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To Godfrey Wedgwood   21 April [1856]

Summary

Thanks GW for his report about the rabbits at Sandon [Staffs.]. Fears case has broken down, except that it is now known that such a breed has run wild for some years. No need to send bodies since breed is so obscure.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Godfrey Wedgwood
Date:  21 Apr [1856]
Classmark:  Barbara and Robert Pincus (private collection)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1857

Matches: 1 hit

  • … DCP-LETT-1857

To Frances Mackintosh Wedgwood   18 [August 1856 – January 1858]

Summary

Is flattered by a proposal that he undertake some reviewing work, but has many years’ work in prospect on his present book on species and varieties.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Mackintosh; Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Wedgwood
Date:  18 [Aug 1856 - Jan 1858]
Classmark:  DAR 148: 303
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1810

Matches: 13 hits

  • … Darwin Down 18 Aug 1856 18 Sept 1856 18 Oct 1856 18 Nov 1856 18 Dec 1856 18 Jan 1857 18 …
  • … Feb 1857 18 …
  • … Mar 1857 18 …
  • … Apr 1857 18 …
  • … May 1857 18 …
  • … June 1857 18 …
  • … July 1857 18 …
  • … Aug 1857 18 …
  • … Sept 1857 18 …
  • … Oct 1857 18 …
  • … Nov 1857 18 …
  • … Dec 1857 18 Jan 1858 Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Mackintosh/Frances Emma Elizabeth ( …
  • … 18 th —. ’ occurred in August 1856, May 1857, and January 1858. The next possible Monday …

To John Innes   [after 16 February 1857]

Summary

Recommends he read passages on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Brodie Innes
Date:  [after 16 Feb 1857]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.149)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2025

Matches: 10 hits

  • … To John Innes   [after 16 February 1857] …
  • … Mss.B.D25.149) Charles Robert Darwin unstated [after 16 Feb 1857] John Brodie Innes …
  • … on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)]. …
  • … researches on invertebrates. CD cited Siebold 1857  in his discussion of the two varieties …
  • … Vols. 7,8] Siebold, Karl Theodor Ernst von. 1857. On a true parthenogenesis in moths and …
  • … Siebold 1856 ), an English translation of which ( Siebold 1857 ) was published between 31  …
  • … January and 16 February 1857 ( Publishers’ Circular , …
  • … 16 February 1857, p.  94). …
  • … CD’s copy of Siebold 1857  is in the Darwin Library–CUL. …
  • … numbers refer to the chapter in Siebold 1857  entitled ‘True parthenogenesis in the honey …

To J. D. Hooker   [June 1857]

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Summary

Request for Floras of Pacific Islands and Greenland.

Individual variation.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  [June 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 222b
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2198

Matches: 14 hits

  • … To J.  D. Hooker    [June 1857] …
  • … DAR 114: 222b Charles Robert Darwin Down [June 1857] Joseph Dalton Hooker …
  • … Press. 1985–. Lange, Johan Martin Christian. 1857. Oversigt over Graennlands planter. Vol. …
  • … In the letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] , CD stated that he had been collecting …
  • … the letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] . The final question in this memorandum is …
  • … work in Natural selection . Probably Lange 1857 . Robert Brown . CD had previously asked …
  • … to be highly variable ( letter to J.  D. Hooker, 16 [May 1857] ). See also letters to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 3 June [1857] and …
  • … 5 June [1857] , in which CD expressed his surprise that examples could not be found in …
  • … related to a point discussed by CD in the letters to J.  D. Hooker, 16 [May 1857] and …
  • … 3 June [1857] . The chapter of CD’s species …
  • … topic is discussed was completed on 5 July 1857 (‘Journal’; see Correspondence vol.  6, …
  • … Hooker, who had worked on the flora of a neighbouring Pacific island in 1857 ( J.   …
  • … D. Hooker 1857 ), would presumably have known whether any botanical studies of the area …

To Hugh Falconer   [7 March 1857]

Summary

Thinking about HF’s paper on Plagiaulax [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck mammals are marsupials.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Hugh Falconer
Date:  [7 Mar 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 144: 26
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3791

Matches: 14 hits

  • … To Hugh Falconer   [7 March 1857] …
  • … DAR 144: 26 Charles Robert Darwin unstated [7 Mar 1857] Hugh Falconer …
  • … Plagiaulax [ Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck …
  • … is established by the reference to Falconer 1857 , and the reference to CD and Falconer …
  • … having met (see n.  2, below). In 1857, 7 March was a Saturday. …
  • … The reference is to the manuscript of Falconer 1857 ; the paragraph referred to probably …
  • … the Geological Society of London on 11 March 1857; it was published later in the year. …
  • … DAR 242), CD visited London from 4 to 7  March 1857; he apparently saw Falconer during his …
  • … visit (see Correspondence vol.  6, letter to J.  D.  Dana, 5 April [1857] and n.  8). …
  • … In his published paper ( Falconer 1857 , p.  276), Falconer suggested that Plagiaulax , a …
  • … developed brains, except for humans ( R.  Owen 1857 , p.  19). Owen’s classification …
  • … read before the Linnean Society on 17 February and 21 April 1857; CD’s letter to J.   …
  • … D.  Dana, 5 April [1857] ( Correspondence vol.  6), suggests that he had doubts about …
  • … In R.  Owen 1852 , cited in Falconer 1857 , p.  276, Owen wrote (pp.  904–5): Examples of …

To J. D. Hooker   25 December [1857]

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Summary

Species with marked varieties.

Dana’s pamphlet also too metaphysical for CD.

Natural selection chapter on hybridism completed.

Doubts JDH will resist theory in his introduction to Flora Tasmaniae.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  25 Dec [1857]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 218
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2194

Matches: 11 hits

  • … To J.  D. Hooker   25 December [1857] …
  • … DAR 114: 218 Charles Robert Darwin Down 25 Dec [1857] Joseph Dalton Hooker …
  • … See letter from J.   D. Hooker, [17–23 December 1857] and n.  5. See letter …
  • … to A.  R. Wallace, 22 December 1857 , n.  11. …
  • … D. Hooker, [17–23 December 1857] ). …
  • … In ‘Thoughts on species’ ( Dana 1857 ), James Dwight Dana tried to establish the …
  • … 1865. See also letter to T.  H. Huxley, 16 December [1857] . J.  D. Hooker 1860 . …
  • … hybridism, which was completed on 29 December 1857 (‘Journal’; see Correspondence vol.  6, …
  • … from J.  D. Hooker, [17–23 December 1857] . CD did not conclude his statistical analysis …
  • … and June 1858 ( J.  Browne 1980 , p.  87). Brown 1810 . Dana 1857 (see letter from J.   …
  • … University Press. 1985–. Dana, James Dwight. 1857. Thoughts on species. American Journal …

To J. D. Hooker   14 [November 1857]

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Summary

Rule that species vary most in larger genera seems universal.

Response to Gardeners’ Chronicle note on "Bees and kidney beans" [Collected papers 1: 275–7].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  14 [Nov 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 215
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2170

Matches: 15 hits

  • … To J.  D. Hooker   14 [November 1857] …
  • … DAR 114: 215 Charles Robert Darwin Down 14 [Nov 1857] Joseph Dalton Hooker …
  • … CD went to London on Tuesday, 17 November 1857 and returned to Down House on Friday, 20  …
  • … and Watson 1847–59  from Hooker (see letters to J.  D. Hooker, 30 September [1857] , 20  …
  • … October [1857] , and [ …
  • … 23 October 1857] ). See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, [23 October 1857] . Candolle and Candolle 1824–73 . …
  • … See letter to J.  D. Hooker, 2 June [1857] . John Lindley , whom Hooker had proposed for a …
  • … the anniversary meeting of the society on 30 November 1857. Charles Lyell , who had been …
  • … for the Copley Medal, did not receive it in 1857 but was awarded the medal in 1858. …
  • … CD spent the week of 5–12 November 1857 at Edward Wickstead Lane’s hydropathic …
  • … recently published the first part of Lowe 1857[–72]. E.  Forbes and Hanley [1848–]1853. …
  • … See letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] . …
  • … Letter from Henry Coe, 4 November 1857 . See …
  • … also letter from Henry Coe, 14 November 1857 . See letter to M.  J. Berkeley, 29  …

To J. D. Hooker   1 July [1857]

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Summary

George Henslow’s curtness to JDH: "an attack of religion".

Embryonic leaves. Adaptive functions and taxonomic significance of cotyledons.

Asa Gray. Separation of sexes in U. S. trees.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  1 July [1857]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 198
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2116

Matches: 5 hits

  • … See letter from Asa Gray, 1 June 1857 . …
  • … To J.  D. Hooker   1 July [1857] …
  • … DAR 114: 198 Charles Robert Darwin Down 1 July [1857] Joseph Dalton Hooker …
  • … the children returning to Down on 4 July 1857 and Emma on 6 July ( Emma Darwin’s diary). …
  • … portion of the letter from J.  D. Hooker, [27] June 1857 may have discussed this point. …

To W. E. Darwin   29 [October 1857]

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Summary

Discusses WED’s future education, the work on the extension, and other domestic affairs.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Erasmus Darwin
Date:  29 [Oct 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 210.6: 19
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2147

Matches: 10 hits

  • … To W.  E. Darwin   29 [October 1857] …
  • … DAR 210.6: 19 Charles Robert Darwin Down 29 [Oct 1857] William Erasmus Darwin …
  • … of 31  October (see letter to J.  D. Hooker, [23 October 1857] ). See …
  • … letter To William Darwin , [before 29 October 1857]. …
  • … to Down House on Saturday, 31 October 1857 (see nn.  5 and 7, below). CD wanted William to …
  • … until October 1858 (see letter to W.  E. Darwin, 21 [July 1857] ). See letter to W.   …
  • … E. Darwin, [November 1857] . Emma Darwin recorded a trip …
  • … London in her diary on 29 and 30 October 1857. Georgina Tollet and her sisters were some …
  • … hydropathic establishment, on 31 October 1857 ( Emma Darwin’s diary). CD recorded in his ‘ …
  • … was at Moor Park from 5 to 12 November 1857. Hooker arrived at Down House on the evening …

From J. D. Hooker   [17–23 December 1857]

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Summary

Sending more Candolle volumes for survey of species with well-marked varieties.

Has begun his introduction [to Flora Tasmaniae]; will not make generalisations.

J. D. Dana’s pamphlet too metaphysical for JDH.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [17–23 Dec 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 104: 194
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2188

Matches: 11 hits

  • … From J.  D. Hooker   [17–23 December 1857] …
  • … DAR 104: 194 Joseph Dalton Hooker unstated [17–23 Dec 1857] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … Würtz [and others]. Dana, James Dwight. 1857. Thoughts on species. American Journal of …
  • … the letter to J.  D. Hooker, 25 December [1857] , in which CD reported that the books had …
  • … see letter to J.  D. Hooker, 9 December [1857] ). Hooker’s mention of sending them ‘on …
  • … of Arthur Henfrey’s Elementary course on botany (London, 1857) and James Dwight Dana’ …
  • … s ‘Thoughts on species’ ( Dana 1857 ), both of which appeared in the November issue of the …
  • … in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. For CD’s opinion of Dana 1857 , see letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 25 December [1857] . …
  • … See letter to J.  D. Hooker, 9 December [1857] . Hooker refers to CD’s calculations on the …
  • … letter from J.  D. Hooker, [6 December 1857] ). Bentham 1858 . J.  D. Hooker 1860 . The …

To J. D. Dana   25 May [1857]

Summary

Thanks him for information concerning Crustacea.

Comments on natural history study in the U. S.

Mentions work done by Huxley on Crustacea ["Description of a new crustacean", J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 363–9];

John Lubbock on larvae of Diptera.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  James Dwight Dana
Date:  25 May [1857]
Classmark:  Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Silliman Family Papers (MS 450) Box 19, folder 25)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2094

Matches: 10 hits

  • … To J.  D. Dana   25 May [1857] …
  • … letter to Dana ( letter to J.  D. Dana, 5 April [1857] ). …
  • … MS 450) Box 19, folder 25) Charles Robert Darwin Down 25 May [1857] James Dwight Dana …
  • … new crustacean", J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 363–9]; John Lubbock on larvae of Diptera. …
  • … by the relationship to the letter from J.  D. Dana, 27 April 1857 . See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Dana, 5 April [1857] , and letter from J.   …
  • … D. Dana, 27 April 1857 . In …
  • … his last letter to CD, 27 April 1857 , Dana had mentioned that Louis Agassiz had a …
  • … letter from Charles Lyell, [16 January 1857] ). CD had mentioned the work in his previous …
  • … eleven, published in the issue of 23 May 1857, Huxley put forward a new interpretation of …

To T. H. Huxley   17 January [1857]

Summary

Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.

CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:  17 Jan [1857]
Classmark:  DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2041

Matches: 11 hits

  • … To T.  H. Huxley   17 January [1857] …
  • … DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939) Charles Robert Darwin Down 17 Jan [1857] Thomas Henry Huxley …
  • … viscous flow (p.  333). See also letters to T.  H. Huxley, 3 February [1857] , and to John …
  • … Tyndall , 4 February [1857]. …
  • … of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of …
  • … Dated by CD’s reference to Tyndall and Huxley 1857 (see n.  2, below). Huxley …
  • … structure and motion of glaciers’ (Tyndall and Huxley 1857 ) had been read to the Royal …
  • … Society of London on 15 January 1857. The paper, which challenged the viscous theory of …
  • … moulded into any shape (Tyndall and Huxley 1857 , p.  329–31). Tyndall had observed that …
  • … themselves were melting (Tyndall and Huxley 1857 , p.  329). Wenham ice was imported, …
  • … by its own gravity’ (Tyndall and Huxley 1857 , pp.  332–3). Instead, they were concerned …

To John Lubbock   12 [August 1857]

Summary

Invites JL to dine and meet J. S. Henslow.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:  12 [Aug 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 263: 19 (EH 88206468)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2396

Matches: 7 hits

  • … Elizabeth (Eliza) Wedgwood, Emma’s cousin, died one month later, on 11 September 1857. …
  • … To John Lubbock   12 [August 1857] …
  • … 88206468) Charles Robert Darwin Down 12 [Aug 1857] John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron …
  • … See the letter to Lubbock, 11 August [1857] , n.  1, for the basis of the date. It is …
  • … see n.  3, below). See the letter to Lubbock, 11 August [1857] . John Stevens Henslow …
  • … was to visit Down on Thursday, 13 August 1857. Emma Darwin …
  • … recorded in her diary on 11 August 1857: ‘I came to London to Eliza’. Sarah …

From J. D. Hooker   [2 December 1857]

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Summary

News of Mrs Henslow’s death.

Studying Impatiens, which bears on CD’s problems. Though genus is endemic to India, with over 100 species, CD will be glad to know they do not run into one another.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [2 Dec 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 104: 178–9
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2178

Matches: 10 hits

  • … From J.  D. Hooker   [2 December 1857] …
  • … Society of London 9 (1857–9): 39–40). …
  • … DAR 104: 178–9 Joseph Dalton Hooker Kew [2 Dec 1857] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … Bibliography Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches in South Africa; …
  • … The Wednesday before letter to J.  D. Hooker, 4 December [1857] . Harriet Henslow had died …
  • … in her home in Hitcham, Suffolk, on 20 November 1857 (see letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 21 November [1857] ). Harriet Henslow was the daughter of George Leonard Jenyns …
  • … prone to vary. ’ See letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] . The crossing of sweet …
  • … and melons was reported in Livingstone 1857 , pp.  48–9. Hooker identified the botanical …
  • … Medals at the society’s anniversary meeting on 30 November 1857 ( Proceedings of the Royal …

To W. D. Fox   30 October [1857]

Summary

Has come to think his brains were not made for thinking – he immediately feels better when at Moor Park.

News of his family.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  William Darwin Fox
Date:  30 Oct [1857]
Classmark:  Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 104)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2161

Matches: 11 hits

  • … To W.  D. Fox   30 October [1857] …
  • … Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 104) Charles Robert Darwin Down 30 Oct [1857] William Darwin Fox …
  • … 1850] . John Stevens Henslow visited Down House in August 1857 (see letter to J.   …
  • … S. Henslow, 10 August [1857] ). …
  • … CD had spent a fortnight at Moor Park from 22 April to 6 May 1857 and again from 16  …
  • … June to 30 June 1857 (‘Journal’; see Correspondence vol.  6, Appendix II). At Fox’s …
  • … vol.  4 and J.  Browne 1990 ). Lane 1857 . Edward Wickstead Lane did not move his …
  • … See letter to W.  E. Darwin, [November 1857] . For CD’s and Fox’s earlier discussion of …
  • … to Down House from Moor Park on 31 October 1857 ( Emma Darwin’s diary). See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 30 September [1857] . CD recorded having finished chapters …
  • … and 8 of his species book on 29 September 1857 (see Correspondence vol.  6, Appendixes II …

From J. D. Hooker   [6 December 1857]

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Summary

Finds CD’s results [of his survey of well-marked varieties from A. P. and Alphonse de Candolle’s Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis (1824–73)] "very curious and suggestive". Thinks the Labiatae will present an obstacle to him as it is a very large and distinct order with well-defined species and genera. Would like to see him tackle more volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus, as his case can only be established by evidence from mundane plants. CD should beware of generalising from local species variability. A comparison of C. C. Babington’s and G. Bentham’s [British] Floras [Babington Manual of British botany (1843, 4th ed., 1856); Bentham Handbook of British flora (1858)] would be invaluable. Suggests CD write to Ferdinand Müller and Charles Moore in Australia. Moisture favouring extension of species is important for CD’s view.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [6 Dec 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 104: 195–6, DAR 47: 192
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2181

Matches: 17 hits

  • … From J.  D. Hooker   [6 December 1857] …
  • … DAR 104: 195–6, DAR 47: 192 Joseph Dalton Hooker Kew [6 Dec 1857] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … the Sunday following the letter to J.  D. Hooker, 4 December [1857] . See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 4 December [1857] . In CD’s final tabulation, the orders mentioned are treated …
  • … University Press. 1985–. Decaisne, Joseph. 1857. On the development of the floral organs …
  • … and Agricultural Gazette , 14 November 1857, p. 773. Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1849. …
  • … letter to J.  D. Hooker, 9 December [1857] , for CD’s response to this criticism. George …
  • … and Agricultural Gazette , 14 November 1857, p.  773, carried a translation of a paper by …
  • … de la Société Botanique de France ( Decaisne 1857 ). Decaisne, botanist at the Jardin des …
  • … Introductory Essay, &c. )’ ( Decaisne 1857 , p.  773). The references are to J.  D. Hooker …
  • … 1851  and Bentham 1858 . In October 1857, CD had asked Hooker to investigate this point ( …
  • … to letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] ). For Hooker’s further comments, see n.   …
  • … see letter to J.  D. Hooker, 20 October [1857] , CD note), Hooker answered: ‘Upper leaves …
  • … letter to George Bentham, 1 December [1857] . It was a list of species that Karl Friedrich …
  • … of Cucubalus (see letter to George Bentham, 15 December [1857] and letter from George …
  • … Bentham, [16 or 17 December 1857] ). The limits of Silene and Cucubalus were in doubt and …
  • … Jakob Heinrich von Mueller, 8 December [1857] . For CD’s correspondence with Charles …

From J. D. Hooker   [11 April 1857]

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Summary

JDH cites W. H. Harvey’s observations on Fucus and David Don’s on Juncus as examples of variations that are independent of climate. There are many such cases. Gives his working scheme for categorising variation.

Author:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [11 Apr 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 104: 198–201
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2074

Matches: 9 hits

  • … are on the subject of variation’. See also the letter to J.  D. Hooker, 12 April [1857] . …
  • … From J.  D. Hooker   [11 April 1857] …
  • … DAR 104: 198–201 Joseph Dalton Hooker Hastings [11 Apr 1857] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … Darwin’s visit to Hastings (see letter to J.  D. Hooker, 8 April [1857] & n.  5) and by …
  • … the relationship to CD’s letters to Hooker, 8 April [1857] and …
  • … 12 April [1857] . See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 8 April [1857] . See letter to J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, 8 April [1857] . This note is in DAR 104: 201. CD refers to the Natural …
  • … The chapter was completed on 5 July 1857 (‘Journal’; Appendix II). In Natural selection , …

To Asa Gray   [after 15 March 1857]

Summary

Urges AG to generalise from his observations on the flora of the northern U. S.

Expected to find separation of sexes in trees because he believes all living beings require an occasional cross, and none is perpetually self-fertilising. The multitude of flowers of a tree would be an obstacle to cross-fertilisation unless the sexes tended to be separate.

The Leguminosae are CD’s greatest opposers; he cannot find that garden varieties ever cross. Could AG inquire of intelligent nurserymen on the subject?

Thanks AG for information on protean genera; much wants to know whether their great variability is due to their conditions of existence or is innate in them at all times and places.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  [after 15 Mar 1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (8)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2060

Matches: 12 hits

  • … To Asa Gray   [after 15 March 1857] …
  • … Herbarium, Harvard University (8) Charles Robert Darwin Down [after 15 Mar 1857] Asa Gray …
  • … C. Watson to Asa Gray, 13 March 1857 . See letter from Asa …
  • … Gray , [ c. 24 May 1857]. …
  • … Hewett Cottrell Watson (see letters from H.  C. Watson, 10 March 1857 , and from H.  C. …
  • … Watson to Asa Gray , 13 March 1857). The letter from Watson to …
  • … was received by CD on or around 15 March 1857, since he mentioned having just received it …
  • … in his letter to J.  D. Hooker, 15 March [1857] . …
  • … Letter from Asa Gray, 16 February 1857 . A.  Gray 1856–7  was published in ‘Silliman’s …
  • … related in the letter to Asa Gray, 1 January [1857] . See letters to George Bentham , 26  …
  • … See letter to Syms Covington, 22 February 1857 . William Macarthur had strong interests in …
  • … Gilbert 1986 , pp.  58, 72–3). Letter from H.  C. Watson, 10 March 1857 . Letter from H.   …

To J. D. Hooker   4 December [1857]

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Summary

Inquiries on effect of dry heat on temperate plants for glacial chapter.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:  4 Dec [1857]
Classmark:  DAR 114: 216
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2180

Matches: 8 hits

  • … To J.  D. Hooker   4 December [1857] …
  • … DAR 114: 216 Charles Robert Darwin Down 4 Dec [1857] Joseph Dalton Hooker …
  • … Harriet Henslow . Letter from J.  D. Hooker, [2 December 1857] . …
  • … to Harriet Henslow , who died on 20 November 1857. Candolle and Candolle 1824–73 . Thuret …
  • … See letter from J.  D. Hooker, [6 December 1857] . The final results of CD’s calculations …
  • … pp.  153–4. See letter from J.  D. Hooker, [6 December 1857] , and letter to F.  J. …
  • … H. von Mueller, 8 December [1857]. See letter from J.   …
  • … D. Hooker, [2 December 1857] . Frances Harriet Hooker was the daughter of John Stevens and …

From T. V. Wollaston   [November–December 1857]

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Summary

He was unaware that varieties occurred proportionately more in large genera.

Recommends a work [Leonard Gyllenhaal, Insecta Suecica, 4 vols. (1808–27)] for tabulating varieties.

Lists "close geographical representatives of Europaean species" based on the species numbers [in T. V. Wollaston, Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira (1857)].

Author:  Thomas Vernon Wollaston
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [Nov–Dec 1857]
Classmark:  DAR 16: 223
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2133

Matches: 13 hits

  • … From T.  V. Wollaston   [November–December 1857] …
  • … DAR 16: 223 Thomas Vernon Wollaston unstated [Nov–Dec 1857] Charles Robert Darwin …
  • … numbers [in T. V. Wollaston, Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira (1857)]. …
  • … The letter follows the publication of Wollaston 1857 , with which it deals. …
  • … The book was published on 10 October 1857 (Entomology Library, British Museum (Natural …
  • … this letter at any time from October 1857 to April 1858, when he completed his statistical …
  • … the letter was written during the close of 1857. Wollaston visited the Canary Islands from …
  • … CD’s annotations). In his copy of Wollaston 1857 , the numbered species are marked with a …
  • … and Cradock. Wollaston, Thomas Vernon. 1857. Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of …
  • … In the introductory remarks of Wollaston 1857 , Wollaston described how he distinguished …
  • … means before colonisation ( Wollaston 1857 , pp. viii–ix and ix n. ). CD apparently wrote …
  • … For CD’s calculations using Wollaston 1857  and Gyllenhal 1808–27, see Natural selection , …
  • … refer to species descriptions in Wollaston 1857  of Coleoptera found only in Madeira. The …
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Six things Darwin never said – and one he did

Summary

Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'

Summary

In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…

Matches: 11 hits

  • … of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed aspects of …
  • … as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test …
  • … the alpine plants pretty effectually’ complained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May …
  • … of calculation was wrong ( letter to John Lubbock, 14 July [1857] ). Darwin thought his results …
  • … experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden vegetables like …
  • … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette  in October 1857, to be followed by a second notice in 1858. …
  • … find the work: am I not a kind Father?’ Darwin wrote in 1857, soon followed by the complaint ‘You …
  • … to end!’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, [17 February 1857] and 21 [July 1857] ). The problem of …
  • … of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and hardly the veiled …
  • … are all vividly displayed in Darwin's letters. By the end of 1857, Darwin was well on the way …
  • … long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] ). From this letter it is evident …

Darwin and Down

Summary

Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842.   The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow.  The village combined the…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … was in Darwin’s day.  To J. D. Hooker,  3 June [1857] :  on the struggle for existence in …

Language: key letters

Summary

How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … 2070: Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, C. R., [before 29 Sept 1857] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …

Abstract of Darwin’s theory

Summary

There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same …
  • … to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). …
  • … was sent to A. Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October 1857 [‘or perhaps’  del ]’. The printed …

Dramatisation script

Summary

Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007

Matches: 4 hits

  • … the Origin of Species…’ FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: 1857-1858 In which Gray and Hooker …
  • … JUNE 1855 20  C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 21  A GRAY TO C DARWIN, …
  • … MARCH 1862 35  C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 36  A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
  • … OCTOBER 1858 59 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, 12 OCTOBER 1857 60 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, …

The "wicked book": Origin at 157

Summary

Origin is 157 years old.  (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859.  To celebrate we have uploaded hundreds of new images of letters, bringing the total number you can look at here to over 9000 representing more than…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … ’s appearance, but there is a fascinating scrap from 1857 comparing his views on species to …

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: 3 hits

  • … a high compliment when he touched upon this matter in his 1857 lecture on cirripedes. In his praise …
  • … and not an anatomist ex professo .’ (T. H. Huxley 1857, p. 238 n.).    While Darwin’s …
  • … nos. 2118 and 2119, letter to T. H. Huxley, 5 July [1857] , and letter from T. H. Huxley, 7 …

What is an experiment?

Summary

Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … observation’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 December 1857 ). Much of his research and many …
  • … little experiments’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [21 March 1857] ; letter to J. S. Henslow, 27 June …

Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I

Summary

Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared.  Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … written in 1842 , and, as he told Asa Gray in September 1857 , he intended to call the ‘ big …

Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species

Summary

Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
  • … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
  • … 5 3 March 1857 The struggle for existence as bearing on …
  • … 6 31 March 1857 On natural selection (DAR 10.2; …
  • … 7 29 September 1857 Laws of variation: varieties & …
  • … 8 29 September 1857 Difficulties on the theory of …
  • … 9 29 December 1857 Hybridism (DAR 12; Natural …

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: 1 hits

  • … of other cells. (Letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 14 April 1857 .) In a later letter …

Darwin's bad days

Summary

Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …

Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small

Summary

In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … the Rock’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 13 December [1857] ). In May 1857, Darwin wrote to …
  • … class with Lyell’ ( letter to William Sharpey, 22 May [1857] ). There are a few letters …

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,…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Letter 2125 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 20 July [1857] Darwin writes a challenging letter …
  • … of the ephippium”, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 79–100]. Darwin and Müller …

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: 2 hits

  • … 2055  - Langton, E. to Darwin,  F., [21 February 1857] Darwin’s nephew, Edmund, …
  • … Letter 2069  - Tenant, J. to Darwin, [31 March 1857] James Tenant, keeper of the …

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: 3 hits

  • … and most famously, the problem of species change. In 1857, Darwin and Wallace exchanged …
  • … observations and theoretical abilities. In a letter of 1 May 1857, he alluded to his own unfinished …
  • … Science … may all your theories succeed” (22 December 1857). It may have been this shared interest …

Before Origin: the ‘big book’

Summary

Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … ago’, he wrote to the American botanist Asa Gray in July 1857, it occurred to me that …
  • … staggered about the permanence of species.— By 1857, Darwin had found the confidence to …
  • … And this much acceleration I owe to you. ’ In February 1857, the rate of this acceleration was …
  • … the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of strength …
  • … in theory of the descent of species ’. In December 1857, Darwin had expressed his satisfaction that …
  • … there is no good & original observation ’. In 1857, Darwin recorded in his journal that …
  • … varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I am now preparing …

The writing of "Origin"

Summary

From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
  • … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
  • … with an abstract of his views sent to Asa Gray in September 1857. The correspondence between Darwin, …

Darwin’s reading notebooks

Summary

In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…

Matches: 21 hits

  • … 112 Jukes. “Students Manual of Geology” [Jukes 1857]— published a few years ago, good on …
  • … Lucas l’Heredite Naturelle [Lucas 1847–50] 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami …
  • … Thackeray English Humourists [Thackeray 1853] 1857 Jan. Cockburn life of Selby [ …
  • … 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6]: Quits [Tautphoeus] 1857] 29 Lutfullah. Life of …
  • … Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 Sir J. Mackintosh …
  • … Oct. 22. Olmstead Journey through Texas [Olmsted 1857] Dec. Motley’s History of Dutch …
  • … 1853]— Aug.— Sherard Osborne’s Quedah [Osborn 1857] d[itt]o d[itt]o Arctic Journal …
  • … Harris 1842] Jukes Student Manual of Geology [Jukes 1857] Azara’s Quadrupeds [Azara …
  • … *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857.  History of civilization in   …
  • … 21v., 22; 119: 19a Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. 1857.  The life of Charlotte   Brontë . …
  • … [Abstract in DAR 205.3: 138.]  119: 20a ——. 1857.  The student’s manual of geology. …
  • … [Other eds.]  *119: 15v. Livingstone, David. 1857.  Missionary travels and   researches …
  • … 3 vols. Vivay. [Other eds.]  *119: 22 Lutfullah. 1857.  Autobiography of Lutfullah: a …
  • … *119: 23; 128: 5 Napier, William Francis Patrick. 1857.  The life and opinions of General …
  • … of   Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 1858,   1859 . 2 vols. Edinburgh and …
  • … on their economy . New York.  128: 25 ——. 1857.  A journey through Texas; or, a winter …
  • …  an Arctic journal\. London.  128: 25 ——. 1857.  Quedah; or, stray leaves from a journal …
  • … Rouvroy, Louis de, Duke de Saint-Simon Vermandois. 1857.  The memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on …
  • … [Other eds.]  *119: 1v.; 119: 12a Smiles, Samuel. 1857.  The life of George Stephenson, …
  • …  New York.  *128: 178 [Tautphoeus, Jemima von]. 1857.  Quits; a novel . 3 vols. London.  …
  • … . Edited by J. C. Morris. Madras. 1833–51. Second series, 1857–. [Abstract in DAR 74: 177.]  *119: …
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