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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…
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,…
3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…
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- … Other early sources support an approximate dating of late 1859 or 1860. During the period when the …
- … version of the image: one reads ‘original taken about 1859’, and the other (in a different hand, …
- … that followed the publication of Origin in late November 1859. In his letter of spring 1862, …
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…
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- … which increased in severity in the years around 1848, 1852, 1859, and 1863. In a letter to Hooker in …
- … correspondence during periods of sickness in 1848, 1852, and 1859 (see Colp 1977, pp. 38, 47, 64). …
- … at Moor Park, under Edward Wickstead Lane, between 1857 and 1859, and at Ilkley, under Edmund Smith, …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
People featured in the German and Austrian photograph album
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Biographical details of people from the Habsburg Empire that appeared in the album of German and Austrian scientists sent to Darwin on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Johannes Mattes for providing these details and for permission to make his…
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- … (1892); Hofrat and retirement (1899). In 1859, Bartsch became member of the Zoological-Botanical …
- … Army, participated in campaigns in Italy (1848–49, 1859) and was later assigned to the uniform depot …
- … at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, he became trainee (1859), geologist (1873) and finally chief …
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…
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- … I suppose “natural selection” was bad term but to change it now, I think, would make confusion …
What did Darwin believe?
Summary
What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…
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Variation under domestication
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A fascination with domestication Throughout his working life, Darwin retained an interest in the history, techniques, practices, and processes of domestication. Artificial selection, as practiced by plant and…
Darwin and religion in America
Summary
Thomas Dixon, 'America’s Difficulty with Darwin', History Today (2009), reproduced by permission. Darwin has not been forgotten. But he has, in some respects, been misremembered. That has certainly been true when it comes to the relationship…
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…
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- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …
How old is the earth?
Summary
One of Darwin’s chief difficulties in making converts to his views, was convincing a sceptical public, and some equally sceptical physicists, that there had been enough time since the advent of life on earth for the slow process of natural selection to…
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- … review of Origin ( Saturday Review , Dec. 24th, 1859), Darwin was forced to back-pedal. He …
Natural selection
Summary
How do new species arise? This was the ancient question that Charles Darwin tackled soon after returning to England from the Beagle voyage in October 1836. Darwin realised a crucial (and cruel) fact: far more individuals of each species were born than…
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…
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- … component in the theory of speciation he published in his 1859 magnum opus On the Origin of …
About Darwin
Summary
To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But even before the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was publicly known through his popular book about the voyage of the Beagle, and he was…
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- … even before the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was publicly known through his …
Orchids
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A project to follow On the Origin of Species Darwin began to observe English orchids and collect specimens from abroad in the years immediately following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Examining…
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- … in Man and Animals in 1872), much of his time after 1859 was spent on concentrated, highly …
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…
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- … the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859. To celebrate we have uploaded …
Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
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- … of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 3 (1859): 45–62, and this text is reprinted …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
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- … Darwin had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book …
Charles Darwin’s letters: a selection 1825-1859
Summary
The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University of Edinburgh, to the end of 1859, when the Origin of Species was published. The early letters portray Darwin as a lively sixteen-year-old medical student. Two…
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- … was a student at the University of Edinburgh, to the end of 1859, when the Origin of Species was …
