To Charles Lyell [24 March – 3 April 1860]
Summary
Discusses letter of recommendation for Edward Blyth.
Sedgwick’s review of the Origin in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860].
Mentions breaks between geological formations.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | [24 Mar – 3 Apr 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.204) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2734 |
To J. S. Henslow 8 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on Richard Owen’s review of the Origin [in Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532]. Considers Owen unfair to CD and most ungenerous toward Hooker.
Expects Sedgwick to be fierce against him. Sedgwick also misrepresented CD in his Spectator review [24 Mar and 7 Apr 1860].
Compares natural selection to the undulatory theory of light as a hypothesis explaining a large number of facts.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 8 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A67–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2791 |
To Asa Gray 3 April [1860]
Summary
Thinks AG’s review [of Origin] will aid much in making people think about subject.
Has been savagely and unfairly reviewed by Adam Sedgwick in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860],
but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] a very fair one.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 3 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (47) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2743 |
To W. H. Miller [after 5 June 1860]
Summary
Discusses measurements of bees’ cells. Describes modification in structure of Melipona hive. Notes importance of natural selection.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Hallowes Miller |
Date: | [after 5 June 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 366 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2391 |
To W. D. Fox 18 May [1860]
Summary
Attacks [on Origin] are "hot and heavy". Adam Sedgwick and William Clark at Cambridge Philosophical Society opened a battery. J. S. Henslow defended in grand style.
Slow progress on bigger book.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 18 May [1860] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 128) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2809 |
To John Murray 9 April [1860]
Summary
Asks that a copy of Origin [1860] be sent to R. A. von Kölliker.
A venomous review "manifestly by Owen" has appeared in Edinburgh Review.
Sedgwick has been fierce in Spectator, but fair and open.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Murray |
Date: | 9 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 ff.90–91) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2752 |
To Baden Powell 18 January [1860]
Summary
CD is pleased by BP’s appreciative opinion of Origin. He never intended to claim that he originated the doctrine that species have not been independently created. The only novelty in his work is the attempt to explain how species became modified and how the theory of descent explains large classes of facts. If he has taken anything from BP, he has done so unconsciously. Gives names of those he would have mentioned in any account of authors who maintained that species have not been separately created.
CD greatly admires BP’s Philosophy of creation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Baden Powell |
Date: | 18 Jan [1860] |
Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (Quentin Keynes collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2654 |
To J. S. Henslow 14 May [1860]
Summary
Thanks JSH for his defence [see 2794].
He is not hurt for long by what his attackers say. His conclusions were arrived at after long study. He has certainly erred, but not so much as "Sedgwick and Co." think.
Asks JSH to send names of plants that vary greatly in length of pistil.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 14 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A70–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2801 |
To W. H. Miller 1 December [1860]
Summary
Must prepare new edition of Origin.
Discusses structure of beehives. Mentions writings of Chauncey Wright on bees’ cells ["Remarks on the architecture of bees", Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4 (1857–60): 432–3].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Hallowes Miller |
Date: | 1 Dec [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 367 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2564 |
To J. S. Henslow 17 May [1860]
Summary
Sends characters by which he can divide all primroses and cowslips into what he suspects will be male and female plants. Believes these forms are first step in formation of a dioecious plant.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 17 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A72–3, A116 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2805 |
From J. S. Henslow 5 May 1860
Summary
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 186: 47 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2783 |
From Charles Lyell 7 May 1860
Summary
Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.
Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.
Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 396 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2787 |
From Charles Lyell [before 20 November 1860]
Summary
Discusses the possibility of a land-bridge connecting Biscay with Ireland and the consequent occurrence in southern Ireland of Asturian plants which are absent from England.
Asks if Hooker or anyone has criticised Edward Forbes’ botanical migration of five floras in the British Isles ["On the connexion between the distribution of existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 336–432].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 20 Nov 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 170.2: 80 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2902 |
To J. S. Henslow 2 April [1860]
Summary
Reminds JSH to send "sketch & account of the wasp’s comb in transitional state from horizontal to vertical, & the country whence procured".
Asks for information on spread of Anacharis [Elodea].
Sedgwick [in criticism of Origin] was not very fair, but Murray says it is splendid for selling copies to "the unfortunate students".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 2 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A65–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2742 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 [May 1860]
Summary
Lyell, de facto, first to stress importance of geological changes for geographical distribution.
Asa Gray has given CD too much credit for theories of geographical distribution.
Reaction to hostile criticism
and debt to Lyell, Huxley, JDH, and W. B. Carpenter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 [May 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 56 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2802 |
To Henry Fawcett 6 December [1860]
Summary
Expresses his admiration for HF’s review of Origin in Macmillan’s Magazine (Fawcett 1860).
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Fawcett |
Date: | 6 Dec [1860] |
Classmark: | Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3012F |
From Hensleigh Wedgwood [January? 1860]
Summary
Prepared to think world infinitely old, but not that life originated with a single cell. Questions whether geological evidence supports gradual progress in organisation. HW thought scientific opinion during Vestiges debate was against this hypothesis. Argues that presence of same senses in lower animals and vertebrates does not imply descent; assumes resemblance is due to living in same world and thus having organs for the same purposes. Wants CD to know how others may see these questions.
Author: | Hensleigh Wedgwood |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [Jan? 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 48: 83–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2389 |
To Charles Lyell 22 May [1860]
Summary
Mentions American edition of Origin.
A "savage" review [by John Duns] in North British Review [32 (1860): 455–68].
Comments on views of G. H. K. Thwaites on the survival of simple forms as a problem in his theory.
Mentions imperfection of geological record.
Marine origin of coal.
Illness of Etty.
Encloses article by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on hare–rabbit crosses [Histoire naturelle générale (1854–62) 3: 222].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 22 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.213) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2812 |
To Charles Lyell 18 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on enclosed letters from Asa Gray and Wallace [missing].
Discusses hybrid fertility in rabbits and hares, and pheasants and fowls.
Asks about paper by Hermann Schaaffhausen ["Über Beständigkeit u. Umwandlung der Arten", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. Preuss. Rheinlande 10 (1853): 420–51].
Mentions criticism by Sedgwick and William Clark at Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Notes importance of CL and Hooker in defending Origin.
Comments on papers by D. A. Godron ["Considérations sur les migrations des végétaux", Acad. Stanislas Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy (1853): 329–67].
Mentions receiving anonymous verses.
A Manchester newspaper lampoon shows CD has proved "might makes right" to be a universal law.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 18 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.212) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2806 |
From J. S. Henslow to J. D. Hooker 10 May 1860
Summary
Describes Sedgwick’s attack on CD’s views [at Cambridge Philosophical Society] and his own defence, though he believes CD has pressed his hypothesis too far.
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 10 May 1860 |
Classmark: | MS Add. 9537/2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2794 |
letter | (20) |
Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
Henslow, J. S. | (4) |
Lyell, Charles | (3) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Miller, W. H. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Henslow, J. S. | (6) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Miller, W. H. | (2) |