Owen, Richard. 1863. Ape-origin of man as tested by the brain. Athenæum, 21 February 1863, pp. 262-3.
Matches: 1 hit
- … 262-3. https://archive.org/details/sim_athenaeum-uk_1863-02-21_1843/page/262/mode/2up 13 …
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 …
letter | (3) |
bibliography | (1) |
people | (1) |
Brunton, T. L. | (1) |
Darwin, Francis | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
Edison, T. A. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
Brunton, T. L. | (1) |
Darwin, Francis | (1) |
Edison, T. A. | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Life sciences in Commentary

Movement in Plants
Summary
The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…
Matches: 5 hits
- … William Thiselton-Dyer how he ‘ syringed the plant for 2 minutes, & it was really beautiful to …
- … is one machine we must have. A strong horizontal axis about 2 feet long which goes round by clock …
- … above others below & the difference was very striking 2 of those causticed above being more …
- … & penetrate the ground just like a root to a depth of nearly 2 1/2 inches; then their growth …
- … the initial cost of publication with Darwin receiving 2/3s of the profits), but on commission …

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…

Beauty and the seed
Summary
One of the real pleasures afforded in reading Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the discovery of areas of research on which he never published, but which interested him deeply. We can gain many insights about Darwin’s research methods by following these …

The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 4 hits
- … no other place, could have been given to it’ (Kirby 1852, 2: 246). Darwin’s copy of Brougham …
- … Bees can make apparently true cylinders & spheres. (2) They never begin one cell at time always …
- … by the work of François Huber. In his copy of Huber 1814, 2: 143, he scribbled a note: ‘If the sides …
- … the latest controversies in his letter to Darwin of 2 August 1858 . The notion that the theory of …

Biodiversity and its histories
Summary
The Darwin Correspondence Project was co-sponsor of Biodiversity and its Histories, which brought together scholars and researchers in ecology, politics, geography, anthropology, cultural history, and history and philosophy of science, to explore how…
Matches: 1 hits
- … John Ray’s Wisdom of God and John Allen’s Biosphere 2 Georg Toepfer …

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…

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…
Matches: 6 hits
- … hothouse plants drawn up by Darwin; these lists are in DAR 255: 8 and DAR 255: 2–5. The first is a …
- … Transcription: Hugh Low & Co. 1 — Cattell 2 will get me at prices below without …
- … Canna Warscewisii— 4 2.6 …
- … § Melastoma atropurpurea 6 2.6 …
- … §Allamanda & Dipladenia 2.6 or 3.6. …
- … London ( Post Office London directory 1863). 2. John Cattell was a florist, nurseryman …

Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 3 hits
- … of existence.”’ (Ernst Haeckel, Generelle Morphologie 2: 286; translation from Stauffer 1957, p. 140 …
- … study to an ‘uncritical’ natural history (Haeckel 1866, 2: 286–7; see also Stauffer 1957, p. 141). …
- … die von Charles Darwin reformirte Descendenz-Theorie . 2 vols. Berlin: Georg Reimer. Haeckel, …

Insectivorous plants
Summary
Darwin’s work on insectivorous plants began by accident. While on holiday in the summer of 1860, staying with his wife’s relatives in Hartfield, Sussex, he went for long walks on the heathland and became curious about the large number of insects caught by…
Matches: 3 hits

Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…

Getting to know Darwin's science
Summary
One of the most exciting aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the opportunity it gives to researchers to ‘get to know’ Darwin as an individual. The letters not only reveal the scientific processes behind Darwin’s publications, they give insight…
Matches: 1 hits
- … you will find: 1. a set of selected letters 2. excerpts from Darwin’s published work …

Darwin and vivisection
Summary
Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…