From Jeffries Wyman [c. 15] September 1860
Summary
Cases of monstrosities becoming transmissible.
Comments on passages in Origin on the blindness of the tucu-tucu (Ctenomys) and Mammoth Cave rats.
Author: | Jeffries Wyman |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 15] Sept 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 165–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2901 |
To Charles Lyell 1 September [1860]
Summary
Discusses at length CL’s criticisms of natural selection.
Comments on possible former connection between the Galapagos and South America.
Discounts survival of mammals on atolls.
Discusses reptile origin of mammals.
Discounts development of a mammal on an island and the descent of mammals from a bird.
The antiquity of islands.
Comments on bats of New Zealand. Geographical distribution of seals. Discusses Amblyrhynchus.
Glad CL will read his MS on origin of dogs [Variation 1: 15–43].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 1 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.225) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2903 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 1 September [1860]
Summary
Regrets he has nothing that he could contribute to the Field and cannot spare the time to work out anything on bees’ cells.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 1 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2904 |
To J. D. Hooker 2 September [1860]
Summary
CD has a low opinion of British entomologists.
Lyell’s ingenious difficulties with natural selection show he is in earnest.
Asks JDH to observe beetles and variation of stripes in mules on his Syrian tour.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 2 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 73 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2905 |
To A. G. More 5 September [1860]
Summary
Discusses Spiranthes. Did AGM see dipterous insects insert proboscis?
Asks for information about Epipactis.
Describes fertilisation of Orchis pyramidalis.
Has received moth with pollen from O. pyramidalis.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alexander Goodman More |
Date: | 5 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Royal Irish Academy (A. G. More papers RIA MS 4 B 46) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2906 |
To a bookseller 6 September [1860]
Summary
Asks that Fraser’s Magazine for July or the review from it on Origin (Hopkins 1860) be sent to Asa Gray.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Bookseller. |
Date: | 6 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Bernard Quaritch (dealers) (2003, 2007) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2906F |
To John Innes 6 September [1860]
Summary
Etty [Henrietta Darwin] much improved.
Reference to his "hobby of striped asses".
Sceptical of JBI’s "curious stories" on spirit-tapping: "believe nothing one hears & only half of what one sees".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
Date: | 6 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2907 |
To J. D. Hooker 6 September [1860]
Summary
Thanks JDH for agreeing to observe coats of asses and mules in Middle East.
Asks for observations on vigour of plants as JDH ascends mountains.
Ad hominem article in Athenæum [review of John Tyndall, Glaciers of the Alps, 1 Sept 1860, pp. 280–2].
Reports extensive experiments on Drosera.
Observations on orchid anatomy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 6 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 74 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2908 |
From Charles Lyell 8 September 1860
Summary
Believes CD’s argument against special creation based on absence of terrestrial mammals on islands isolated before Pliocene era is very strong. However, the absence means Cetacea and bats have not modified towards terrestrial existence. There is similar lack of development of bats and rodents in Australia. Constancy among land shells of Madeira over long period shows that the majority of their species are immutable: a minority of "metamorphic" species maintains the overall number of true species while extinction removes many. Emphasis on the role of extinction discomfits CD’s opponents since the power of generation of new species ought to keep pace. Mentions Ammonite deposits with reference to CD’s comments on their apparent sudden extinction [Origin, pp. 321–2]. Perhaps absence of transmutation on slowly subsiding atolls indicates the slow rate of selective change.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Sept 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 179–86) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2908A |
To a bookseller 9 September [1860]
Summary
Orders one copy of the issue of the Atlantic Monthly for last August (but not worth sending to America for) and two copies of the issue for next October.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 9 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | International Autograph Auctions (dealers) (14 December 2013, lot 403) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2908F |
To T. H. Huxley 10 September [1860]
Summary
Sends Asa Gray’s review [of Origin]. Asks THH’s advice on getting it reprinted in England.
Hooker’s expedition to Syria.
Disgraceful review of Tyndall’s book in Athenæum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 10 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 135–6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2909 |
To Asa Gray 10 September [1860]
Summary
Has received second part of AG’s Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.
Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 10 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (34) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2910 |
To George Gordon 11 September [1860]
Summary
Asks whether GG can provide a few fresh specimens of Goodyera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Gordon |
Date: | 11 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Elgin Museum (Gordon Archive 60.13) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2911 |
To John Innes 11 September [1860]
Summary
Going to sea-side for Etty’s health.
Asks JBI further questions about a striped donkey he had reported to CD.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
Date: | 11 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2912 |
To Daniel Oliver 11 September [1860]
Summary
Requests observations on Drosera and Dionaea,
and asks DO to look up Buchanan and Wight on insectivorous plants ["Conspectus of Indian Utricularia", Hooker’s J. Bot. 1 (1849): 372–4].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 11 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 9 (EH 88205993) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2913 |
To Charles Lyell 12 September [1860]
Summary
Additional response, at length, to CL’s criticisms of natural selection. Comments on failure of rodents to develop in Australia. Argues that most species become extinct and do not develop. Discusses variability, especially variability of rudimentary organs. Extinction among ammonites. Survival of Ornithorhynchus. Descent of marsupials and placentals. Emphasises embryological argument for descent of species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 12 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.226) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2915 |
To Daniel Oliver 15 [September 1860]
Summary
Thanks for reference to Annales des Sciences Naturelles.
Requests DO observe rate at which Australian Drosera closes.
On detection of nitrogen in organic fluids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 15 [Sept 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 10 (EH 88205994) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2917 |
To George Varenne Reed 15 September [1860]
Summary
The family will move to sea-side because of his daughter Henrietta’s health. When they return he will be glad to send Leonard twice a week for tutoring. Frank is in a low form at school but is doing very well.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Varenne Reed |
Date: | 15 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Buckinghamshire Record Office (D 22/39/4) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2918 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle 15 September [1860]
Summary
Asks for any published reference providing account of the movement of the viscid hairs or leaves of Drosera lunata, an Indian Drosera which Lindley cites in Vegetable kingdom, p. 433.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | 15 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 22 September 1860, p. 853 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2918A |
From Thomas Vernon Wollaston [16 September 1860]
Summary
Has received a batch of S. African specimens which contain many of the Atlantic genera he found in Madeira and the Canaries.
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [16 Sept 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 302 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2919 |
letter | (43) |
Darwin, C. R. | (31) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Oliver, Daniel | (2) |
Watson, H. C. | (2) |
Drummond, James (a) | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
Oliver, Daniel | (7) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Gordon, George (a) | (2) |
Gordon, George (b) | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (41) |
Lyell, Charles | (10) |
Oliver, Daniel | (9) |
Gordon, George (a) | (2) |
Gordon, George (b) | (2) |
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Darwin in Conversation exhibition
Summary
Meet Charles Darwin as you have never met him before. Come to our exhibition at Cambridge University Library, running from 9 July to 3 December 2022, and discover a fascinating series of interwoven conversations with Darwin's many hundreds of…
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 4 hits
- … that it was ‘dry as dust’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 9 September 1879 ). He was also unsatisfied …
- … which is crowned with glory’ ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 9 February 1879 ). The botanist and …
- … ). Darwin welcomed Krause’s suggestion, but warned him on 9 June not to ‘expend much powder & …
- … (Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, [27 August 1879] (DAR 219.9: 201)). Celebrity and honours …
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 7 hits
- … Darwin asked Murray to intervene, complaining on 9 January , ‘M r . Dallas’ delay … is …
- … on the auditory organs of Orthoptera and Coleoptera on 9 September . Darwin annotated a letter …
- … from the south of France to Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood on 9 Novembe r, describing sphinx moths that …
- … direct result of natural selection ( Variation 2: 185–9). Wallace seized upon this point in a …
- … Katherine ( letter from C. M. Hawkshaw to Emma Darwin, 9 February [1868] ). Darwin’s eldest son, …
- … from Fritz Müller, 22 April 1868 , 17 June 1868 , 9 September 1868 , and 31 October 1868 …
- … A different order of pride was expressed on 9 November by Ernst Haeckel on the birth of his son …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 7 hits
- … excited Darwin, who exclaimed to Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 9 August [1862] ), ‘I am almost stark …
- … , whether the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] ). To his son, William, …
- … better fun’ than species ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1862] ), he responded to the …
- … active young wolves’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 9 October 1862 ). Darwin had managed to …
- … to read any paper or speak’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 [April 1862] ). A visit in October from …
- … me go away for an hour after dinner & retire to my room at 9 o clock I do not think it would …
- … as true as gospel, so it must be true’ ( to J. D. Hooker, 9 May [1862] ). the real …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 6 hits
- … Lyell telling him about the letter to the Athenæum . 9 In the same letter, Darwin …
- … about C. Lyell 1863a are discussed in Bynum 1984, pp. 154–9. 7. See Correspondence …
- … letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 7. 9. See Correspondence vol. 11, …
- … 11, letter from J. D. Hooker, [24 March 1863] and n. 9. In his published review, Lubbock wrote …
- … Emma Darwin to Henrietta Emma Darwin, [1 June 1865] (DAR 219.9: 28). 24. See the …
- … 30. Letter from John Lubbock to T. H. Huxley, 9 June 1865 (Imperial College, Huxley papers 6: 110) …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 6 hits
- … learn from experience, Darwin was wary, telling Romanes on 9 March , ‘I intend to have another …
- … but I cannot endure to do this’, Darwin told Francis on 9 November , and writing to Fritz …
- … ( Correspondence vol. 30, letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). ‘I …
- … who had received presentation copies. Galton wrote on 9 October , ‘I wish the worms were not such …
- … of letters about worms’, he told Francis Darwin on 9 November , ‘but amidst much rubbish there …
- … ( letter to Francis Darwin, 28 [October 1881] ). On 9 November, Darwin told Francis , ‘I have …
Darwin in letters, 1880: Sensitivity and worms
Summary
‘My heart & soul care for worms & nothing else in this world,’ Darwin wrote to his old Shrewsbury friend Henry Johnson on 14 November 1880. Darwin became fully devoted to earthworms in the spring of the year, just after finishing the manuscript of…
Matches: 4 hits
- … Ernst Krause, 7 June 1879 , and letter to Ernst Krause, 9 June [1879] ). The final text of the …
- … inflated to an elephant’ ( letter from Ernst Krause, 9 December 1880 ). Again, Darwin felt …
- … the success of our efforts’ ( letter to A. B. Buckley, 9 November 1880 ). He worked with Huxley on …
- … about their party quarrels’ ( letter to James Torbitt, 9 May 1880 ). Politicians grew concerned …
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
Books on the Beagle
Summary
The Beagle was a sort of floating library. Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.
Francis Galton
Summary
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…
Matches: 1 hits
- … into an entirely new province of knowledge’ ( 9 December 1859 ). He soon became interested in …
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
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: 5 hits
- … Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May 1869] Jane Loring Gray, …
- … Letter 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S. E., [9 November 1868] Darwin’s nephew, …
- … 5756 - Langton, E. & C. to Wedgwood S. E., [after 9 November 1868] Darwin’s …
- … Letter 7433 - Wedgwood, F. to Darwin, [9 January 1871] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …
- … Letter 8153 - Darwin to Darwin, W. E., [9 January 1872] Darwin thanks his son …
Volume 29 (1881) is published!
Summary
In October 1881, Darwin published his last book, The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. A slim volume on a subject that many people could understand and on which they had their own opinions, it went…
Matches: 1 hits
- … has been received. Letter t o Francis Darwin, 9 November [1881] In October …
Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…
Matches: 1 hits
- … field guide to Glen Roy: To Charles Lyell, 9 August [1838] To Charles Lyell, …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … by his perfectibility principle (Nägeli 1865, pp. 28–9). In further letters, Hooker tried to provide …
- … hatred—’ ( from Asa Gray and J. L. Gray, 8 and 9 May [1869] ). James Crichton-Browne and …
- … of the soil ( letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 9 May [1869] ). In March, Darwin received …
- … I do not care to follow him’ ( letter from T. H. Farrer, 9 October 1869 ). Farrer ventured to …
- … on summit of a mountain.—’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 9 July [1869] ). Earlier in the year, …
Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
Summary
On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were very pleased to welcome Terry Molloy back to the Darwin Correspondence Project for a special recording session. Terry, known for his portrayal of Davros in Dr…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Beagle voyage, to a letter to C. A. Kennard written on 9 January 1882 , only shortly before …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 3 hits
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…