To F. T. Buckland 2 October 1866
Summary
Declines contributing to Land and Water. Asks if F. T. Buckland can insert a question about the feet of otter hounds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Buckland, F. T. |
Date: | 02 Oct 1866 |
Classmark: | Rendells |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5227F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Rendells Charles Robert Darwin 02 Oct 1866 Buckland, F. T. …
From Francis Darwin to Thomas Edison [20–9 December 1877]
Summary
His father asks him to thank TAE for sending the curious case of the insects [see 11271].
Author: | Francis Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Alva Edison |
Date: | [20–9 Dec 1877] |
Classmark: | Thomas Edison National Park (Edison Document File, 1878 Folder: (D-78-02) Edison, T.A. – General) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11312A |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edison Document File, 1878 Folder: (D-78-02) Edison, T.A. – General) Francis Darwin Down [ …
From Asa Gray 4 August 1862
Summary
Gives J. T. Rothrock’s observations on the structure and fertility of the two forms of Houstonia. Mentions his own observations on Rhexia virginica and Gymnadenia tridentata.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Aug 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 110 (ser. 2): 67–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3679 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … pollen .020. x .017 Short-styled " .036 x .02 : in the fresh plants, but dry. Distended …
From T. L. Brunton 28 February 1874
Summary
Reports negative results of his experiments on digestion of chlorophyll by Drosera and by animals. [See Insectivorous plants, p. 126.]
Sends references for chondrin.
Author: | Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Feb 1874 |
Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 47–8, DAR 160: 340 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9322 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and water 2 ........... dogs stomach with dilute HCl .02% 3 ........... glycerine & water …
Brunton, T. L. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
Darwin, Francis | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
Buckland, F. T. | (1) |
Edison, T. A. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
Brunton, T. L. | (1) |
Buckland, F. T. | (1) |
Darwin, Francis | (1) |
Edison, T. A. | (1) |

All Darwin's letters from 1873 go online for the anniversary of Origin
Summary
To celebrate the 158th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species on 24 November, the full transcripts and footnotes of over 500 letters from and to Charles Darwin in 1873 are now available online. Read about Darwin's life in 1873 through his…
Matches: 1 hits
- … muscular contraction in animals. I could give 2 scientific secretaries work to do ( …
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,…

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: 3 hits

Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Darwin’s scientific women
Summary
Darwin exchanged letters with women who were botanists, travellers, observers, writers, and naturalists. Find out about their lives and how they contributed to his research.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s letters shed light on the lives of some otherwise little-known women and reveal how much …

The death of Anne Elizabeth Darwin
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, died at the age of ten in 1851. Emma was heavily pregnant with their fifth son, Horace, at the time and could not go with Charles when he took Annie to Malvern to consult the hydrotherapist, Dr Gully.…
Darwin and Gender Projects by Harvard Students
Summary
Working in collaboration with Professor Sarah Richardson and Dr Myrna Perez, Darwin Correspondence Project staff developed a customised set of 'Darwin and Gender' themed resources for a course on Gender, Sex and Evolution first taught at Harvard…
Matches: 3 hits

Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 0 hits

Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 3 hits
- … hypothesis, first published in 1868 ( Variation 2: 357–404). Others had attempted but failed to …
- … out that in less than a day he could type no more than ‘ 2 or 3 times as slowly as writing ’ (DAR …
- … eczema, was able to rest his mind ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 2 May [1876] ). Darwin even cautioned …

Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 3 hits

Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Essay: What is Darwinism?
Summary
—by Asa Gray WHAT IS DARWINISM? The Nation, May 28, 1874 The question which Dr. Hodge asks he promptly and decisively answers: ‘What is Darwinism? it is atheism.’ Leaving aside all subsidiary and incidental matters, let us consider–1. What the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … let us consider–1. What the Darwinian doctrine is, and 2. How it is proved to be atheistic. Dr. …
- … case, events are brought about in the material world; and 2. That by the word ‘ natural ’ is meant …
- … or miraculous does to effect it for once. ’[VIII-2] So when Mr. Darwin makes such large and free …
- … Not to the original intention of the divine mind; 2. Not to special acts of creation calling new …
- … reference to the blind operation of natural causes; and, 2. That they were foreseen and purposed by …

Insectivorous Plants published
Summary
Darwin's book, Insectivorous plants, demonstrating that some plant species not only attract animal prey but can digest it, is published. Darwin predicted poor sales but following initial publication on 2 July, two further printings were needed in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … predicted poor sales but following initial publication on 2 July, two further printings were needed …
Doing Darwin’s Experiments
Summary
Darwin’s curiosity for the natural world meant he carried out experiments throughout his life. Try out his experiments in the class room and compare your results with his findings.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin wrote to thousands of correspondents and his letters and notebooks show us how he worked. …
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: 7 hits
- … during this period ( Notebooks ; Collected papers , 2: 285–91), for example, there are numerous …
- … drilled by the cavities formed by this animal.—’ (DAR 31.2: 305). He gave a detailed description and …
- … to that observed in the metamorphosis of Crustacea (DAR 31.2: 307). This observation was notable, …
- … and these establish higher taxonomic affinities, (2) characters shared by organisms reflect the …
- … Lernæa, (which I sh^d^ think was the strongest case known.^2^ Barnacles in some sense, eyes & …
- … and anomalous course. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 151–2) Crisp (1983) has pointed …
- … of this topic in the 1844 essay ( Foundations , p. 229). ^2^ CD and other contemporary …

Earthworms
Summary
As with many of Darwin’s research topics, his interest in worms spanned nearly his entire working life. Some of his earliest correspondence about earthworms was written and received in the 1830s, shortly after his return from his Beagle voyage, and his…

Barnacles
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…
Beagle Voyage
Summary
In 1831, aged 22, Charles Darwin set sail on HMS Beagle for a voyage that would change his life and the way that we understand the world. Find out about the adventures that he had during his five years abroad.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Using a range of primary sources, including letters diary entries and contemporary images, the …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 0 hits

Clémence Auguste Royer
Summary
Getting Origin translated into French was harder than Darwin had expected. The first translator he approached, Madame Belloc, turned him down on the grounds that the content was ‘too scientific‘, and then in 1860 the French political exile Pierre…