From W. J. L. Wharton [15 September 1874 or later]
Summary
Describes the coral formations of the island of Rodriguez [Indian Ocean].
| Author: | William James Lloyd Wharton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [15 Sept 1874 or later] |
| Classmark: | DAR 69: A67–70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9205 |
To Francis Darwin [17 September 1874]
Summary
Asks FD to come early to write from dictation.
Thanks Amy for her drawing of Utricularia montana.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | [17 Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 271.3: 12 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9218 |
From J. D. Hooker [after 4 September 1874]
Summary
Forwards a letter reporting on a blow-fly trapped by a leaf of Dionaea; decomposition of fly has also decomposed the leaf. JDH has written asking for a strong plant, and explaining the case [of surfeit].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 4 Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 222–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9615 |
From Theodosia Marshall [September 1874]
Summary
Sends count of remains on Pinguicula leaves.
| Author: | Theodosia Louisa Marshall |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 124 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9616 |
From James Ross September 1874
Summary
Sends his book [On protoplasm (1874)], which defends CD’s theory.
Suggests why the lips are closed and the teeth clenched in the expression of determination: it originated as a means of protecting jaw-bone and teeth against a strong blow.
| Author: | James Ross |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 217 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9617 |
To A. W. Howitt [September 1874]
Summary
Thanks Howitt for his offer of information from Australia and suggests that Howitt keep detailed notes for a future publication.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred William Howitt |
| Date: | [Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | M. H. Walker 1971, pp. 221 and 338 n. 25 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9617F |
To John Lubbock [before 17 September 1874]
Summary
Sends MS intended some day for the Viola tricolor section of Cross and self-fertilisation [pp. 123–8] to be used by JL in his British wild flowers (1875).
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | [before 17 Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 49645:107) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9618 |
From Charles Lyell 1 September 1874
Summary
Comments on Tyndall’s [Presidential] Address at Belfast meeting [of BAAS] and praise of CD’s work there. Mentions criticism of Belfast clergy.
CL saw some crustacean footprints while in Ireland.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 445-6; The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/B9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9619 |
From D F. Nevill 2 September [1874]
Summary
Hooker has told her of CD’s work on insectivorous plants. Offers plants, but her Dionaea plants are too small now.
| Author: | Dorothy Fanny Walpole; Dorothy Fanny Nevill |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 24 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9620 |
To Charles Lyell 3 September [1874]
Summary
Discusses belief in immortality and a personal God.
Describes his holiday in Southampton.
Comments on papers of John Wesley Judd.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 3 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.448) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9621 |
From J. S. Burdon Sanderson 3 September [1874]
Summary
Will prepare experiments with the fatty acids on digestion of gluten. Has found it is digested slowly, but entirely, with pepsin and hydrochloric acid.
| Author: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 146 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9623 |
From Chauncey Wright 3 September 1874
Summary
Writes at length on the origins and meanings of particular head movements as used to express assent or disagreement, especially the sideways movements of the head as an expression of consideration or contemplation.
Also discusses space and colour perception.
| Author: | Chauncey Wright |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 172, 173 f. 6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9624 |
To D. F. Nevill 3 September 1874
Summary
Thanks DFN for her letter [see 9620].
Has nearly finished work on Dionaea.
Asks her to send a specimen of Drosera dichotoma.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Dorothy Fanny Walpole; Dorothy Fanny Nevill |
| Date: | 3 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | Nevill 1910, pp. 107–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9624F |
From T. L. Brunton 4 September 1874
Summary
Observations of effect of pepsin and hydrochloric acid on urea indicate that it is not digested [by Drosera].
| Author: | Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 86–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9625 |
From W. C. Marshall 5 September [1874]
Summary
Sends Pinguicula vulgaris leaves with seeds on them, together with his observations on proportion of leaves with insects on them.
| Author: | William Cecil (Bill) Marshall |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 128–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9626 |
To D. F. Nevill 7 September 1874
Summary
Thanks her for specimen of Drosera. Asks for an epiphytic Utricularia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Dorothy Fanny Walpole; Dorothy Fanny Nevill |
| Date: | 7 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.449) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9627 |
To W. C. Marshall 7 September [1874]
Summary
Thanks for the Pinguicula leaves, from which he has picked off sixteen seeds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Cecil (Bill) Marshall |
| Date: | 7 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | Stockholms Auktionsverk (dealers) (15 December 2015) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9627F |
From D. F. Nevill 8 [September 1874]
Summary
Offers Utricularia montana and gives instructions for growing Drosera.
Wishes to visit CD at Down when she comes to London.
| Author: | Dorothy Fanny Walpole; Dorothy Fanny Nevill |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 [Sept 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 20 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9628 |
To J. D. Hooker 8 September [1874]
Summary
Lady Dorothy Nevill has no Dionaea.
CD anxious to talk with JDH about Utricularia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 8 Sept [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 334–335 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9629 |
From H. C. Sorby 9 September 1874
Summary
Reports on his spectroscopic examination of the colouring matter in the hairs (tentacles) of Drosera.
| Author: | Henry Clifton Sorby |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Sept 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 88–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9630 |
| letter | (56) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
| Nevill, D. F. | (5) |
| Walpole, D. F. | (5) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Lyell, Charles | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (31) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Nevill, D. F. | (5) |
| Walpole, D. F. | (5) |
| Bennett, A. W. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (56) |
| Nevill, D. F. | (10) |
| Walpole, D. F. | (10) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Lyell, Charles | (4) |
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…
