867 , although he described some of Alexander …
- … told his publisher, John Murray, in a letter of 4 April [1867] , not to send stereotypes of the …
- … had received other offers, notably one from Vogt in April 1867, to translate the new work. Carus had …
- … will be published’ ( letter from J. V. Carus, 5 April 1867 ). This hint of uncertainty caused …
- … to give up the task’ ( letter to Carl Vogt, 12 April [1867] ). Darwin need not have worried …
- … to the German public ( letter from J. V. Carus, 15 April 1867 ). Darwin may not have fully …
- … in preference to you’ ( letter to J. V. Carus, 18 April [1867] ). Darwin was not disappointed in …
- … the ‘wonderful discovery’ to Darwin on 14 March 1867 . Then, in April, Robert Trail wrote from …
- … in a mottled hybrid ( letter from Robert Trail, 5 April 1867 ). Darwin told his American friend …
- … physiological fact’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). Although he did not succeed in …
- … step in Biology’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 22 August [1867] ). Darwin’s insecurity persisted, …
- … ferocity’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 November [1867] ). Even when the corrections were …
- … to be introduced’ ( letter to W. S. Dallas, 8 November [1867] ). Dallas resisted the temptation to …
- … as I could wish’ (letter from W. S. Dallas, 20 November 1867). Dallas, like Carus, alerted Darwin to …
- … for information on Fuegian expressions. On 11 January 1867, Sulivan replied , enclosing belated …
- … 27 years old In a letter of 22 February [1867] to Fritz Müller in Brazil, in which …
- … Russel Wallace, who suggested in his response of 11 March [1867] that Darwin send his queries to …
- … ( letter to A. R. Wallace, [12–17] March [1867] ). Darwin’s doggedness in pursuing answers to his …
- … so do not want any more’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). Nevertheless, at some point …
- … in Notes and Queries on China and Japan , 31 August 1867. Another version, possibly derived from …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 27 hits
- … expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to …
- … Barber, Mary E. [after Feb 1867] [Grahamstown, Cape …
- … Bowker, J.H. [10 Dec 1867] [Cape of Good Hope (South …
- … Bowman, William 5 Aug 1867 5 Clifford St, London, …
- … Darwin, Francis 20 June 1867 Unknown? …
- … Erskine, H. N. B. 1 Nov 1867 [Ahmednuggur, Bombay, …
- … Gaika, Christian 7 July 1867 Bedford [Cape of Good …
- … Geach, F.F. June 1867 Johore, Malaysia …
- … Gibbs, George 31 March 1867 Smithsonian Institution, …
- … Gray, Asa 26 March 1867 Cambridge, Massachusetts, …
- … Haast, J.F.J. von 12 May - 2 June 1867 Christchurch, …
- … Haast, J.F.J. von 4 Dec 1867 Christchurch, New …
- … Hagenauer, F.A. [12 Sept 1867] Lake Wellington, …
- … Huxley, H.A. 22 Mar [1867] Abbey Place, London, …
- … Kempson, L.F. 20 June 1867 Penmaenmawr, Conway, …
- … Lubbock, E.F. [1867-8?] Lombard Street, London? …
- … Muller, Fritz 22 Feb [1867] Down, Kent, England …
- … Paget, James 9 July 1867 1 Harewood Place, Hanover …
- … Rothrock, J.T. 31 March 1867 McVeytown [Pennsylvania …
- … Stack, James West 4 Dec 1867 Christchurch, New …
- … Sulivan, B.J. 11 Jan 1867 Bournemouth, England …
- … Sutton, Seth 8 Aug 1867 Zoological Gardens, Regents …
- … Swinhoe, Robert 5 Aug 1867 Amoy, China …
- … Wallace, A. R. 2 March [1867] 9 St. Mark’s Crescent, …
- … Wallace, A. R. 11 March [1867] 9 St. Mark’s Crescent …
- … Weale, J.P.M. 7 July 1867 Bedford, Cape of Good Hope …
- … Weale, J.P.M. [10 Dec 1867] Bedford, Cape of Good …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 6 hits
- … a series of experiments, reporting back to Bornet in August 1867 that all but one of the varieties …
- … ( To Fritz Müller, [late December 1866 and] 1 January 1867 ). The following year, his experiments …
- … to the conditions that might affect his results. In March 1867, he told his close friend Joseph …
- … two distinct plants’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1867] ). He noted another factor in a letter to …
- … & so have been rarely crossed’ ( To Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). One of these ‘exotics’ was …
- … for part of the year ( To J. T. Moggridge, 1 October [1867] ). Darwin was beginning to suspect …
A fly on the flower: From Hermann Müller, 23 October 1867
Summary
In March 1867, Hermann Müller, a young teacher of natural sciences at a provincial Realschule (a type of secondary school that emphasised the natural sciences) in Lippstadt in the Prussian province of Westphalia, sent Darwin two papers on the mosses of…
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
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: 7 hits
- … Letter 5745 - Barber, M. E. to Darwin, [after February 1867] Mary Barber responds to …
- … Letter 7223 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L. C., [8 June 1867 - 72] Darwin asks his niece, …
- … Letter 5602 - Sutton, S. to Darwin, [8 August 1867] Sutton, the keeper of the …
- … 5705 - Haast, J. F. J. von to Darwin, [4 December 1867] Explorer and geologist Haast …
- … Letter 5585 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [26 July 1867] Darwin praises Henrietta’s …
- … Letter 5403 - Darwin to Carus, J. V. [17 February 1867] Darwin thanks Carus for his …
- … 5410 - Darwin to Muller, J. F. T., [22 February 1867] Darwin thanks Muller for …
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
- … Letter 5605: Darwin, C. R. to Müller, J. F. T., 15 Aug [1867] Darwin asks Fritz Müller, a …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 1865 Letter to J. P. M. Weale, 27 August [1867] Letter from J P. M. Weale, [10 …
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
A tale of two bees
Summary
Darwinian evolution theory fundamentally changed the way we understand the environment and even led to the coining of the word 'ecology'. Darwin was fascinated by bees: he devised experiments to study the comb-building technique of honey bees and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … much ahead of his time when, in a letter to Darwin in 1867 , he commented on Edward Wilson’s plan …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Sexual selection
Summary
Although natural selection could explain the differences between species, Darwin realised that (other than in the reproductive organs themselves) it could not explain the often marked differences between the males and females of the same species. So what…
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: 6 hits
- … Letter 5457 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 23 Mar 1867 Müller explains how Origin …
- … 5471 — Darwin, C. R. to Müller, H. L. H., 29 Mar [1867] Darwin learns that German botanist …
- … Letter 5481 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 1 Apr [1867] Müller thanks Darwin for the …
- … Letter 5657 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 23 Oct 1867 Müller thanks Darwin for the …
- … Letter 5585 — Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, H. E., 26 July [1867] Darwin writes to his daughter …
- … Letter 5745 — Barber, M. E. to Darwin, C. R., [after Feb 1867] In this letter, naturalist, …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 3 hits
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Controversy
Summary
The best-known controversies over Darwinian theory took place in public or in printed reviews. Many of these were highly polemical, presenting an over-simplified picture of the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely…
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
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: 3 hits
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
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: 1 hits
- … A GRAY 15 AUGUST 1868 177 TO A GRAY 15 APRIL 1867 178 C DARWIN TO JD …
