From Adam Sedgwick to the Geological Society of London 10 July 1837
Summary
Referee’s report on "Elevation on the coast of Chili" [(1838), Collected papers 1: 41–3] and paper by Alexander Caldcleugh on same subject. Recommends printing CD’s in Transactions and shortening Caldcleugh’s. [W. Lonsdale’s note shows CD’s paper withdrawn 15 Nov 1837, Caldcleugh’s ordered not printed 15 Nov 1837.]
| Author: | Adam Sedgwick |
| Addressee: | Geological Society of London |
| Date: | 10 July 1837 |
| Classmark: | Geological Society of London (GSL/COM/P/4/2/49) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-365 |
To Adam Sedgwick 11 October [1850]
Summary
Thanks AS for a copy of his book, Discourse [on the studies of the University, 5th ed.].
Thinking of not sending his eldest son [William] to a classical school.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Adam Sedgwick |
| Date: | 11 Oct [1850] |
| Classmark: | Rensselaer Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Gerald and Sue Friedman manuscript collection MC 72 Box 1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1369F |
To J. S. Henslow 14 May [1860]
Summary
Thanks JSH for his defence [see 2794].
He is not hurt for long by what his attackers say. His conclusions were arrived at after long study. He has certainly erred, but not so much as "Sedgwick and Co." think.
Asks JSH to send names of plants that vary greatly in length of pistil.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 14 May [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A70–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2801 |
To J. S. Henslow 8 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on Richard Owen’s review of the Origin [in Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532]. Considers Owen unfair to CD and most ungenerous toward Hooker.
Expects Sedgwick to be fierce against him. Sedgwick also misrepresented CD in his Spectator review [24 Mar and 7 Apr 1860].
Compares natural selection to the undulatory theory of light as a hypothesis explaining a large number of facts.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 8 May [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A67–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2791 |
From W. B. Dawkins 1 December 1875
Summary
Asks CD to sign papers for Royal Society candidacy of W. B. Clarke.
| Author: | William Boyd Dawkins |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Dec 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 131 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10285 |
To T. H. Huxley 25 November [1859]
Summary
Rejoices over THH’s lecture ["On species and races, and their origin", 10 Feb 1860, Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 195–200] to be given at Royal Institution. Offers pigeon illustrations.
Adam Sedgwick has sent a "slashing" letter [2548] about Origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 25 Nov [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 74) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2554 |
From W. E. Darwin 16 September 1880
Summary
Sends four wrist bands, and advice on putting them on. George is well. Can easily get worm castings. Lilly and Mlle Wild arrived in a storm to stay the night. Is much amused by Sedgwick’s ferocious letter about Vestiges.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Sept 1880 |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 78) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12714F |
To J. D. Hooker 15 [May 1860]
Summary
Lyell, de facto, first to stress importance of geological changes for geographical distribution.
Asa Gray has given CD too much credit for theories of geographical distribution.
Reaction to hostile criticism
and debt to Lyell, Huxley, JDH, and W. B. Carpenter.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 [May 1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 56 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2802 |
To J. D. Hooker [22–3 November 1863]
Summary
Tendril-bearing plants seem to CD "higher" organised with respect to adaptive sensibility than lower animals.
Wishes to encourage John Scott.
Death of JDH’s daughter makes CD cry over his own dead daughter Annie.
Sedgwick’s scientific merit.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [22–3 Nov 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 211 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4345 |
To Charles Lyell 18 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on enclosed letters from Asa Gray and Wallace [missing].
Discusses hybrid fertility in rabbits and hares, and pheasants and fowls.
Asks about paper by Hermann Schaaffhausen ["Über Beständigkeit u. Umwandlung der Arten", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. Preuss. Rheinlande 10 (1853): 420–51].
Mentions criticism by Sedgwick and William Clark at Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Notes importance of CL and Hooker in defending Origin.
Comments on papers by D. A. Godron ["Considérations sur les migrations des végétaux", Acad. Stanislas Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy (1853): 329–67].
Mentions receiving anonymous verses.
A Manchester newspaper lampoon shows CD has proved "might makes right" to be a universal law.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 18 May [1860] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.212) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2806 |
To J. S. Henslow 17 May [1860]
Summary
Sends characters by which he can divide all primroses and cowslips into what he suspects will be male and female plants. Believes these forms are first step in formation of a dioecious plant.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 17 May [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A72–3, A116 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2805 |
Barrett, Lucas (1837–62)
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick, 1855–8. Director of the Geological Survey of Jamaica, 1859–62. Alum. Cantab . DNB . Bibliography Alum. Cantab. : Alumni Cantabrigienses. A biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900. Compiled by John Venn and J. A. Venn. 10 …
From E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung 10 May 1866
Summary
Encloses letter from H. B. Geinitz, who declines to handle translation of new edition of Origin. Recommends Julius Victor Carus. Also suggests Gustav von Leonhard as translator for Origin.
Discusses translation of Variation.
| Author: | E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 72 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5085 |
To J. D. Hooker [10 February 1846]
Summary
Thinks JDH’s explanation of polymorphism on volcanic islands is probably correct.
Proposes experimental test to see whether alpine form of a plant is inherited like a true variety.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [10 Feb 1846] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 54 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-951 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick published a scathing attack (Sedgwick 1845) on Vestiges of the natural history of creation ( [Chambers] 1844 ), to which [Chambers] 1845 was a partial answer. Edward Forbes had joined Hooker, Hugh Falconer , and George Robert Waterhouse at Down House on 6 December 1845, see letters to J. D. Hooker, [25 November 1845] and [10 …
To W. B. Carpenter 3 December [1859]
Summary
Delighted by WBC’s letter about Origin. There is now "a great physiologist on our side". "You have done me an essential kindness in checking the odium theologicum in the E[dinburgh] R[eview] … immaterial whether we go quite the same lengths … the principle is everything."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Benjamin Carpenter |
| Date: | 3 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.6: 3 (EH 88205920) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2568 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick’s severe review of Vestiges of creation in the Edinburgh Review ( [Sedgwick] 1845 ), particularly after having received Sedgwick’s response to Origin in his letter of 24 November 1859 . Henrietta Darwin later wrote that Emma Darwin would not show her ‘Professor Sedgwick’s horrified reprobation’ of Origin ( Emma Darwin (1915) 2: 172). See also letter to C. S. Wedgwood, [after 21 November 1859] . Carpenter’s review appeared in National Review 10 ( …
From J. S. Henslow 5 May 1860
Summary
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
| Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 May 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 186: 47 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2783 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick read a paper criticising Origin at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 7 May 1860. In November 1859, Owen had written that he was ‘disposed to believe’ in some form of transmutation (see Correspondence vol. 7, letter from Richard Owen, 12 November 1859 ). However, his review of Origin ([R. Owen] 1860a) was highly critical (see letters to T. H. Huxley, 9 April [1860] , and to Charles Lyell , 10 …
From J. D. Hooker 31 October 1871
Summary
Details of the JDH–Ayrton–Gladstone imbroglio.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 93–5; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’Correspondence vol. 156, Indian Letters, Calcutta Botanic Garden II 1860–1905, ff. 1066–7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8036 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick , CD’s former teacher at Cambridge, was 86 years old. The lecture course for 1871 to 1872 was delivered by a deputy, John Morris (see J. W. Clark and Hughes eds. 1890, 2: 458). CD and Hooker had helped John Scott to obtain a position at a Cinchona plantation near Darjeeling in 1864 (see Correspondence vol. 12, pp. xviii–xix). To help pay for Scott’s travel and other expenses, CD wrote cheques for £25 and £10, …
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Dawkins, W. B. | (1) |
| E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
| Geological Society of London | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Sedgwick, Adam | (2) |
| Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
