To J. D. Hooker 31 March [1858]
Summary
Writing section on large and small genera [for Natural selection, ch. 4].
Huxley supersedes Owen on parthenogenesis.
Buckle’s History of civilisation in England extremely interesting.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 31 Mar [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 230 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2248 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Notes on Livingstone 1857 are scattered throughout the Darwin Archive (see DAR 45, 46.1, …
- … Bibliography Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857–61. History of civilization in England. 2 vols. …
- … to T. H. Huxley, [before 12 November 1857] , for CD’s comments on Owen’s hypothesis. …
- … The first volume of Buckle 1857–61 , which CD recorded having read early in 1858 ( …
- … D. Hooker, [25] February [1858] ). Livingstone 1857 . CD entered this work in his reading …
- … had been recommended to him by Hooker in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from …
- … J. D. Hooker, [2 December 1857] ). …
- … Stuttgart. [Vols. 6,7] Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches in …
To ? 26 March [1858?]
Summary
Returns the Greenland catalogue, which he has kept too long.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 26 Mar [1858?] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2246 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … The year is the first in which CD could refer to having borrowed Lange 1857 (see n. …
- … 2, below). Lange 1857 is a list of Greenland plants. …
- … CD had inquired about this catalogue in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, [June 1857] ). …
- … Press. 1985–. Lange, Johan Martin Christian. 1857. Oversigt over Graennlands planter. Vol. …
From Henry Coe 20 October 1858
Summary
Further answers on his seed lot.
| Author: | Henry Coe |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Oct 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2346 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette , 24 October 1857, p. 725 ( Correspondence vol. …
- … 6, letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 18 October [1857]; Collected papers 1: 275–7). It …
- … elicited a response from Coe on 4 November 1857, initiating their correspondence on the …
- … subject. See Correspondence vol. 6, letter from Henry Coe, 4 November 1857 . …
- … or properly ripened— The plants of 1857 were certainly uniform in foliage & c . — The …
- … were not taken out of the crossed lot of 1857. Did you plant them with, or in the vicinity …
From John Innes 9 January [1858–9]
Summary
Sends record of pigeon flight from London to Antwerp. [Lord W. Lennox, Merrie England (1857), p. 185.]
| Author: | John Brodie Innes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Jan [1858-9] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 242 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13818 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … of pigeon flight from London to Antwerp. [Lord W. Lennox, Merrie England (1857), p. 185. ] …
- … 1858 , p. 185. The book was published early in December 1857 ( Publishers’ Circular , …
- … 15 December 1857, p. 580). The number of CD’s portfolio of notes on the means of …
- … a topic he investigated from the autumn of 1857 to 1859. The publication date of Lennox …
- … that the letter was written some time after 1857. Amy Lettington was the draper in Down …
To W. B. Tegetmeier [21 April 1858]
Summary
"Excessively" interested in theory of bees’ cell formation.
Fears few of his pigeons will be of any use to WBT.
Hopes WBT will describe foreign poultry breeds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | [21 Apr 1858] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2260 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … s True parthenogenesis ( Siebold 1857 ) soon after it was published (see Correspondence …
- … vol. 6, letter to John Innes, [after 16 February 1857] ). …
- … German easily for I have Bienen-Zeitung for 1857 with much curious matter & c d lend it …
- … Vols. 7,8] Siebold, Karl Theodor Ernst von. 1857. On a true parthenogenesis in moths and …
- … Journal’; Appendix II). During 1856 and 1857, CD had systematically crossed his various …
- … Tegetmeier, [July 1856] and 11 February [1857] ). George Robert Waterhouse probably told …
To J. D. Hooker 12 January [1858]
Summary
On papilionaceous flowers and CD’s theory that there are no eternal hermaphrodites. Connects this theory to absence of small-flowered legumes in New Zealand and the absence of small bees as pollinators.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 12 Jan [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 220 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2201 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … which CD had borrowed from Hooker in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6). CD’s calculations …
- … pp. 204–6. Brown 1810 . Altered from ‘1857’. Many, if not all, of the dates added by …
- … to the letter from Asa Gray, [August 1857] ( Correspondence vol. 6). CD wrote about these …
- … Bees and fertilisation of kidney beans’ on 24 October 1857 ( Correspondence vol. …
- … 6, letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 18 October [1857]). CD had met William Macarthur , …
- … a member of the legislative council of New South Wales, in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. …
- … 6, letters to Syms Covington , 22 February 1857 , and to Asa …
- … Gray , [after 15 March 1857]). Erythrina is a papilionaceous tropical shrub. CD refers to …
- … who acted as CD’s copyist. In 1856 and 1857, Norman compiled lists of species from …
To William Erasmus Darwin 11 [February 1858]
Summary
Writes of domestic matters
and asks WED to observe cart-horses for traces of dark stripes on spine and cross-stripes on shoulder.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | 11 [Feb 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 22 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2215 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Norfolk (see n. 2, below). On 2 February 1857, Emma Darwin noted in her diary that ‘W m …
- … ibid . , letter to W. E. Darwin, [November 1857] ). George Edwards , from whom the grey …
- … Laws of variation’, completed in September 1857 ( Natural selection , pp. 328–32). See …
- … 6, especially letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , [before 13 June 1857]. Emma Darwin’s diary …
- … that she ‘came to London’ on 16 February 1857. Henrietta Emma Darwin accompanied her, and …
- … see Correspondence vol. 6, letters to W. E. Darwin, [before 11 September 1857] and …
- … 29 [October 1857] , and letter to W. …
- … D. Fox, 30 October [1857] ). Although the Darwins initially intended the new downstairs …
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 13 November 1858]
Summary
Reports the decreased yield of pods resulting from excluding bees from the flowers of the kidney bean. Gives other observations suggesting the importance of bees in the fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers.
Cites cases of crosses between varieties of bean grown close together and requests observations from readers on the subject. States his belief "that is a law of nature that every organic being should occasionally be crossed with a different individual of the same species".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
| Date: | [before 13 Nov 1858] |
| Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 13 November 1858, pp. 828–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2359 |
Matches: 13 hits
- … to CD’s query in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1857 (see n. 2, above) is in Correspondence …
- … vol. 6, letters from Henry Coe , 4 November 1857 and …
- … 14 November 1857 . Wiegmann 1828 . A copy is in the Darwin Library–Down. CD had studied …
- … greater than it was in the parent lot of 1857. Beans of new colours have appeared, such as …
- … in the rows adjoining the Negroes were in 1857 slightly affected; Mr. Coe sowed some which …
- … vol. 6, letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 18 October [1857], published in the …
- … issue of24 October 1857, p. 725. CD’s letter had been headed ‘Bees and fertilisation of …
- … DAR 157a), under the general heading of ‘1857’, when the first experiments on kidney-beans …
- … the pure Negro Beans which produced in 1857 the extraordinary mixture. I sowed them this …
- … the extraordinary mixture raised by Mr. Coe in 1857 from the four rows of the Negro Bean, …
- … not the crossing was all confined to the year 1857; or may not the case be one of simple …
- … amount of crossing in Mr. Coe’s plants in 1857, when almost every plant in the four rows …
- … cause the Negro Beans did not at Knowle, in 1857, produce good pollen, or they matured it …
To William Bernhard Tegetmeier 17 January [1858]
Summary
Has received Burmese fowls’ skins from Walter Elliot.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1858] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2205 |
From J. D. Hooker [before 6 May 1858]
Summary
Reports that N. J. Andersson finds every European willow bar one is also American.
Has heard from David Livingstone and reports on his progress.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 6 May 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 155 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2277 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Nils Johan Andersson had worked at Kew in 1857 ( Correspondence vol. 6, letters to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 22 August [1857] and …
- … 11 September [1857] ). His paper on North American willows was read at a meeting of the …
- … University Press. 1927–96. Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches in …
- … Livingstone’s plant collection in Livingstone 1857 . John Hawley Glover had accompanied …
- … s second expedition to the river Niger in 1857. After their ship was wrecked, most of the …
To William Benjamin Carpenter 26 January [1858]
Summary
Asks WBC to plant some kidney beans [on Holy Island near Arran] and to see whether they are ever visited by bees. If no bees visit the island, it would be "curious" to observe what plants grow there.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Benjamin Carpenter |
| Date: | 26 Jan [1858] |
| Classmark: | Harris Manchester College Library, Oxford (Letter book D and Letter book D Add.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2043 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … CD’s experiments on the fertilisation of kidney-beans by bees begun in the summer of 1857. …
- … In October 1857, he summarised his results for the Gardeners’ Chronicle (see n. 2, …
- … inquiry to the Gardeners’ Chronicle , published in October 1857 (see Correspondence vol. …
- … to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 18 October [1857], and Collected papers 1: 275–7). Carpenter and …
- … the same experiment at Down in June 1857. The results were recorded in his Experimental …
- … his letter to the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1857, he stated that it would be interesting to …
From H. C. Watson [after 23 March 1858]
Summary
Extracts from MS of vol. 4 of HCW’s Cybele Britannica [1847–59] showing the diversity of views on species among botanists.
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 23 Mar 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 45: 16–17 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1808 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Dana had presented this argument for the immutability of species in Dana 1857 , which CD …
- … read in December 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 25 December [1857] ). …
- … University Press. 1985–. Dana, James Dwight. 1857. Thoughts on species. American Journal …
- … CD had completed this chapter in January 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, Appendix II). …
To John Lubbock [November 1858]
Summary
Praise for abstract of JL’s paper on insects ["On the ova and pseudova of insects", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 9 (1857–9): 574–83].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | [Nov 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 25 (EH 88206474) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2331 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … on insects ["On the ova and pseudova of insects", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 9 (1857–9): 574–83]. …
- … in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 9 (1857–9): 574–83. In the printed abstract, …
- … Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 9 (1857–9): 577). Lund 1831 . A note on this …
- … of the Royal Society of London 9 (1857–9): 583). CD’s comment was not incorporated into …
- … 6, letter to John Lubbock, [22 November 1857] ). CD and John William Lubbock discussed the …
To Louis Agassiz 21 February [1858]
Summary
Thanks LA for presentation copy of Contributions [to the natural history of the United States of America, vol. 1, pt 1: Essay on classification, and vol. 1, pt 2: North American Testudinata (1857)]. Flattered; CD sees there is much of highest interest to him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean Louis Rodolphe (Louis) Agassiz |
| Date: | 21 Feb [1858] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Am 1419: 279) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2217 |
From Edward Blyth [8 January 1858]
Summary
Zebra-striped asses.
Markings of a Bengal jungle cock.
Refers to some of his own articles on birds in India.
Reports the arrival of the "glorious garrison of Lucknow". The "wonderful superiority of the European to the Asiatic" made the success of the insurrection inconceivable.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [8 Jan 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A144–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2200 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … scored brown crayon ‘Letter dated Jan 1857’ added pencil crossed pencil Top of letter : ‘ …
- … governor of Bengal, 1757–60. Livingstone 1857 , p. 407. CD read this work later in the …
- … University Press. 1985–. Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches in …
- … Indian mutiny was broken on 22 November 1857, although the city itself was not recaptured …
- … until March 1858 ( Annual Register (1857 and 1858)). Blyth was writing from Calcutta, …
To John Stevens Henslow 25 January [1858]
Summary
Mrs Henslow’s death stirs reminiscences of happier days.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 25 Jan [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A50–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2207 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Appendix to Hitcham allotment report for 1857. Hadleigh, Suffolk. Russell-Gebbett, Jean. …
- … Henslow’s wife Harriet had died on 20 November 1857. See Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 21 November [1857] , and letter from J. …
- … D. Hooker, [2 December 1857] . CD recorded in his ‘Journal’ for 1831, his final year as an …
To Leonard Jenyns 9 April [1858]
Summary
Asks LJ to lend him a copy of his paper ["Variation of species", Rep. BAAS 26 (1856): 101–5] and any notes or references he has. Although CD has a large accumulation of facts, it is impossible to see and consider too many.
His health is poor.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield |
| Date: | 9 Apr [1858] |
| Classmark: | Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2253 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of cultivated plants. CD had corresponded with him in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. …
- … 6, letter to James Buckman, 4 October [1857] , and letter to Gardeners’ …
- … Chronicle , [before 12 November 1857], n. 6). …
- … run by Edward Wickstead Lane , in April 1857 ( Correspondence vol. 6). Jenyns had cited …
To J. D. Hooker 9[–10] November [1858]
Summary
Lyell receives Copley Medal; CD to write notes for JDH’s éloge of Lyell.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 9[–10] Nov [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 253 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2355 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … unsuccessfully nominated Lyell for the medal in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letters …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 2 June [1857] and …
- … 14 [November 1857] ). CD had previously suggested Albany Hancock for a Royal Medal (see …
- … 1856], and to J. D. Hooker, 2 June [1857]). In 1858, Hancock was awarded one of the Royal …
- … Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 9 (1857–9): 518). CD had nominated John Obadiah …
To J. D. Hooker 9 February [1858]
Summary
Six volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus confirm rule that small genera vary less than large. Labiatae an exception to rule.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 9 Feb [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2212 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Candolle and Candolle 1824–73 in December 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from …
- … J. D. Hooker, [6 December 1857] , and letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 9 December [1857] ). His tables and calculations on this work are in DAR 15.2: …
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, [17–23 December 1857] ). CD’s results are given in a table in …
- … 6, letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 September [1857] . The order Labiatae was discussed by CD …
To J. D. Hooker 10 [March 1858]
Summary
Heartened that tabulations of small and large genera done in different ways yield good results. JDH has done some tabulations but has not followed CD’s method of getting equal numbers of small and large genera.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 [Mar 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 227 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2237 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … 6, letter to J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1857] ). See Natural selection , p. 143. Hooker’s …
- … CD had borrowed this work from Hooker in 1857 ( Correspondence vol. 6, letters to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 30 September [1857] and …
- … 14 [November 1857] ). CD believed he had evidence to show that common and widespread …
| letter | (98) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (73) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Coe, Henry | (3) |
| Watson, H. C. | (3) |
| Blyth, Edward | (2) |
| Agassiz, Louis | (1) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Blomefield, Leonard | (2) |
| Busk, George | (1) |
| Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | (1) |
| Covington, Syms | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (22) |
| Darwin, Emma | (2) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (10) |
| Eyton, T. C. | (1) |
| Fox, W. D. | (5) |
| Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (5) |
| Harcourt, E. W. V. | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Jenyns, Leonard | (2) |
| Kippist, Richard | (1) |
| Linnean Society | (2) |
| Lubbock, John | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (4) |
| Poole, Skeffington | (2) |
| Royal Society of London | (1) |
| Shaw, H. N. | (1) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (5) |
| Thwaites, G. H. K. | (1) |
| Unidentified | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (95) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (27) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (10) |
| Gray, Asa | (7) |
| Fox, W. D. | (6) |
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
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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
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: …
