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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…
Matches: 29 hits
- … The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The …
- … machine’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December [1870] ). Finishing Descent; …
- … some weeks’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working hard on …
- … I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had previously read proof-sheets …
- … shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). Henrietta disagreed: ‘Certainly …
- … of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February 1870] ). Darwin was also encouraged …
- … sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] ). Cobbe accused Darwin of smiling in …
- … great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870?] ). Humans as animals: ears …
- … [1868] ; this volume, letter to Thomas Woolner, 10 March [1870] ). Darwin included Woolner’s …
- … findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March 1870 ). Indeed, Darwin noted the same …
- … bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). Researching expression: …
- … spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 ). Keen for more evidence of …
- … hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] ). Darwin made a similar request of …
- … not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] ). Darwin’s queries were part …
- … of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). He also wrote to a leading Dutch …
- … on this subject’ ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). Human evolution: debates and …
- … more fully in a collection of essays published in April 1870 (Wallace 1870a). Wallace wrote to …
- … naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). Despite their increasing …
- … in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). Darwin alluded here to the …
- … No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). Darwin very rarely used the …
- … never write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). St George Jackson Mivart …
- … to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ). In his letters to Mivart, Darwin …
- … on the Primates’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 23 April [1870] ). He also tried to recruit Mivart’s …
- … lump of granite’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 22 April 1870 ). Mivart hinted that his …
- … his “origin” ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 25 April 1870 ). In his critical essays (later revised …
- … the mother and foetus during pregnancy. As a case in point, John Jenner Weir described the offspring …
- … also discussed recent experiments by Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall that provided evidence for the …
- … a memorandum. He asked his neighbour, the naturalist John Lubbock, who was now MP for Maidstone, to …
- … reference to mankind of much importance ’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 17 July 1870 ). The motion to …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 15 hits
- … was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, …
- … series of guides and also published travel books. Successive John Murrays ran the publishing house; …
- … University Library a similar number of letters from John Murray and Robert Cooke, his cousin and …
- … had proved to be a scientific best-seller for the second John Murray, to open negotiations with his …
- … began the business relationship between Charles Darwin and John Murray. Darwin’s next …
- … Navy: and adapted for travellers in general edited by John Herschel, but there was an error at …
- … . Again he asked Lyell to act as his intermediary with John Murray ( Letter 2437 ), who, without …
- … would be a success: shortly before publication he wrote to Murray, ‘I heartily hope that my Book …
- … undertaken it’ (15 October [1859] Letter 2506 ). Murray decided on a retail price of 14 s ., …
- … ([3 November 1859] Letter 2514 ). In the event, all Murray’s stock of Origin was sold on the …
- … had paid Darwin profits of nearly £3000. The third John Murray made a successful business …
- … ). Darwin’s next publishing project with John Murray in 1869 was a translation into English …
- … cannot fail, I think, to be much read’ (28 September [1870] Letter 7329 ). Murray decided to …
- … in the Quarterly Review , a magazine published by John Murray.The pamphlets were not primarily …
- … his orders ( Letter 8616 ). However, when Robert Cooke, John Murray’s cousin, went round to …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 7 hits
- … target audience? Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
- … chapters of Origin of Species to his publisher, John Murray. He hopes that his views are …
- … Letter 7124 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [8 February 1870] Darwin seeks Henrietta’s …
- … her help with tone and style. Letter 7329 - Murray , J. to Darwin, [28 September …
- … perusal. Letter 7331 - Darwin to Murray, J., [29 September 1870] …
- … Letter 7177 - Cupples, G. to Darwin, [29 April 1870] George Cupples tells Darwin about a …
- … - Innes, J. B. to Darwin, [31 August 1868] John Innes reports that he has read …
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 12 hits
- … to spread my views’, he wrote to his publisher, John Murray, on 30 January , shortly after …
- … The public are accustomed to novels for 1s’, he wrote to Murray on 8 January , but Murray …
- … by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in July 1870, and was now halted so that the further …
- … the new edition in the United States, Darwin arranged with Murray to have it stereotyped. Before the …
- … Hooker’s cause was taken up by his friends, in particular John Lubbock and John Tyndall, as one …
- … to Gladstone a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 …
- … photographic plates with his overseas publishers, and with John Murray’s assistant, the excitable …
- … of the booksellers, encouraged an originally cautious John Murray to gamble on the book’s success: & …
- … attractive dishes in his `Literary Banquet’ (letters from John Murray, 6 November [1872] and 9 …
- … in those born blind, and filed away other letters, but Murray’s confidence proved misplaced; demand …
- … to supply comparative observations, and Darwin’s protégé John Scott, now employed as a curator in …
- … a copy of Expression to another old Cambridge friend, John Maurice Herbert, who when they were …
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…
Matches: 7 hits
- … depends’ ( From Fritz Müller, 15 June 1869 ). By May 1870, Darwin reported that he was ‘rearing …
- … of English fertile plants’ ( To Fritz Müller, 12 May 1870 ). From a fairly early stage in …
- … 11 March [1873] ). In April 1873, the publisher John Murray announced in the Athenæum …
- … plagued by foreign Translators, Reviewers, &c.’ ( To John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). In reply to …
- … not expect that more than 6 or 700 would sell.’ ( To John Murray, 15 November 1876 ). In fact, …
- … ( From R. F. Cooke, 16 March 1877 ). In November 1877, Murray suggested stereotyping the book, but …
- … W. Rimpau, 10 December 1877 ). By the end of February 1878, Murray was ready to print the second …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 12 hits
- … on 24 February, and all 2500 copies were sold in a week. ‘Murray says he is “torn to pieces” by …
- … on 28 February . Demand continued throughout the year, and Murray produced three more printings, …
- … £1470 for the first two printings, Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand …
- … expressed by Darwin’s old friend, the former vicar of Down John Brodie Innes. Darwin and Innes had …
- … ‘a windbag full of metaphysics & classics’ ( letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871] ). …
- … Gazette , and wrote to its author, who turned out to be John Morley, a leading advocate of …
- … and transmitted by culture, not biology ( letter from John Morley, 30 March 1871 ). …
- … by his wife and children. William offered his assessment of John Stuart Mill’s theory of …
- … he suspected that very few would actually sell (letters to John Murray, 17 August [1871] and …
- … Wallace, 4 August [1871] ). On 23 September he informed Murray that owing to poor health he had …
- … activity would have on the elevation of land. In October 1870, two separate square yards of ground …
- … years following the publication of Origin of species . Murray convinced him to appear in Vanity …
Francis Darwin
Summary
Known to his family as ‘Frank’, Charles Darwin’s seventh child himself became a distinguished scientist. He was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, initially studying mathematics, but then transferring to natural sciences. Francis completed…
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: 14 hits
- … In January, Darwin corresponded with George John Romanes about new varieties of sugar cane produced …
- … Quarterly Review , owned by Darwin’s publisher John Murray, carried an anonymous article on the …
- … 1882, p. 179). Darwin commented at length on the review to Murray. He was pleased by ‘the few first …
- … or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The author …
- … Darwin had a less heated discussion with the painter John Collier on the topic of science and art. …
- … himself to so dreadful a man, as Huxley’ ( letter to John Collier, 16 February 1882 ). Collier had …
- … be the same without my consciousness?’ ( letter from John Collier, 22 February 1882 ; T. H. Huxley …
- … and admirers. One of the most touching was from John Lubbock, whose interest in natural history at …
- … we adjourned as a small tribute of respect’ (letter from John Lubbock to Francis Darwin, 20 April …
- … pigeon breeder: ‘Skins are on their road to me sent by Mr. Murray from Persia, & I hope to get …
- … ). Darwin’s former mentor at University of Cambridge, John Stevens Henslow, was not a …
- … Origin, a number of Darwin’s friends, Huxley, John Lubbock, and Charles Lyell, each addressed the …
- … contents of bats?’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, 14 March 1870 ). One of Darwin’s other great …
- … much of him’ ( letter to George Cupples, 20 September [1870] ). Despite Darwin’s insistence …
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…
Matches: 4 hits
- … of favoured races in the struggle for life , (London: John Murray, 1st ed., 1859), p. 88. 2) …
- … descent of man, and selection in relation to sex , (London: John Murray, 1st ed., 1871), vol. 1., …
- … Letter 7123 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [March 1870] Darwin thanks his daughter, …
- … of man and lower animals. Letter 7329 – Murray, J. to Darwin, [28 September 1870] …
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
- … more litters & no happy results”, he wrote on 26 April 1870 . In the following year, Galton …
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 11 hits
- … of scientific admirers at Down, among them Robert Caspary, John Traherne Moggridge, and Ernst …
- … to Darwin’s annoyance, however, publication was delayed by Murray, who judged that it would sell …
- … regime led to Darwin’s being teased by his neighbour, John Lubbock, about the prospect of riding to …
- … with our beagles before the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 ). More …
- … On 21 February Darwin received notification from John Murray that stocks of the third edition of …
- … George Henslow, the son of his Cambridge mentor, John Stevens Henslow, stayed for two days in April …
- … In June, Darwin was visited by the orchid specialist John Traherne Moggridge, whose work on the self …
- … and a revised American edition was not published until 1870. Further botanical research: …
- … out, ‘business would be totally paralysed’. Similarly, John Murray gave as a reason for his decision …
- … ‘gaieties travelling & War Bulletins’ ( letter from John Murray, 18 July 1866 ). I …
- … for the criminal prosecution of the colonial governor Edward John Eyre. In his efforts to suppress …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 12 hits
- … Thomas Lauder Brunton, a specialist in pharmacology, and John Scott Burdon Sanderson, a professor at …
- … “for Heaven knows when it will be ready” ( letter to John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). Keeping …
- … with leading physiologists such as David Ferrier and John Hughlings Jackson. Darwin declined to …
- … Instinct In February, Darwin received a letter from John Traherne Moggridge on the nature of …
- … or previously acquired knowledge” (A. R. Wallace 1870, p. 204). Moggridge suggested instead that …
- … fund was first suggested in early April by Katharine Murray Lyell in conversation with Emma Darwin, …
- … A group of Huxley’s close friends, including Hooker, John Lubbock, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, …
- … edition was called for. There were commercial advantages for Murray in bringing out a substantially …
- … your own power & usefulness”, citing the examples of John Stuart Mill and Charles Lyell, who …
- … from Ernst Meitzen, 17 January 1873 ). A poor-law officer, John Farr, wrote: “Faith like Species, …
- … more permanent than species are permanent” ( letter from John Farr, 7 July 1873 ). Further …
- … closer to home, when he was graced by an invitation from John Jenner Weir to act as a patron of the …
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: 9 hits
- … Letter 7179 - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, [5 May 1870] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, …
- … to Darwin, [1873] Ellen Lubbock, wife of naturalist John Lubbock, responds to Darwin’s …
- … 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s queries …
- … - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …
- … challenging ideas. Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
- … Letter 7124 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [8 February 1870] Darwin seeks Henrietta’s …
- … Letter 7123 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [March 1870] Darwin thanks his daughter, …
- … editorial criticism of a paper written by English naturalist John Lubbock. In addition to offering …
- … - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …
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: 8 hits
- … and amphibians, while Roland Trimen in South Africa and John Jenner Weir in London sent more …
- … the basis for a new German edition (Bronn and Carus trans. 1870), prepared by Julius Victor Carus, …
- … own evolutionary views and critical commentary (Royer trans. 1870). Darwin complained to Hooker, …
- … and broadening the forums in which Darwinism was discussed. John Murray brought out the first issue …
- … a higher tone of Criticism than that now prevailing’. Here Murray was alluding particularly to the …
- … wish your Periodical all success’, Darwin wrote to Murray, ‘I wish it had been weekly, as then …
- … that to me would have been a pleasing sight’ ( letter to John Murray, [after 18 September 1869] ). …
- … work some hours daily’ ( letter to Anton Dohrn, 4 January 1870 ). Darwin’s health was generally …
Experimenting with emotions
Summary
Darwin’s interest in emotions can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by the sounds and gestures of the peoples of Tierra del Fuego. On his return, he started recording observations in a set of notebooks, later labelled '…
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: 7 hits
- … the self-registering auxanometer, invented by Sachs around 1870, but a version of it was made by …
- … Movements of Plants’, he told Robert Cooke of John Murray publishers, before suggesting ‘The …
- … about the number of copies they should print ( letter to John Murray, 10 July 1880 ). Moreover, …
- … good deal more’ than any of Darwin’s previous works, Murray was willing to publish on the usual …
- … as soon as stereotypes of the text were available from Murray ( letter from D. Appleton & Co., …
- … publication will not cost me quite so much as I expected. Murray has sold 800 copies. The Times …
- … to his son George, ‘ Hurrah for the old bloody Times, Murray says 500 copies urgently required ’. …
Bartholomew James Sulivan
Summary
On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…
Power of movement in plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Family experiments Darwin was an active and engaged father during his children's youth, involving them in his experiments and even occasionally using them as observational subjects. When his children…
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
Matches: 5 hits
- … items they lent to the 1909 exhibition. Geoffrey Belknap and John van Wyhe state that the photograph …
- … brother George reported to her in a letter of February 1870, ‘I have been doing all I can to stop …
- … Letter from George Darwin to his sister Henrietta, February 1870, in DAR 251.2243, Darwin archive, …
- … The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin , 3 vols (London: John Murray, 1887, 1888), vol. 1, pp. 117 …
- … A Century of Family Letters, 1792-1896 , 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1915), vol. 2, p. 195. Adrian …
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 7 hits
- … scientific interests. Indeed, Darwin’s Cambridge mentor, John Stevens Henslow, and his friend and …
- … village. During the period roughly between 1800 and 1870, the Church of England underwent its …
- … the work of Non-conformist preachers in the village. John Brodie Innes Many of the …
- … Innes, [8 May 1848] and n. 2). Darwin praised Innes to John William Lubbock, the principal …
- … clergyman was unsuitable for entirely different reasons. John Warburton Robinson seemed not to be an …
- … to such strained relations that Darwin’s neighbour, John Lubbock, was forced to send a series of …
- … chapter . Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8. Moore, James. 1985. …
