To Albany Hancock 30 March [1853]
Summary
Thanks AH for assistance. Compares Alcippe to South American boring cirripedes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Albany Hancock |
| Date: | 30 Mar [1853] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1509 |
From A. D. Bartlett 19 September 1871
Summary
Geese do not commonly sift water through their bills for food, as they feed on land. A few have well-developed lamellae for sifting. Will have his son check at Zoological Garden.
| Author: | Abraham Dee Bartlett |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 48 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7951 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … commonly sift water through their bills for food, as they feed on land. A few have well- …
From J. D. Hooker [23 March 1862]
Summary
Lighthearted thoughts on "the development of an Aristocracy" after a visit to Walcot Hall, Shropshire.
On CD’s point about the effect of changed conditions on the reproductive organs, JDH does not see why this is not "itself a variation, not necessarily induced by domestication, but accompanying some variety artificially selected".
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [23 Mar 1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 27–9; American Philosophical Society Library (Hooker papers, B/H76.2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3480 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … considering all things & came away with food for much reflection. I could not make up my …
- … such Nat: selection of flunkies)—the food good & plenty. The country beautiful—the weather …
- … to go to such places rarely, gives one much food for reflection & will add a chapter to my …
- … 2–3 times a day & very regular nutritious food— I do not give much for Hollands opinion. …
From W. H. Flower 12 October 1871
Summary
On structure and function of the cetacean larynx.
| Author: | William Henry Flower |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 139 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8005 |
From S. W. Moore [1 October 1873]
Summary
Information for CD’s use in investigating digestion by Drosera.
| Author: | Samuel William Moore |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1 Oct 1873] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9082 |
From B. J. Sulivan 11 March 1871
Summary
Recounts case of parrot whose talking seems to show "power of connecting definite sounds with definite ideas" [see Descent, 2d ed., p. 85 n.].
Has not seen CD’s daughter yet. Hopes the fine weather will continue while she is there [in Bournemouth].
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Mar 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 87: 96–100, DAR 177: 296 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7571 |
From R. E. Alison 25 June 1835
Summary
Gives details of his observations which lend support to the view that Chile is rising with respect to the sea. Reports some observations and opinions with regard to earthquakes and volcanic action in the area.
| Author: | Robert Edward Alison |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 June 1835 |
| Classmark: | DAR 36: 427–427a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-277 |
From Thomas Rivers [3 February 1863]
Summary
His observations of "selection" in growth of seedling trees.
| Author: | Thomas Rivers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [3 Feb 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 46.1: 95 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3965 |
From F. W. Smartt to Willie[?] 3 January 1873
Summary
Reports the case of an idiot in his care who apparently chews his cud.
| Author: | Francis William Smartt |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 3 Jan 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 181 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8721 |
From Francis Darwin [1 May 1876]
Summary
Good news about Frankland. Expecting burnt earth. Almost finished the Foodbodies Paper on Acacia. He and Amy are learning to use the new printing machine.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1 May 1876] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 24 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10488F |
From W. W. Reade 21 February 1871
Summary
Various comments on Descent;
on suicide on Gold Coast;
on mulattoes’ not being prolific.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Feb 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 89: 172–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7501 |
From J. V. Carus 2 February 1869
Summary
Sends translation of Mr Steiger’s letter responding to question CD had asked about growth of horns of merino rams.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Feb 1869 |
| Classmark: | DAR 86: A45; DAR 161: 69 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6592 |
To John Price 26 [August 1854]
Summary
Discusses specimen of Balanus crenatus.
Sorry JP’s children are ill.
Will come to Liverpool if well [for meeting of BAAS].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Price |
| Date: | 26 [Aug 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 272 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1582 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … these regions ‘ as a delicious article of food’. ( Living Cirripedia (1854): 208, 209). …
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [late August 1843]
Summary
Sends some examples of Gentiana that he thinks may shed light on the origin of double flowers. Since specimens grew in sterile soil their double flowering cannot be attributed to excess food. CD advances the hypothesis that some change in natural conditions causes sterility, which then causes compensatory development of petals, the organs closest in morphology to those whose functions have been checked.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
| Date: | [late Aug 1843] |
| Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 36, 9 September 1843, p. 628 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-693 |
From Valentin Salzmann 18 November 1873
Summary
Discusses human reactions to pleasant and unpleasant tastes; considers that modifications of these reactions produce several identifiable expressions of general like and dislike.
| Author: | Karl Ludwig Valentin (Valentin) Salzmann |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Nov 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 26 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9153 |
From J. D. Hooker 26 [and 27] March 1867
Summary
Will be glad to have seeds of plants and CD’s climbing plant, which he has no doubt is Siphocampylus.
Anxious about his baby [Reginald Hooker].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 and 27 Mar 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 154–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5461 |
From T. N. Staley 25 February [1874]
Summary
Introduction of tropical fruits in Hawaiian Islands.
| Author: | Thomas Nettleship Staley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Feb [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 89: 195–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9314 |
To Susan Darwin 3 [September] 1835
Summary
Living quietly on the ship and eating good food has been good for him. He longs for home. Peru is in a miserable state.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Susan Elizabeth Darwin |
| Date: | 3 [Sept] 1835 |
| Classmark: | DAR 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-286 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Living quietly on the ship and eating good food has been good for him. He longs for home. …
From Alexander Wallace 28 February 1868
Summary
Proportion of sexes in insects, captured and bred. [see Descent 1: 313.]
| Author: | Alexander Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B41–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5953 |
From James Torbitt 11 December 1880
Summary
Thinks his private notes failed to convey his ideas. JT wanted CD "to look at the product and express an opinion as to its value".
| Author: | James Torbitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Dec 1880 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 169 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12905 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … a secret process that related to waste food use (see letter to James Torbitt, 29 October …
| letter | (420) |
| bibliography | (11) |
| people | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (120) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
| Darwin, Francis | (10) |
| Müller, Fritz | (8) |
| Blyth, Edward | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (287) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (14) |
| Farrer, T. H. | (6) |
| Gray, Asa | (5) |
| Lyell, Charles | (5) |
| 1831 | (1) |
| 1832 | (2) |
| 1833 | (1) |
| 1835 | (6) |
| 1836 | (2) |
| 1838 | (1) |
| 1839 | (1) |
| 1840 | (2) |
| 1842 | (3) |
| 1843 | (2) |
| 1844 | (2) |
| 1845 | (1) |
| 1846 | (1) |
| 1847 | (1) |
| 1848 | (1) |
| 1849 | (3) |
| 1850 | (1) |
| 1851 | (4) |
| 1853 | (1) |
| 1854 | (3) |
| 1855 | (7) |
| 1856 | (8) |
| 1857 | (3) |
| 1858 | (5) |
| 1859 | (3) |
| 1860 | (17) |
| 1861 | (6) |
| 1862 | (18) |
| 1863 | (11) |
| 1864 | (8) |
| 1865 | (1) |
| 1866 | (7) |
| 1867 | (16) |
| 1868 | (31) |
| 1869 | (14) |
| 1870 | (8) |
| 1871 | (35) |
| 1872 | (18) |
| 1873 | (31) |
| 1874 | (26) |
| 1875 | (14) |
| 1876 | (20) |
| 1877 | (15) |
| 1878 | (14) |
| 1879 | (6) |
| 1880 | (16) |
| 1881 | (20) |
| 1882 | (3) |
Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
Matches: 26 hits
- … that of their infant offspring. The possibility of procuring food during the least favourable …
- … supposing them not to die either by violence or want of food. Yet at this rate how tremendous would …
- … broods are superfluous. On the average all above one become food for hawks and kites, wild cats and …
- … much less plentiful? The explanation is not difficult. The food most congenial to this species, and …
- … of the district it inhabits, and as soon as the supply of food begins to fail in one place is able …
- … shows us that the procuring a constant supply of wholesome food is almost the sole condition …
- … peculiar circumstances so strikingly combined. Either their food is more liable to failure, or they …
- … in offspring, they can never increase beyond the supply of food in the least favourable seasons. …
- … deficient in a constant and abundant supply of wholesome food. Those whose organization does not …
- … sparrow is more abundant than the redbreast, because its food is more constant and plentiful,—seeds …
- … than others, generally the contrary; but because their food never fails, the sea-shores and river …
- … The only intelligible answer is, that their supply of food is more precarious. It appears evident, …
- … one species does so, some others requiring the same kind of food must diminish in proportion. The …
- … in health and vigour—those who are best able to obtain food regularly, and avoid their numerous …
- … those which are best adapted to obtain a regular supply of food, and to defend themselves against …
- … are the least capable of counteracting the vicissitudes of food, supply, &c., must diminish in …
- … stationary, being kept down by a periodical deficiency of food, and other checks ; and, 2nd, that …
- … rendering it more difficult to procure a regular supply of food and to provide for their personal …
- … organs, would more or less affect their mode of procuring food or the range of country which they …
- … be affected in its powers of procuring a regular supply of food; and in both cases the result must …
- … follow as surely as old age, intemperance, or scarcity of food produce an increased mortality. In …
- … has to search, and often to labour, for every mouthful of food—to exercise sight, hearing, and smell …
- … exercise. The domestic animal, on the other hand, has food provided for it, is sheltered, and often …
- … strengthened by exercise, and must even slightly modify the food, the habits, and the whole economy …
- … proportioned to each other as to be best adapted to procure food and secure safety,—that in which by …
- … shorter-necked companions, and on the first scarcity of food were thereby enabled to outlive them . …
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Owen thought it ‘ as full of good original wholesome food as an egg ’; William Henry Fitton …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
Summary
Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it’s hard to choose from many letters that stand out, but one of this editor’s favourites, that always brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5…
Matches: 1 hits
- … caterpillars from eggs of butterflies and to find suitable food plants for different species. Based …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 10 hits
- … tinder domestication is somehow connected with excess of food. He regards the unknown cause as …
- … of udder, stands of course in obvious relation to supply of food. Really, we no more know the …
- … Nature bright with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we do not see, or we forget, that …
- … beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind that, though food may be now superabundant, it is not …
- … in the world.’—(p. 68.) ‘The amount of food gives the extreme limit to which each …
- … but, in so far as climate chiefly acts in reducing food, it brings on the most severe struggle …
- … or of distinct species, which subsist on the same kind of food, Even when climate, for instance …
- … from enemies or from competitors for the same place and food; and if these enemies or competitors be …
- … ponds of fresh water. Farmers find that they can raise most food by a rotation of plants belonging …
- … that season of the year when the wolf is hardest pressed for food. I can under such circumstances …
Essay: Design versus necessity
Summary
—by Asa Gray DESIGN VERSUS NECESSITY.—DISCUSSION BETWEEN TWO READERS OF DARWIN’S TREATISE ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, UPON ITS NATURAL THEOLOGY. (American Journal of Science and Arts, September, 1860) D.T.—Is Darwin’s theory atheistic or pantheistic…
Matches: 3 hits
Plant or animal? (Or: Don’t try this at home!)
Summary
Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in particular, his real passion was something even more ambitious: to show that there are no hard-and-fast boundaries between animals and plants. In 1875 Darwin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … on the streets of London.* As a subject it had everything: food, murder, and fatal attraction. …
Darwin and barnacles
Summary
In a letter to Henslow in March 1835 Darwin remarked that he had done ‘very little’ in zoology; the ‘only two novelties’ he added, almost as an afterthought, were a new mollusc and a ‘genus in the family Balanidæ’ – a barnacle – but it was an oddity. Who,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … three pairs of cirri – frond-like limbs used for gathering food – instead of six, and, observing its …
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and, frequently, food. After teaching Covington to …
Vivisection: draft petition
Summary
The Petition of Humbly Sheweth That your petitioners are persons engaged in the study of the Biological Sciences [‘& their application to medicine’ del]. That the art of preventing & curing disease is based upon a knowledge of the nature …
Matches: 1 hits
- … to kill’ del ] *the killing of [ interl ] animals for food and their employment [ above del …
George Keen
Summary
George Keen (1794–1884) was born in England. He had arrived in Buenos Aires by 1820, making him one of the earliest settlers from Britain. In 1821 he married Mary Yates (1802/3–72), the sister of John, William and Elizabeth Yates, another family of early…
Matches: 1 hits
- … salted and dispatched to Brazil and Cuba as ‘tasajo’, food for slaves. However, this trade was in …
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: 6 hits
- … Wilde in Dublin University Magazine early month of 1854 on food of Irish. ( Pig ) [Wilde] 1854] …
- … Cage birds: their natural history, management, habits, food, diseases, treatment, breeding, and …
- … true law of population shewn to be connected with the food of the people . London. [Other eds.] …
- … situation, nature of country, population, nature of food, and way of life on the disposition and …
- … 119: 20a ——. 1852. Report on substances used as food. In Exhibition of the works of …
- … 119: 10a [Wilde, William Robert Wills]. 1854. The food of the Irish. Chapter 1: the potato. …
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).…
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … is very shy, but is easily allured by the sight & smell of food; she speaks only in inarticulate …
Thomas Rivers
Summary
Rivers and Darwin exchanged around 30 letters, most in 1863 when Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript of Variation of plants and animals under domestication, the lengthy and detailed sequel to Origin of species. Rivers, an experienced plant breeder…
Matches: 1 hits
- … near a large nursery & your mind would find abundance of food”, Rivers wrote ( [3 February 1863 …
Essay: Evolutionary teleology
Summary
—by Asa Gray EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY When Cuvier spoke of the ‘combination of organs in such order that they may be in consistence with the part which the animal has to play in Nature,’ his opponent, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, rejoined, ‘I know nothing of…
Matches: 3 hits
- … grade. Granting that quite possibly the capture of flies for food by Dionaea and the sundews may …
- … species among each other for the ground they occupy, or the food they seek, will bring out and …
- … on the other, by the direct difference in the supply of food and moisture, light and heat. Here the …
British Association meeting 1860
Summary
Several letters refer to events at the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Oxford, 26 June – 3 July 1860. Darwin had planned to attend the meeting but in the end was unable to. The most famous incident of the meeting was the verbal…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of playing with a hammer; but although he liked oysters as food, he never could teach him to break …
Darwin in Conversation exhibition
Summary
Meet Charles Darwin as you have never met him before. Come to our exhibition at Cambridge University Library, running from 9 July to 3 December 2022, and discover a fascinating series of interwoven conversations with Darwin's many hundreds of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 9 July – 3 December 2022 Milstein Exhibition Centre, Cambridge University …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat and the …
Darwin and Design
Summary
At the beginning of the nineteenth century in Britain, religion and the sciences were generally thought to be in harmony. The study of God’s word in the Bible, and of his works in nature, were considered to be part of the same truth. One version of this…
Matches: 1 hits
- … for such powers. Its main occupation was digging roots for food, and it could demolish any predator …
