To Charles Lyell 26 April [1858]
Summary
Comments on letter from Georg Hartung to CL dealing with erratic boulders.
Discusses migration of plants and animals.
A letter from Thomas Thomson on heat endured by temperate plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 26 Apr [1858] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.151) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2262 |
From J. D. Hooker [26 December 1858]
Summary
JDH cannot abide CD’s connection of wide-ranging species and "highness". Australian flora contradicts this in many ways.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [26 Dec 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 125–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2385 |
To J. D. Hooker 31 December [1858]
Summary
Replies at length to JDH’s worried reaction to his comments on lowness of Australian plants. CD distinguishes between "competitive highness", i.e., which fauna would be exterminated and which survive if two faunas were placed in competition, and ordinary "highness" of classification.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 31 Dec [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 35 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2388 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … issue of ‘highness’ and ‘lowness’ in 1854 (see Correspondence vol. 5, letters to J. D. …
- … 1854] ). CD discussed the point in Origin , pp. 313–15. CD held to this opinion in Origin , p. 379: I suspect that this preponderant migration from north to south is due to the greater extent of land in the north, and to the northern forms having existed in their own homes in greater numbers, and having consequently been advanced through natural selection and competition to a higher stage of perfection or dominating power, than the southern forms. According to the draft in DAR 205.9 (Letters), …
From J. D. Hooker and Charles Lyell to the Linnean Society 30 June 1858
Summary
Communicate papers by CD and A. R. Wallace on "The Laws which affect the Production of Varieties, Races, and Species". Explain that CD and Wallace have, independently and unknown to each other, arrived at the same theory to account for the appearance and perpetuation of specific forms, and that neither has yet published, although CD first sketched his theory in 1839. Give their reasons for arranging the joint presentation.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker; Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Linnean Society |
| Date: | 30 June 1858 |
| Classmark: | Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 3 (1859): 45–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2299 |
From G. R. Waterhouse 13 February 1858
Summary
GRW’s observations of and ideas on bees’ and wasps’ cells.
| Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Feb 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 23 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2216 |
To Skeffington Poole 13 October [1858]
Summary
Asks about Indian horses. Encloses questions.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Skeffington Poole |
| Date: | 13 Oct [1858] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2152 |
To George Bentham 27 January [1858]
Summary
Asks GB to vote for "a distant connexion of mine" at Athenaeum, and to mention this to Hooker.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Bentham |
| Date: | 27 Jan [1858] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Bentham Correspondence, Vol. 3, Daintree–Dyer, 1830–1884, GEB/1/3: f. 676) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13778 |
From J. D. Hooker 13–15 July 1858
Summary
Sends proofs [of "On the tendency of species to form varieties … ", read 1 July 1858, Collected papers 2: 3–19]. CD could publish his abstract [later the Origin] as a separate supplemental number of [Journal of the Linnean Society].
JDH has studied in detail CD’s manuscript on variable species in large and small genera and concurs with its consequences. Discusses methodological idiosyncrasies of systematists, e.g., Bentham, Robert Brown, and C. C. Babington, which complicate CD’s tabulations.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [13 or 15] July 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 116–19, 168 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2307 |
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 |
To a librarian [c. June 1858 or later]
Summary
Will return Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St Paul (Jowett 1855) and requests several books, of which the latest is Hugh Miller’s Cruise of the Betsey (Miller 1858).
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Librarian |
| Date: | [c. June 1858 or later] |
| Classmark: | Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection: Edward G. and Hortense R. Levy Autograph Collection, Part 2 (OSB MSS 137) Box 25, folder 1188) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2199F |
From Frederick Smith 26 February 1858
Summary
Identifies an ant described by CD and discusses the predatory habits of Formica sanguinea.
Describes some wasps’ nests.
| Author: | Frederick Smith |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Feb 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 191 (fragile) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2226 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, 23 February [1858] ). Smith described the known species of British ants in F. Smith 1854 …
- … 1854 ). In CD’s copy of the work, Smith’s description of a similar attack on a nest was marked ( p. 99). Smith had exhibited the nests of a Brazilian species of the wasp Polistes at a meeting of the Entomological Society on 1 June 1857 ( Transactions of the Entomological Society of London n.s. 4 (1856–8), Proceedings, p. 77). Smith believed that Polistes originally constructed a hexagonal cell, not, as George Robert Waterhouse suggested, cylinders that later became hexagons (see letter …
To Emma Darwin [25 April 1858]
Summary
Concerned about ED’s headaches, CD writes an affectionate letter.
Believes he has found a rare slave-making species of ant.
Is reading novels: Beneath the surface and Three chances.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Date: | [25 Apr 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.8: 33 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2413 |
From Leonard Jenyns [before 18 April 1858]
Summary
[Copy of some rough notes.] References about species. Variations within species.
| Author: | Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 18 Apr 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 45: 20–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2250 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 February [1858]
Summary
Fertilisation of clover by bees in New Zealand.
Uneasy about biggest genera and their varieties.
H. T. Buckle’s sophistry [History of civilisation in England (1857)].
Working on bees’ cells.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 23 Feb [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 224 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2222 |
From William Balfour Baikie 11 February 1858
Summary
Describes some species of fauna peculiar to Fernando Po. The ocean currents make it unlikely that animals have been floated to the little islands [off the west coast of Africa].
| Author: | William Balfour Baikie |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Feb 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 260 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2214 |
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 |
| letter | (16) |
| Baikie, W. B. | (1) |
| Blomefield, Leonard | (1) |
| Blyth, Edward | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Jenyns, Leonard | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Smith, Frederick (a) | (1) |
| Waterhouse, G. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Lyell, Charles | (2) |
| Baikie, W. B. | (1) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
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: 1 hits
- … The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for …
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
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,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Editorial policy and practice
Summary
Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of the Correspondence. Transcriptions are made from the original or a facsimile where these are available. Where they are not, texts are taken from the best…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of …
Joseph Simms
Summary
The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874, while he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character (Simms 1873). He hoped it might 'prove…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Darwin and barnacles …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels …
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: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …
