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St George Jackson Mivart

Summary

In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…

Matches: 16 hits

  • … In 1874, the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart caused Darwin and his son George serious …
  • … it for publication in the next issue of the Quarterly ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 29 July 1874 …
  • … kind of thing Murray would be likely to wish to circulate ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 1 August [1874] …
  • … them explicitly, he might be thought to endorse them ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 5 August 1874 ). …
  • … of encouraging licentiousness. A postscript to Darwin’s letter, which may belong to another letter, …
  • … of words having been used in a Pickwickian sense’ ( letter to John Murray, 18 October 1874 ). In …
  • … Huxley intervenes In December, Darwin told Thomas Henry Huxley about the affair. Mivart had …
  • … have Mivart admit his authorship of the attack on George ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December 1874 …
  • … unjustifiably attacked a friend of mine.’ ( Enclosure to letter from J. D. Hooker, 21 December 1874 …
  • … , felt to be due to Mr Darwin. For when I read his letter in August, I certainly felt that he …
  • … Archives)   Huxley did not share this letter with Darwin but wrote to him, ‘he not …
  • … he is not devoid of all the instincts of a gentleman’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 23 December 1874 …
  • … of London.) Mivart swiftly replied to Huxley’s letter : again, Darwin did not see this. …
  • … Confidential Dear Huxley, I thank you for your letter of yesterday’s date as also for …
  • … in my own name. The way however, in which you take my letter makes it necessary for me, in …
  • … delayed through no fault of mine. Thus, as I said in my letter, I did not feel in August as I have …

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: 3 hits

  • … colleague as ‘my dear Huxley’ for the first time in a letter of 20 February [1855]. Darwin did have …
  • … subject of transmutation with Huxley (see for example his letter of 23 April 1853), but he did not …
  • … a bitter and personal dispute between Darwin and St George Jackson Mivart, portraying the Catholic …

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

  • … selection to humans from Alfred Russel Wallace and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated debates …
  • … shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December …
  • … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
  • … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
  • … who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). …
  • … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
  • … thro’ apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] …
  • … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
  • … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
  • … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
  • … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
  • … to their belief that all demons and spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 …
  • … . . Could you make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] …
  • … or crying badly; but I fear he will not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] …
  • … Lucy Wedgwood, who sent a sketch of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). …
  • … is the inclination to finish my note on this subject’  ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). …
  • … the previous year (see  Correspondence  vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His …
  • … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
  • … towards each other, though in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). …
  • … version of the theory of descent by natural selection in a letter to Darwin, prompting much anxiety …
  • … were concerned about the consequences of Wallace’s book. Henry Walter Bates urged Darwin to respond …
  • … But who is to criticise them? No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). …
  • … me to be able to say that I  never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). …
  • … zoologist St George Jackson Mivart. A protégé of Thomas Henry Huxley, Mivart had established a …
  • … Darwin commented on Mivart’s essay in a letter to William Henry Flower: ‘I am glad you noticed the …
  • … Dalton Hooker, Darwin discussed the recent experiments of Henry Charlton Bastian, which Bastian …
  • … were injurious to offspring. He wrote initially probably to Henry Hussey Vivian, an MP and fellow of …
  • … May 1870?] ). Vivian contacted the home secretary, Henry Austin Bruce, about the possibility …
  • … Darwin’s health was generally good. He did consult Henry Bence Jones, his physician since 1865, …

2.23 Hope Pinker statue, Oxford Museum

Summary

< Back to Introduction Henry Richard Hope Pinker’s life-size statue of Darwin was installed in the Oxford University Museum on 14 June 1899. It was the latest in a series of statues of great scientific thinkers, the ‘Founders and Improvers of Natural…

Matches: 13 hits

  • … &lt; Back to Introduction Henry Richard Hope Pinkers life-size statue of Darwin was
  • mimicry among insects. Alfred Russel Wallace, in a letter to his daughter dated 27 November 1896, …
  • the entry to the museum court on the west. Professor Sir Henry Acland, who had initiated and
  • they werequite common place without being vulgar’. A letter in the Hope Pinker collection of
  • Oxford University 
 originator of image Henry Richard Hope Pinker 
 date of
  • in Caen limestone 
 references and bibliography Letter from William Darwin to his father
  • … (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press}, vol. 26. Undated letter fromWallerto Hope Pinker, …
  • of letters, Royal Academy archive, HRHP/LPM/UVW31). Undated letter from H.E. Luxmoore of Eton
  • Sydenham in the Oxford Museum . . . with an Address by Sir Henry W. Acland (Oxford: Horace Hart, …
  • Selection (London, Paris, Melbourne: Cassell, 1896). Letter from Poulton to Acland, 25 Nov. 1896, …
  • 1896, to consider places in the Museum for the Bust of Sir Henry Acland and for the proposed Statue
  • 7 and 9. ‘Unveiling the Darwin statue at the Museum’, Jacksons Oxford Journal , 17 June 1899, p. …
  • an economic model for the careers of Edward Onslow Ford and Henry Hope Pinker through their works’, …

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: 22 hits

  • … ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run’ ( letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1882 ) …
  • … fertility of crosses between differently styled plants ( letter from Fritz Müller, 1 January 1882 …
  • … François Marie Glaziou (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Arthur de Souza Corrêa, 20 …
  • … quite untirable & I am glad to shirk any extra labour’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 6 January …
  • … probably intending to test its effects on chlorophyll ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). …
  • … contained particles of starch very clearly,’ he wrote to Henry Groves, the botanist who had supplied …
  • … we know about the life of any one plant or animal!’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). He …
  • … of seeing the flowers & experimentising on them’ ( letter to J. E. Todd, 10 April 1882 ). …
  • … find stooping over the microscope affects my heart’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). …
  • … sooner or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The …
  • … leaves into their burrows ( Correspondence vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 …
  • … on the summit, whence it rolls down the sides’ ( letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 ). The …
  • … light on it, which would have pleased me greatly’ ( letter from J. H. Gilbert, 9 January 1882, …
  • … annelid seemed to have rather the best of the fight’ ( letter from G. F. Crawte, 11 March 1882 ). …
  • … by the American educator Emily Talbot (Talbot ed. 1882). His letter to Talbot written the previous …
  • … Collier, 16 February 1882 ). Collier had married Thomas Henry Huxley’s daughter Marian. He returned …
  • … certainly finds being carried upstairs (in a carrying chair Jackson fetched yesterday) a benefit …
  • … A. R. Wallace, [ c . 10 April 1864] ). To the physician Henry Holland, he remarked. ‘I shall …
  • … a little work in Natural History every day’ ( letter to Henry Holland, 6 November [1864] ). …
  • … used by Darwin against his most aggressive critic, St George Jackson Mivart, who claimed that the …
  • … on heredity. His belief in human improvement was tested by Henry Keylock Rusden, an Australian …
  • … undertaken observations years earlier. In 1871, he had asked Henry Johnson to observe the thickness …

Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year

Summary

The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…

Matches: 26 hits

  • … be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August …
  • … pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such …
  • … And … one looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • … was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • … inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October …
  • … the medium Charles E. Williams, and was attended by George Henry Lewes and Marian Evans (George …
  • … in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • … George Darwin, the psychic researcher Frederick William Henry Myers, and Thomas Henry Huxley, who …
  • … that Mr Williams was ‘a cheat and an imposter’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 ). …
  • … his, ‘& that he was thus free to perform his antics’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 29 January [1874 …
  • … Darwin had allowed ‘a spirit séance’ at his home ( letter from T. G. Appleton, 2 April 1874 ). …
  • … edition, published in 1842 ( Correspondence  vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 17 …
  • … Hooker, and finally borrowed one from Charles Lyell ( letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January …
  • … to take so sweetly all the horrid bother of correction’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 21 [March …
  • … sent an apology for misinterpreting Darwin on this point ( letter from J. D. Dana, 21 July 1874 ); …
  • … numbers and sex ratios among the Pitcairn islanders ( letter from William Dealtry, 16 January 1874 …
  • … will say that I have pounded the enemy into a jelly’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 14 April 1874 ). …
  • … by none but anatomists; and never mind where it goes’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 16 April 1874 ). …
  • … the return on subsequent print runs would be very good ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 …
  • … by the conciseness & clearness of your thought’ ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 20 April 1874 ). …
  • … to check population’. The review was by St George Jackson Mivart, one of the most severe …
  • … legal action over the ‘scurrilous libel’ on his son ( letter to G. H. Darwin, [27 July 1874] ). …
  • … false, scurrilous accusation of [a] lying scoundrel’ ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 1 August [1874] ). …
  • … as father and son agonised over the wording of both the letter to the editor and the letter to …
  • … support the election of his nephew, the fine-art specialist Henry Parker ( letter from E. A. Darwin …
  • … to do—It is enough to kill anyone’, and asked Thomas Henry Farrer to attempt to influence the …

Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments

Summary

The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…

Matches: 29 hits

  • … intended for publication in Variation , to Thomas Henry Huxley for evaluation, and persuaded his …
  • … voyage, committed suicide at the end of April; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal …
  • … The death of Hugh Falconer Darwin’s first letter to Hooker of 1865 suggests that the family …
  • … having all the Boys at home: they make the house jolly’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] …
  • … had failed to include among the grounds of the award ( see letter from Hugh Falconer to Erasmus …
  • … his letters to Darwin, and Darwin responded warmly: ‘Your letter is by far the grandest eulogium …
  • … may well rest content that I have not laboured in vain’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 6 January [1865] …
  • … always a most kind friend to me. So the world goes.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 February [1865] …
  • … for our griefs & pains: these alone are unalloyed’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 February 1865 …
  • … gas.— Sic transit gloria mundi, with a vengeance’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] ). …
  • … added, ‘I know it is folly & nonsense to try anyone’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] …
  • … ineffective, and Darwin had given it up by early July ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865] …
  • … better, attributing the improvement to Jones’s diet ( see letter to T. H. Huxley, 4 October [1865] …
  • … he was ‘able to write about an hour on most days’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 December [1865] ). …
  • … others very forward, except the last & concluding one’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 March [1865] …
  • … my book will be ready for the press in the autumn’ ( letter to John Murray, 4 April [1865] ). In …
  • … however, ‘I am never idle when I can do anything’ ( letter to John Murray, 2 June [1865] ). It was …
  • … might be more willing to bear the expense of the woodcuts ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865 …
  • … & I loathe the whole subject like tartar emetic’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 January [1865] ) …
  • … you will be an unnatural parent, for it is your child’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 19 April 1865 ; …
  • … needed for references, probably from the Linnean Society ( letter to [Richard Kippist], 4 June …
  • … in or before November 1864 ( Correspondence vol. 12, letter to Ernst Haeckel, 21 November [1864 …
  • … 1865 that he had just finished hearing it read aloud ( letter to Fritz Müller, 10 August [1865] ). …
  • … Linnean Society for publication in Müller’s name ( see letter from Fritz Müller, [12 and 31 August, …
  • … so weak that I am not able to do any scientific work’ ( letter to Fritz Müller, 20 September [1865] …
  • … coloured varieties (see  Correspondence  vol. 10, letter to John Scott, 19 November [1862] ). …
  • … species arising’ ( Correspondence vol. 9, letter to J. D. Hooker, 28 September [1861] ). …
  • … health had been particularly bad, Darwin sent Thomas Henry Huxley a fair copy of a manuscript in …
  • … a throat infection, and Hooker’s father, William Jackson Hooker, who also caught it, rapidly …

Rewriting Origin - the later editions

Summary

For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions.  Many of his changes were made in…

Matches: 13 hits

  • … buried Darwin under a blizzard of letters (see especially letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October …
  • … getting permission to quote prominently from Kingsley’s letter in the revised summary: A …
  • … sufficiently acknowledged earlier work.  According to a letter to Asa Gray he had yet to start …
  • … an animal’s colour and its immunity to poison (see letter from Jeffries Wyman, [ c . 15] …
  • … and a series of letters with the Irish botanist William Henry Harvey.   Darwin remained …
  • … Many of these were made in response to discussions with Henry Walter Bates, friend and travelling …
  • … by the science-writer, and partner to George Eliot, George Henry Lewes . And he took the …
  • … hitherto slurred it over. In his Christmas Day letter to his old friend Joseph Hooker, …
  • … through his assistant, Arabella Buckley ), Thomas Henry Huxley , Osbert Salvin , Abraham …
  • … criticisms published by the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart.  Responding cost Darwin a …
  • … appetite for vengeance had already been whetted by Thomas Henry Huxley’s review of Mivart: ‘I have …
  • … of population increase in elephants in response to a letter published in the Athenaeum by a …
  • … that after all, Truth doesn’t die.  Thomas Henry Huxley, 28 September 1871 …

Volume appendices

Summary

Here is a list of the appendices from the print volumes of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin with links to adapted online versions where they are available. Appendix I in each volume contains translations of letters in foreign languages and these can…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … and these can be accessed online by searching for a letter and clicking on the translation tab on …
  • … 8 V Patrick Matthew's letter to the Gardeners’ Chronicle …
  • … Reports from the Scottish press on Thomas Henry Huxley’s Edinburgh lectures on the ‘relation of man …
  • … 17 IV Thomas Henry Farrer's notes on Passiflora and Tacsonia …
  • … V Draft subscription list for Thomas Henry Huxley …
  • … 22 V St George Jackson Mivart, George Howard Darwin, and the Quarterly …

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: 27 hits

  • … What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • … anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace,  27 July …
  • … best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • … condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September …
  • … translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November …
  • … he wrote to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart,  11 …
  • … comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • … Mivart enclosed a copy of an article replying to Thomas Henry Huxley’s scathing review of  Genesis …
  • … a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • … Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January …
  • … was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872 …
  • … hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart,  10 January …
  • … have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letter.  He promised to send a copy of the …
  • … partly in mind, `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] …
  • … Darwinism is to be the theme. Surely the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872 …
  • … to find that Weismann accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I …
  • … few naturalists in England seem inclined to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … reached the buzzing place where I myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … ‘as for myself it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was …
  • … to stand closer (a serried mass) and to be more erect’ ( letter to Briton Riviere, 19 May [1872] ) …
  • … and amused rather than offended by `that clever book’ ( letter to J. M. Herbert, 21 November 1872 …
  • … wrote offering Arthur May’s drawings shortly afterwards ( letter from Samuel Butler to Francis …
  • … 'exactly where, from his ignorance, he feels no doubts’ ( letter to F. C. Donders, 17 June …
  • … music provided by her husband, Richard Buckley Litchfield ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 13 May 1872 …
  • … to Henrietta; 'I know that I am half-killed myself’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 25 July 1872 …
  • … widen.  Wallace’s favourable review of the physiologist Henry Charlton Bastian’s recent book on the …
  • … younger correspondents, Huxley’s seven-year-old son, Henry ( letter from Henry Huxley, 17 and 20 …

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: 26 hits

  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824 …
  • … Adam Smith Moral Sentiments [A. Smith 1759] Jackson Four Ages [Jackson 1798] Stewart, …
  • … 1834–40]: In Portfolio of “abstracts” 34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … 1814]. Sense & S [Austen 1811]. Rich d . 2 d . poor. Henry IV [Shakespeare:  King Richard …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … 1857] (the best Travels I ever read) Sept. Froude Henry VIII [Froude 1856]. 4 vols very …
  • …  Probably a reference to the private library of William Jackson Hooker and his son, Joseph Dalton …
  • … printed notices pasted into the notebook. 26  Henry Peter Brougham, Baron Brougham and …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … ( Notebooks , pp. 319–28). 55  The letter was addressed to Nicholas Aylward Vigors …
  • … collection is a presentation copy from the author to William Jackson Hooker. See  Correspondence …
  • … and the ‘O’ in pencil. It is not clear which of William Jackson Hooker’s journals is meant here: the …
  • … in December, 1841 . Oxford.  119: 13b Atkinson, Henry George and Martineau, Harriet. 1851 …
  • … in DAR 71: 150–1.]  128: 18 Borrow, George Henry. 1843.  The Bible in Spain; or, the   …
  • … 128: 9 Brooks, J. Tyrwhitt,  pseud.  (Henry Vizetelly). 1849.  Four   months among the …
  • … the gold districts . London.  119: 22b Brougham, Henry Peter. 1839.  Dissertations on …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …
  • … 71: 125–7.]  *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857.  History of …
  • … tribes.  London.  119: 21a Burgess, Thomas Henry. 1839.  The physiology or mechanism   …
  • … [Other eds.]  *119: 5v., 11v.; 119: 9a Cline, Henry. 1829.  Observations on the breeding …
  • …   observations . London.  119: 7a Cockburn, Henry. 1852.  Life of Lord Jeffrey, with a …
  • … [Other eds.]  *128: 180; 128: 5, 21 Coke, Henry John. 1852.  A ride over the Rocky …
  • … by Bekhur to   Garoo and the Lake Manasarowara: with a letter from … J.   G. Gerard, Esq. …
  • … 1830. On the dying struggle of the dichotomous sytem. In a letter to N. A. Vigors.  Philosophical …

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: 26 hits

  • … leading roles in creating a private memorial fund for Thomas Henry Huxley, and in efforts to …
  • … I omitted to observe, which I ought to have observed” ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 January [1873] …
  • … work your wicked will on it—root leaf & branch!” ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 12 January 1873 ) …
  • … climates but not in others. He encouraged research by Thomas Henry Farrer on a complex floral …
  • … parts of the flower would become modified & correlated” ( letter to T. H. Farrer, 14 August …
  • … it again, “for Heaven knows when it will be ready” ( letter to John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). …
  • … we take notes and take tracings of their burrows” ( letter from Francis Darwin, 14 August [1873] ) …
  • … in importance; and if so more places will be created” ( letter to E. A. Darwin, 20 September 1873 …
  • … our unfortunate family being fit for continuous work” ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 25 September …
  • … on any point; for I knew my own ignorance before hand” ( letter to George Cupples, 28 April [1873] …
  • … “he would fly at the Empr’s throat like a bulldog” ( letter from L. M. Forster to H. E. Litchfield, …
  • … force & truth of the great principle of inheritance!” ( letter to F. S. B. F. de Chaumont, 3 …
  • … the heavy breathing that accompanied sexual intercourse? (letter from ?, [1873?]). The Scottish …
  • … with up lines; & sadness & decay with the reverse—” ( letter from William Main, 2 April …
  • … with the advance of civilisation and good breeding ( letter from Henry Reeks, 3 March 1873 ). …
  • … have never felt an inclination to have a second dose” ( letter from Robert Swinhoe, 26 March 1873 …
  • … of an orbital one produces snapping of the jaws” ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 16 April 1873 …
  • … that illustrated the physiognomy of the disease ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 30 December 1873 …
  • … by an individual could be transmitted to its offspring ( letter from J. T. Moggridge, 1 February …
  • … a related discussion in  Nature  magazine, forwarding a letter from William Huggins on a case of …
  • … Kepler who was fearful of butchers and butcher’s shops ( letter to  Nature , [before 13 February …
  • … smell. Darwin joined the debate, writing to  Nature  ( letter to  Nature , [before 13 March …
  • … The debate later shifted to ants when Darwin forwarded a letter from the mining engineer James …
  • … disperse wildly after he had smashed some with his finger ( letter to  Nature , [before 3 April …
  • … danger by seeing the corpses of a fellow species” ( letter to  Nature , [before 24 July 1873] ). …
  • … to borrow a large sum in his own name. Together with Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin drafted an appeal …

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: 27 hits

  • … in satisfying female preference in the mating process. In a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace in 1864, …
  • … of changing the races of man’ (Correspondence vol. 12, letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 [May 1864] ). …
  • … book would take the form of a ‘short essay’ on man ( letter to Ernst Haeckel, 3 July 1868 ). But …
  • … as well say, he would drink a little and not too much’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 15 May [1868] ) …
  • … would be a great loss to the Book’. But Darwin’s angry letter to Murray crossed one from Dallas to …
  • … of labour to remuneration I shall look rather blank’ ( letter from W. S. Dallas, 8 January 1868 ). …
  • … if I try to read a few pages feel fairly nauseated’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 February [1868] ). …
  • … in three parts in the  Pall Mall Gazette , was by George Henry Lewes, well-known in London’s …
  • … reviews. On 7 August 1868 , he wrote him a lengthy letter from the Isle of Wight on the formation …
  • … would strike me in the face, but not behind my back’ ( letter to John Murray, 25 February [1868] ) …
  • … ignorant article… . It is a disgrace to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] …
  • … ‘he is a scamp & I begin to think a veritable ass’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 1 September [1868] …
  • … facts that they hoped might be of interest. Charles Henry Binstead, a civil engineer in Yorkshire, …
  • … proved very fruitful. On 1 May , Darwin received a letter from George Cupples, who was encouraged …
  • … with the enthusiastic breeder, who apologised in a letter of 11–13 May 1868 for his ‘voluminuous …
  • … of science On 27 February , Darwin sent a letter of thanks to the naturalist and …
  • … he later added, ‘for it is clear that I have none’ ( letter to J. J. Weir, 30 May [1868] ). …
  • … to various classes, a dim ray of light may be gained’ ( letter to H. T. Stainton, 21 February [1868 …
  • … as well as of ‘victorious males getting wives’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 25 February [1868] ). …
  • … of females was remarked upon by other entomologists ( letter from Roland Trimen, 20 February 1868 …
  • … and Coleoptera on 9 September . Darwin annotated a letter sent on 3 April by Henry Doubleday …
  • … for as sure as life he wd find the odour sexual!’ ( letter to A . R. Wallace, 16 September [1868] …
  • … George Robert Crotch, writing to his mother Emma in a letter dated [after 16 October 1868] : ‘I …
  • … expression of natives faces as I meet them,’ wrote George Henry Kendrick Thwaites on 1 April …
  • … Darwin began a long correspondence on orchids with Thomas Henry Farrer, permanent secretary to the …
  • … the ascendant. His great public defender in England, Thomas Henry Huxley, remarked on 12 September …
  • … including Adam Sedgwick, John Stevens Henslow, and William Jackson Hooker. ‘I … am undergoing the …

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

Summary

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…

Matches: 17 hits

  • … of a long-running dispute with the zoologist St George Jackson Mivart. In April and early May, …
  • … On 8 January , he told Hooker: ‘I will write a savage letter & that will do me some good, if I …
  • … by the loyalty of his close friends, Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley. Because Mivart was a …
  • … to the Editor … Poor Murray shuddered again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January …
  • … offered to pay the costs for printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). …
  • … & bless the day That ever you were born (letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 2 …
  • … that the originally red half has become wholly white’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [before 4 …
  • … pp. 188–90). He drew attention to this discussion in a letter to George Rolleston, remarking on 2 …
  • … Darwin wrote, ‘I beg ten thousand pardon & more’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [ c . February …
  • … signed himself, ‘Your affect son … the proofmaniac’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875 …
  • … both critical and reverential. On 16 July he received a letter from an advocate of women’s …
  • … her presentation copy of Insectivorous plants ( letter to D. F. Nevill, 15 July [1875] ). Such …
  • … of my house within the short time I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). …
  • … explorer Nikolai Alekseevich Severtsov and the ornithologist Henry Eeles Dresser. ‘The horror was …
  • … and had agreed to see him at Down with Thiselton-Dyer ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 7 July 1875 …
  • … lay of hair in eyelashes and on arms, a typically lengthy letter full of personal observations, …
  • … examination it was pronounced to be of a ‘high type’ ( letter from Woodward Emery, 17 September …

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: 27 hits

  • … do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 ) …
  • … to her liking, ‘to keep in memory of the book’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871 ). …
  • … and had forsaken his lunch and dinner in order to read it ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 19 …
  • … they believe to be the truth, whether pleasant or not’ (letter from W. W. Reade, 21 February 1871). …
  • … and Oldham … They club together to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). …
  • … one’s n th . ancestor lived between tide-marks!’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 February 1871 ). …
  • … habits, furnished with a tail and pointed ears”  (letter from Asa Gray, 14 April 1871) …
  • … ‘will-power’ and the heavy use of their arms and legs ( letter from C. L. Bernays, 25 February 1871 …
  • … in order to make it darker than the hair on his head ( letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [before 25 …
  • … together with an image of an orang-utan foetus ( letter from Hinrich Nitsche, 18 April 1871 ). …
  • … of himself, adding that it made a ‘very poor return’ ( letter to Hinrich Nitsche, 25 April [1871] …
  • … each night, returning to its allotted space each morning ( letter from Arthur Nicols, 7 March 1871 …
  • … without having a high aesthetic appreciation of beauty ( letter from E. J. Pfeiffer, [before 26 …
  • … endowment of spiritual life’ at some time in the past ( letter from Roland Trimen, 17 and 18 April …
  • … to the white’. Darwin thanked Innes for his ‘pleasant letter’, but asserted his antipathy to human …
  • … myself a good way ahead of you, as far as this goes’ ( letter to J. B. Innes, 29 May [1871] ). …
  • … ‘whereas the baboon is as the Creator made it’ ( letter from George Morrish, 18 March 1871 ). …
  • … could also redeem the wayward author of  Descent  ( letter from a child of God, [after 24 …
  • …  with the most deep and tender religious feeling’ ( letter from F. E. Abbot, 20 August 1871 ). The …
  • … charges of atheism amongst his ‘clerical brethren’ ( letter from George Henslow, 5 December 1871 ) …
  • … from one and the same  catarrhine monkey !’ ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 21 December 1871 ). …
  • … review as ‘a windbag full of metaphysics & classics’ ( letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871] …
  • … law &c’, and transmitted by culture, not biology ( letter from John Morley, 30 March 1871 ). …
  • … dog when it was confronted by the presence of its master. ( Letter from Hensleigh Wedgwood, [3–9 …
  • … sense was especially troubling to Emma, as indicated in a letter that she wrote to Cobbe on 25 …
  • … most vexing critic for Darwin was the zoologist St George Jackson Mivart. An expert on primates and …
  • … George Busk, T. H. Huxley, Osbert Salvin, and William Henry Flower all provided Darwin with …

Descent

Summary

There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … of reading Lyell, Darwin also received a copy of Thomas Henry Huxley’s new publication, Evidence …
  • … so he went back to correspondents like Fritz Müller and Henry Bates. While he was at it, he also …
  • … a barrage of questions from Darwin , the entomologist Henry Stainton not only sent a long reply …
  • … of moths back to Trimen to check the wording.   Henry Bates read a whole packet of manuscript …
  • … to us should so much resemble one ’. Darwin saved the letter to show Henrietta . *** ‘ …
  • … arguments . Misrepresentation of his views by St George Jackson Mivart in particular forced him to …

Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life

Summary

1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time.  And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth.  All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…

Matches: 28 hits

  • … ‘my wife … poor creature, has won only 2490 games’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876 ). …
  • … quantity of work’ left in him for ‘new matter’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). The …
  • … to a reprint of the second edition of Climbing plants ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 23 February …
  • … & I for blundering’, he cheerfully observed to Carus. ( Letter to J. V. Carus, 24 April 1876. …
  • … provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). Revising …
  • … year to write about his life ( Correspondence vol. 23, letter from Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, 20 …
  • … nowadays is evolution and it is the correct one’ ( letter from Nemo, [1876?] ). …
  • … the accusation made by the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart in his Lessons from …
  • … him ‘basely’ and who had succeeded in giving him pain ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876 ). …
  • … disgrace’ of blackballing so distinguished a zoologist ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 January 1876 ) …
  • … must have been cast by the ‘poorest curs in London’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [4 February …
  • … her questions were ‘too silly to deserve an answer’ ( letter from S. B. Herrick, 12 February 1876 …
  • … on Dionaea ‘to test the insect eating theory’ ( letter from Peter Henderson, 15 November 1876 …
  • … sending Darwin small amendments to his results ( letter from Moritz Schiff, 8 May 1876 ). …
  • … to get positive results in this year’s experiments’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [ c . 19 March …
  • … in the Encyclopaedia Britannica the previous year ( letter to G. H. Darwin, [after 4 September …
  • … and to promote work he admired. He was so interested in a letter from Fritz Müller in Brazil …
  • … with the ants that inhabited the trunk that he sent the letter to Nature for publication. ‘It …
  • … communicated this information in an article in Nature ( letter from Johann von Fischer, [before …
  • … phyllotaxis by the mutual pressure of very young buds’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 June [1876] ). …
  • … Scottish shoemaker and ardent naturalist Thomas Edward ( letter from F. M. Balfour, 11 December …
  • … live blood-hound which shall hunt it to the death’ ( letter from James Torbitt, 19 April 1876 …
  • … the public to consider Torbitt an untrustworthy fanatic ( letter to James Torbitt, 21 April 1876 ) …
  • … request, with the ‘awful job’ of informing the author ( letter to G. G. Stokes, 21 April [1876] ). …
  • … thought the paper was ‘not worthy of being read ever’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 28 January 1876 …
  • … to William Thiselton-Dyer on 26 April that Tait’s letter about his ‘accursed paper’ had quite …
  • … my frame of mind’, he told the botanist and entomologist Henry Edwards on 1 March, before going on …
  • … He revelled in the praise heaped on Francis by George Henry Lewes for an article on the snail’s …

Books on the Beagle

Summary

The Beagle was a sort of floating library.  Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.

Matches: 28 hits

  • … Captain FitzRoy in the  Narrative  (2: 18). CD, in his letter to Henslow, 9 [September 1831] , …
  • … . . . There will be  plenty  of room for Books.’ (Letter from Robert FitzRoy, 23 September 1831 …
  • … the ‘immense stock’ which CD mentions may be had from a letter FitzRoy wrote to his sister during an …
  • … on board the  Beagle §  —  mentioned in a letter or other source as being on board …
  • … Naturelle  3 (1834): 84–115. (DAR 37.1: 677v.; letter to J. S. Henslow, 12 July 1835). * …
  • … d’histoire naturelle . 17 vols. Paris, 1822–31. (Letter from J. S. Henslow, 15–21 January [1833]). …
  • … a report of the proceedings . .  . Cambridge, 1833.  (Letter to Charles Whitley, 23 July 1834). …
  • … of the 2d meeting . . . Oxford, 1832 . London, 1833.  (Letter to J. S. Henslow, March 1834 and …
  • … also Hawkesworth, John). (DAR 32.2: 89v.; Robert FitzRoy’s letter to the South African Christian …
  • … 23v., 26). Darwin Library–Down. ‡ De la Beche, Henry Thomas.  A selection of the geological …
  • … 1962, p. 14). Darwin Library–Down. ‡ De la Beche, Henry Thomas.  A geological manual. …
  • … residence in New Zealand in 1827 . . . London, 1832. (Letter to Caroline Darwin, 27 December 1835). …
  • … 33: 254). § Euclid.  Elements of geometry.  (Letter to J. S. Henslow, 30 October 1831). …
  • … The philosophy of zoology . . .  2 vols. Edinburgh, 1822. (Letter from Susan Darwin, 15 October …
  • … to the mountain barometer.  2d ed. London, n.d. [1802]. (Letter to Robert FitzRoy, [10 October 1831 …
  • … de l’ordre des polypiers.  Paris, 1821. (DAR 30.1: 13v.; letter to J. S. Henslow, 24 July – 7 …
  • … Video. Novem r . 1832’; vol. 3 (1833): ‘C. Darwin’; letter to J. S. Henslow, 24 July – 7 November …
  • … of England.  Volume one. London, 1830. (Robert FitzRoy’s letter to the  South African Christian …
  • … ‘A few little books written by Miss Martineau’. (Letter from Caroline Darwin, 28 October [1833]). …
  • … and La Plata . . .  2 vols. London, 1826. (DAR 31.2: 319; letter to Robert Fitzroy, 28 August 1834) …
  • … John.  Paradise lost.  ( ’Beagle’ diary , p. 107; letter to J. S. Henslow, 24 November 1832). …
  • … account of several late voyages.  2 parts. London, 1694. (Letter to J. S. Henslow, 24 July – 7 …
  • … introducton to . . . mineralogy . . .  London, 1816. (Letter from J. S. Henslow, 22 July 1834;  …
  • … the Cambridge Philosophical Society  4 (1833): 209–17. (Letter to J. S. Henslow, 24 July – 7 …
  • … 1803, and 1804 . . .  London, 1805. (Robert FitzRoy’s letter to the  South African Christian …
  • … of the world . . .  Vol. 1. London, 1832. (DAR 30.1: 2v.; letter to J. M. Herbert, 2 June 1833). …
  • … of the voyages . . .  London, 1773. (Robert FitzRoy’s letter to the  South African Christian …
  • … state . . . by a country pastor [R. W.].  London, 1829. (Letter from Caroline Darwin, 28 October …

Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'

Summary

The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…

Matches: 9 hits

  • … Towards the end of 1843, he increasingly hoped that William Jackson Hooker or his son Joseph might …
  • … letters have suffered an even more severe loss. In a letter to Lyell’s sister-in-law, Katharine …
  • … of fact . . . on the origin & variation of species” ( Letter to J. S. Henslow, [November 1839] …
  • … that he had a sound solution to what J. F. W. Herschel in a letter to Lyell had called the ‘mystery …
  • … about searching for evidence to support his hypothesis. In a letter to Lyell, [14] September [1838 …
  • … just the same, though I know what I am looking for' ( Letter to G. R. Waterhouse, [26 July …
  • … there were no doubts as to how one ought to act’ ( Letter from Emma Darwin, [  c.  February 1839] …
  • … for several months (See  Correspondence  vol. 1, letter to Caroline Darwin, 13 October 1834 , …
  • … notebook). See also Allan 1977, pp. 128–30). The letter, on ‘Double flowers’ to the  …