To William Bowman 8 April [1872]
Summary
Asks to borrow "Sölberg Wells, Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye 1869" referred to by F. C. Donders.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bowman, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 8 Apr [1872] |
| Classmark: | Sir John Paget Bowman (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8280 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Bibliography Wells, John Soelberg. 1869. A treatise on the diseases of the eye. London: …
- … Sölberg Wells, Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye 1869" referred to by F. C. Donders. …
- … C. Donders, 1 April 1872 and n. 3. CD refers to John Soelberg Wells and Wells 1869 . …
- … Wells, Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye 1869;” & says that perhaps you could lend it …
To Oswald Heer 4 August [1872–4]
Summary
Thanks OH for two memoirs on the fossil flora of Bear Island and Spitzbergen [K. Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handl. 8 (1869) no. 7; 9 (1870) no. 5].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Oswald Heer |
| Date: | 4 Aug [1872-4] |
| Classmark: | Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Nachlass Oswald Heer 213.2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8454 |
To George Harris 4 October [1872]
Summary
Thanks GH for his Theory of the ants [1869] and offers to supply any zoological information that he can.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Harris |
| Date: | 4 Oct [1872] |
| Classmark: | University of California Los Angeles, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division (Ms. 10, Letters concerning George Harris’s A Philosophical Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of Man) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8541 |
To F. C. Donders 8 April 1872
Summary
Thanks FCD for information, which will make him "strike out a good deal".
Has received German pamphlet.
Will read work by John Soelberg Wells [? A treatise on the diseases of the eye (1869, 1870)].
Discusses his work on expression.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Frans Cornelis (Franciscus Cornelius) Donders |
| Date: | 8 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 413 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8279 |
From Albert Günther 21 May 1872
Summary
Believes many of the species and even genera of the fish family Labyrinthici are products of domestication.
Events at the British Museum.
| Author: | Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 251 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8344 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Macropus is a misspelling) in Zoological Record 6 (1869): 133 and 7 (1870): 94. …
- … CD cited Carbonnier’s papers (Carbonnier 1869 and 1870) in Descent 2d ed. , pp. 341–2 and …
- … editor of the Zoological Record up until 1869; when Alfred Newton took over with the 1870 …
- … sections himself ( Zoological Record 6 (1869), 7 (1870)). Günther refers to Carl Gegenbaur …
To Georg von Seidlitz 1 April 1872
Summary
Thanks for "Literatur & Tables zur Descendenz Theorie" [check title!?] taken from his Die Darwin’sche Theorie [1871], which CD had read with gratification some time before.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Georg Karl Maria (Georg) von Seidlitz |
| Date: | 1 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | Zoologische Staatssammlung München |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8266F |
To John Scott 12 August 1872
Summary
Acknowledges a box of worm-casts from India and a bottle of worms in spirits. There is no memorandum.
His book on expression is finished and includes valuable information from JS.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott |
| Date: | 12 Aug 1872 |
| Classmark: | Transactions of the Hawick Archæological Society (1908): 69 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8465F |
To Gaston de Saporta 8 April 1872
Summary
Responds to GdeS’s comments on Descent [see 8246]. Cannot give up belief in close relationship of man to higher Simiae.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Louis Charles Joseph Gaston (Gaston) de Saporta, comte de Saporta |
| Date: | 8 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | Archives Gaston de Saporta (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8282 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Laurentius Salvius. Saporta, Gaston de. 1869. L’école transformiste et ses dernièrs …
- … school and its recent works), which appeared in the 9 October 1869 issue of Revue …
- … des deux mondes ( Saporta 1869 ). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet …
- … Anthropidae and Lemuridae (T. H. Huxley 1869, p. 99; see also Descent 1: 195). Only …
To William Bowman 19 April [1872]
Summary
Returns borrowed book. Is surprised that any of us have eyes "seeing what a frightful number of horrid diseases the eye is liable to".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bowman, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 19 Apr [1872] |
| Classmark: | Sir John Paget Bowman (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8292 |
To August Weismann 29 February 1872
Summary
Glad AW’s eyesight is better.
Has received AW’s essay [Einfluss der Isolierung (1872)].
Glad he is turning attention to sexual selection. Hardly any naturalists agree with CD on subject.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Leopold Friedrich August (August) Weismann |
| Date: | 29 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 342 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8228 |
From Raphael Meldola 12 March 1872
Summary
Wishes to use some of Fritz Müller’s observations in his paper on mimicry.
CD’s reply and Huxley’s article ["Mr Darwin’s critics", Contemp. Rev. 18 (1871): 443–76] have answered all of Mivart’s objections to natural selection as applied to man.
| Author: | Raphael Meldola |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Mar 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 119 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8240 |
To W. W. Baxter? 17 January [1872–4]
Summary
Requests a prescribed physic [not specified].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1872-4] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Autograph File, D) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8165 |
To T. H. Farrer 13 October [1872]
Summary
THF’s article in Nature ["The fertilisation of a few papilionaceous flowers", 6 (1872): 478–80, 498–501] is extremely good.
Suspects he now has answer to why common peas and sweetpeas hardly ever intercross, a point which half drove CD mad for years.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer |
| Date: | 13 Oct [1872] |
| Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (LS Ms 299/18) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8557 |
From Alfred Tylor 8 June 1872
Summary
AT is trying to publish his paper with important evidence on "the pluvial period".
| Author: | Alfred Tylor |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 June 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 199 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8376 |
From Julius Althaus 16 December 1872
Summary
In his admirable work on expression CD has left out influence of fifth pair of cerebral nerves on the portiodura and on physiognomy; sends reference to his paper on this subject ["On certain points in the physiology and pathology of the fifth pair of cerebral nerves", Med.-Chir. Trans. 52 (1869): 27–42].
| Author: | Julius Althaus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Dec 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 56 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8681 |
From M. T. Masters 4 November 1872
Summary
Asks CD’s opinion of John Denny’s idea that males have prepotent transmission power in plants. A. J. F. Wegmann says the females are prepotent.
| Author: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 83 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8597 |
To John Murray 11 November 1872
Summary
CD is delighted and astonished at sale of Expression,
and pleased with sale of others, except Descent. He fears a new edition of that work may never be required. Would have liked to bring out a thoroughly revised one.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 11 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 276–7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8620 |
To W. W. Baxter 4 September [1872?]
Summary
Orders some salts for plant experiments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | 4 Sept [1872?] |
| Classmark: | McGill University Library, Department of Rare Books |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8510 |
To St G. J. Mivart 8 January [1872]
Summary
Wishes their correspondence regarding their differences to be dropped, as CD feels that nothing he could say would have any influence on StGJM.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | St George Jackson Mivart |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | Natural History Museum (General Special Collections DC AL 1/18) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8149 |
From A. F. Boardman 18 March 1872
Summary
On how various human emigrations have supported the work of natural selection.
Defends the view that soil and air account for taller stature of westerners in U. S.
| Author: | Alex F Boardman |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Mar 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 232 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8245 |
| letter | (67) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (36) |
| Günther, Albert | (2) |
| Meldola, Raphael | (2) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (2) |
| Agassiz, Alexander | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (29) |
| Moulinié, J. J. | (3) |
| Murray, John (b) | (3) |
| Baxter, W. W. | (2) |
| Bowman, William | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (65) |
| Moulinié, J. J. | (4) |
| Baxter, W. W. | (3) |
| Bowman, William | (3) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 27 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition …
- … that is something’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869] ). Much of the remainder of …
- … to be the case’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). Hooker went straight to a crucial …
- … probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , and letter from A. R. Wallace, …
- … in distribution’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Darwin had argued ( Origin , pp. …
- … formation’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Croll could not supply Darwin with an …
- … have got that yet’ ( letter from James Croll, 4 February 1869 ). Darwin did not directly …
- … towards [Thomson]’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 19 March [1869] ). Towards Descent …
- … ‘everlasting old Origin’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 1 June [1869] ), he was able to return to work on …
- … ( letter from Robert Elliot to George Cupples, 21 June 1869 ). Details on mating behaviour …
- … in the garden ( letter from Frederick Smith, 8 October 1869 ). Albert Günther, assistant in the …
- … varieties ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 February [1869] ). The data contined to …
- … cocks & hens.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 November [1869] ). Yet completion of the work was …
- … for Descent . Researching emotion In 1869, Darwin still expected that Descent …
- … hatred—’ ( from Asa Gray and J. L. Gray, 8 and 9 May [1869] ). James Crichton-Browne and …
- … ( enclosure to letter from Henry Maudsley, 20 May 1869 ). Darwin had often complained of the …
- … in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). More remarkable still were Wallace …
- … seem to you like some mental hallucination’ ( 18 April 1869 ). Since his marriage to Annie …
- … (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and scolded him for again being too …
- … demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). Proceeding on all fronts …
- … South American cordillera ( letter to Charles Lyell, 20 May 1869 ), and fossil discoveries in …
- … investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a letter to the Gardeners …
- … of the soil ( letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 9 May [1869] ). In March, Darwin received …
- … in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This research contributed to …
- … editions ( see letter from Victor Masson, 29 September 1869 ). The work had been undertaken, like …
- … Animals”’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 November [1869] ). Angered by these proceedings, Darwin …
- … of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an explication of Darwinian …
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: 11 hits
- … Crichton-Browne, James 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Crichton-Browne, James 19 May 1869 West Riding …
- … Gray, Asa 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Jane 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Asa 8 & 9 May 1869 Florence, Italy (about …
- … King, P.G. 25 Feb 1869 Sydney, Australia …
- … Maudsley, Henry 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 17 Jan 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 28 June [1869] Sierra Leone, …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 26 Dec 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Scott, John 2 July 1869 Royal Botanic Gardens, …
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: 4 hits
- … Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May 1869] Jane Loring Gray, …
- … Williams , M. S. to Darwin, H. E., [after 14 October 1869] Darwin’s niece, Margaret, …
- … Letter 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s …
- … - Darwin to Gunther, A. C. L. G., [21 September 1869] Darwin asks Gunther for “a great …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 3 hits
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
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…
Photograph album of Dutch admirers
Summary
Darwin received the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific admirers in the Netherlands. He wrote to the Dutch zoologist Pieter Harting, An account of your countrymen’s generous sympathy in having sent me on my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … work on human expression. Donders visited Darwin in 1869 , and a year later Darwin consoled him …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. B., [8 November 1869] Darwin thanks Antoinette …
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,…
John Beddoe
Summary
In 1869, when gathering data on sexual selection in humans, Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with John Beddoe, a doctor in Bristol. He was looking for evidence that racial differences that appear to have no benefit in terms of survival - and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1869 Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with a John Beddoe, a doctor in …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
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: 4 hits
- … himself an injustice & never demands justice” (14 April 1869). But Wallace continued, both …
- … about the application of natural selection to ‘man’ in 1869, and looked instead to a ‘higher …
- … investigation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 18 April [1869]). Wallace’s views on man were also …
- … the “great General” (letter to Charles Kingsley, 7 May 1869). In later years when Darwin reflected …
Francis Galton
Summary
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was later expanded into the book, Hereditary Genius (1869), which contained an entry on the …
6430_10256
Summary
From Sven Nilsson to J. D. Hookerf1 25 October 1868Lund (Suède)25 Okt. 1868.Monsieur le Professeur! J’ai écrit à deux de mes amis qui ont des connaissances personnelles à la Lapponie, pour avoir les…
About the project
Summary
On this site you can read and search the full texts of more than 7,500 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and find information on 7,500 more. Available here are complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are being added all the time. …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down …
Family life
Summary
From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through correspondence about his marriage to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, the births—and deaths—of their children, to the contributions of his sons and daughters to his scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through …
Interview with John Hedley Brooke
Summary
John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in spiritualism. He first writes to Darwin about this in 1869, and this is exactly the same time …
