To H. C. F. Jenkin 30 April [1873]
Summary
HCFJ’s review of the Origin was the wittiest and in some respects the best written.
Thanks him for his Electricity and magnetism [1873].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin |
Date: | 30 Apr [1873] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 27 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8304 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … essay or review ( Correspondence vol. 17, letter to J. D. Hooker, 16 January [1869] ). …
From Thomas Meehan 3 March 1873
Summary
Although he believes in evolution, TM feels that natural selection is an inadequate cause;
nor is he satisfied with E. D. Cope’s law of acceleration and retardation.
Discusses some of his work relating to nutrition and sex and colour and sex.
Author: | Thomas Meehan |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Mar 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 109 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8796 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … 1868): 242–300. Cope, Edward Drinker. 1869. On the origin of genera. Philadelphia: …
- … Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Meehan, Thomas. 1869. On the sexes of plants. …
- … Association for the Advancement of Science (1869): 256–60. Meehan, Thomas. 1870. On two …
- … on the origin of genera ( Cope 1868 , Cope 1869 ), Cope argued that although new species …
- … petals and variegated leaves ( Meehan 1869 , p. 259). In a paper on the influence of …
From J. T. Moggridge 12 July 1873
Summary
Sends his paper on Ophrys insectifera, translated into German by H. G. Reichenbach [Abh. Kais. Leopold.-Carol. Dtsch. Akad. Naturforsch. 33 (1870) no. 3], which shows the intermediates between O. aranifera and O. apifera. He has since gathered information on variation in Ophrys.
Author: | John Traherne Moggridge |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 July 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 218 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8977 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Taylor & Francis. Moggridge, John Traherne. 1869. Ueber Ophrys insectifera L. (part. ) …
- … CD’s copy of Moggridge 1869 is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. Moggridge had …
- … pls. XIX, XLIII–XLV). CD cited Moggridge 1869 in the preface to Orchids 2d ed. , p. ix, …
- … become different species. Moggridge 1869 was published by the Leopoldino-Carolinische …
From A. W. Bennett 8 May 1873
Summary
Thanks for reference to Hermann Müller on fertilisation [Die Befruchtung der Blumen (1873)].
Publication plans.
Author: | Alfred William Bennett |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 May 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 140 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8905 |
To E. R. Lankester 15 April [1873]
Summary
Discusses error in CD’s calculation of natural increase of elephants.
Includes extract from Origin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edwin Ray Lankester |
Date: | 15 Apr [1873] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 31 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8287 |
To William Ogle 5 May [1873]
Summary
Recommends H. Müller’s Die Befruchtung den Blumen durch Insekten (1873).
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Ogle |
Date: | 5 May [1873] |
Classmark: | James P. Evans (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8901F |
From G. H. Darwin to Nature 4 October [1873]
Summary
Sends, with CD’s approval, a clarification of CD’s explanation of how useless organs might diminish [see 9061]. Using Quetelet’s law of normal distribution GHD shows how horns of cattle, having become useless, would gradually diminish and finally disappear.
Author: | George Howard Darwin |
Addressee: | Nature |
Date: | 4 Oct [1873] |
Classmark: | Nature, 16 October 1873, p. 505 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9087 |
From Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen [1873?]
Author: | Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1873?] |
Classmark: | DAR 53.1: B44–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8712 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … historisch tijdschrift 20: 238–50. Diez, Friedrich. 1869–70. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der …
- … 399–402 and Fecquier, l’Année scientifique, 1869 p. 469; also on goose -skin as a reflex- …
- … to Friedrich Christian Diez and cites Diez 1869–70 , 2: 267, 177, 59; 1: 78. In voce : …
- … in L’Année scientifique et industrielle (1869): 469–71. L’Année scientifique was published …
From Alphonse de Candolle 14 January 1873
Summary
Thanks for Expression, which has made him wonder whether his shyness in public until the age of 55 resulted from fear of subjecting his face to ridicule.
Criticises F. Galton’s Hereditary genius [1869] for neglecting environmental influence.
Author: | Alphonse de Candolle |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Jan 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 17 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8737 |
From John Chapman 19 July 1873
Summary
Asks CD to meet with Dr Wild to discuss the Westminster Review, which CD has supported.
Quotes from Alexander Kennedy on Maori observations on competition between native New Zealand birds and introduced bees for nectar of tree blossoms.
Author: | John Chapman |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 July 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 132, 132/1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8983 |
To George Cupples 7 June [1873]
Summary
Thanks for report on J. V. Carus’ lecture.
Glad to hear suspicion about J. H. Stirling groundless.
CD has not seen R. W. Emerson. In last two or three years has seen several Yankees. Saw a good deal of the Nortons [Charles Eliot and Susan Ridley Sedgwick].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Cupples |
Date: | 7 June [1873] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.428) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8936 |
From Francis Galton [before 28 May 1873]
Summary
Collecting information about antecedents of eminent men of science. Sends questionnaire.
Author: | Francis Galton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 28 May 1873] |
Classmark: | Pearson 1914–30, 2: 177–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8889 |
From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 6 December 1873
Summary
Movement in plants.
Information on species of Cassia.
Author: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 Dec 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 178: 92 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9174 |
To C. H. Blackley 5 July [1873]
Summary
Comments on CHB’s book [Experimental researches on catarrhus aestivus – hay-fever or hay-asthma (1873)].
Explains that some pollens are wind-blown while others depend on insects for dispersal. Effect of pollen on skin and mucous membrane astonishing. Sends a book [M. Wyman, Autumnal catarrh (1872)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Harrison Blackley |
Date: | 5 July [1873] |
Classmark: | John Hay Library, Brown University (Albert E. Lownes Manuscript Collection, Ms.84.2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8965 |
From Henry Reeks 3 March 1873
Summary
Praise for and detailed comments on Expression.
Two cases of coloration in animals – one from sexual selection, the other helping to procure prey [see Descent, 2d ed., pp. 542–3].
Author: | Henry Stephen (Henry) Reeks |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Mar 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 88: 105 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8703 |
To Francis Galton 4 January [1873]
Summary
Comments on FG’s article ["Hereditary improvement", Fraser’s Mag. 87 (1873): 116–30]. Finds it "the sole feasible, yet I fear utopian, plan of procedure in improving the human race".
Thanks for rabbits for Balfour.
Mentions reading W. R. Greg’s Enigmas [of life (1872)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Galton |
Date: | 4 Jan [1873] |
Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/14) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8724 |
From A. C. Smith 25 June 1873
Summary
Wonders whether CD has any idea how the cuckoo manages to match its eggs to those of its host; believes it possible that the diet of the nestling cuckoo, which varies with its host, may affect its behaviour and the colour of its eggs.
Author: | Alfred Charles Smith |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 June 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 183 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8950 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the debate in Nature , 18 November 1869, p. 74; it was reprinted in the Zoologist ( …
From J. D. Hooker 7 January 1873
Summary
Fascinated by Greg’s Enigmas, though its matter is weak.
Is vexed at being drawn into hostility toward British Museum through William Carruthers’ insolence and presumption.
Recounts visit with Edward Cardwell [Secretary for War].
Has sent Candolle’s book to Gladstone.
JDH indignant at Gladstone’s speech putting English science below French and German.
Thinks it is an accepted dogma that glandular hairs are excreting only. Will ask others to confirm.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Jan 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 103: 140–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8727 |
To James Crichton-Browne 28 February [1873]
Summary
Hopes JC-B thinks that CD has properly acknowledged his debt in Expression.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Crichton-Browne |
Date: | 28 Feb [1873] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 342 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8792 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Charles Darwin and James Crichton-Browne, 1869–75. History of Psychiatry 21: 160–75. …
From J. T. Moggridge 22 July 1873
Summary
He will repeat the experiments in which CD found that formic acid vapour killed seeds [see 8866]. John Lindley describes effects of other acids on germination.
He has tabulated the large amount of variation in English Ophrys apifera.
Author: | John Traherne Moggridge |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 July 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 219 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8984 |
letter | (39) |
Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
Crichton-Browne, James | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Moggridge, J. T. | (2) |
Müller, Hermann | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (22) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Blackley, C. H. | (1) |
Crichton-Browne, James | (1) |
Cupples, George | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (37) |
Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
Crichton-Browne, James | (3) |
Cupples, George | (2) |
Galton, Francis | (2) |

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 …