DCP-LETT-2501F
Summary
Cancelled: Known only from reference in letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859]
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [4 October 1859] |
Classmark: | |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501F |
From Charles Lyell 15 March 1863
Summary
Lyell has received compliments for letting readers draw own inferences [on species question]. Now feels he earlier did Lamarck injustice. [CD’s] substitution of variety-making power for volition [as in Lamarck] in some respects only a change of names.
Thinks Huxley taking on too many responsibilities.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 Mar 1863 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 364–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4041 |
Matches: 10 hits
- … was omitted from the transcription. See also letter to Charles Lyell, 17 March [1863] . …
- … Russian rule in 1863 ( EB ). See letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] . Lyell …
- … 5 March [1863] and n. 19, and letters to Charles Lyell , 6 March [1863] and 12–13 March [ …
- … see also Appendix VII. See letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] , n. 9. In C. …
- … February 1863] and n. 6. See also letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] . T. H. …
- … see letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] ). CD wrote a letter to Hooker on 13 [ …
- … Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] ; see also n. 15, below, and Correspondence vol. 3, letter …
- … letter will not task you too much; when I sit down to write to you, I can never stop. Hooker, not having heard from you, is growing anxious, and hopes it is because you are corresponding with me and not because of serious ill-health. Ever affectionately yours, | Charles Lyell. …
- … Lyell of 12–13 March [1863] , CD offered suggestions regarding the text of Antiquity of man ( C. Lyell 1863a ), particularly with respect to Lyell’s treatment of natural selection. Joseph Dalton Hooker had sent Lyell a ‘ deflagrating … yarn’, concerning his failure publicly to endorse natural selection in the book (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 March 1863] ). See letter from Charles …
- … Lyell reported that 5000 copies had been sold (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 375). A third edition was published in November 1863, and a fourth in 1874. Some of the changes in the second and third editions are detailed in Grayson 1985 . The references are to William Robert Grove and Lamarck 1809 (see letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 10 March 1866
Summary
Comments on cool-period MS. Still believes geographical changes principal cause of former changes of climate.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Mar 1866 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 408–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5031 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … in the Organ Mountains of Brazil (see letter to Charles Lyell, 7 February [1866] ). In the …
- … of former climate change (see letter to Charles Lyell, 8 March [1866] and nn. 6 and 7). …
- … C. J. F. Bunbury to Charles Lyell , 3 February 1866 and 20 February 1866, the letters …
- … of Origin (see letter to Charles Lyell, 8 March [1866] and nn. 8 and 9; see also letter …
- … Charles Lyell , 7 February [1866] , 15 February [1866] , and 22 February [1866] , and the letter …
- … Charles Lyell, [3 March 1866] and n. 6). Lyell refers to notes for additions to the fourth edition of Origin (see n. 1, above). Lyell refers to the letters …
- … Lyell Hooker’s letter of 9 November 1856 ( Correspondence vol. 6) with the manuscript of chapter 11 of his ‘big book’ on species (see n. 1, above). The publication of Origin was precipitated by a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace to CD containing Wallace’s manuscript ‘On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type’. See Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 4 October 1859
Summary
Response to Origin. Praise for summary of chapter 10 and chapter 11.
The dissimilarity of African and American species is ‘necessary result of “Creation” adapting new species to the pre-existing ones. Granting this unknown & if you please miraculous power acting’.
C. T. Gaudin writes of Oswald Heer’s finding many species common between Miocene floras of Iceland and Switzerland. Interesting for CD’s migration theory.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 170: 81; The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Notebook 241, pp. 75–90) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3132 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . On Agassiz’s …
- … see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . In his discussion …
- … selected’ ( Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] ). See also …
- … vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 30 September [1859] , and letter from Charles Lyell, 3 …
- … CD’s response to Lyell, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [ …
- … Santo, citing Lyell. For CD’s response, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
- … Lyell’s manoeuvrings on the question of progression and transmutation, see Bartholomew 1973 . Lyell refers to a letter from Charles …
- … Lyell, 11 October [1859] . The reference has not been identified. CD replied: ‘I believe os coccyx gives attachment to certain muscles, but I cannot doubt that it is a rudimentary tail’ ( Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
- … Lyell asked, ‘Why have the majority of existing creatures remained stationary throughout this long succession of epochs, while others have made such prodigious advances? ’ ( ibid. , p. 574). For CD’s response, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 18 September 1860
Summary
It is strange that Agassiz, who is for the "sanctity of species", should favour Pallas’s view of hybrid origin of domestic dog.
CL has not meant to advocate successive creation of types but to question assumption that all mammals descended from single stock. Why should a Triassic reptile or bird not move towards mammalian form because an ancestral marsupial has appeared? Believes recent appearance of rodents and bats in Australia explains their lack of development.
Can CD supply a reference on plant extinction on St Helena?
Believes marsupials better adapted for surviving drought in Australia than higher mammals.
Will not press argument about lack of development of mammalian forms on islands, but CD should note objection.
Does CD’s belief in multiple origin of dogs affect faith in single primates in different regions?
Does time lapse between putative independently descended mammalian forms mean first form will "keep down" later incipient one? Thus Homo sapiens has prevented improvement of other anthropomorphs; bats and rodents on islands would prevent improvement of lower forms into mammalian.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Sept 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 187–95d) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2920C |
Matches: 5 hits
- … found. It is not discussed in the letter to Charles Lyell, 12 September [1860] . Louis …
- … See Correspondence vol. 7, letters to Charles Lyell , 25 October [1859] and 31 [October …
- … on this point, and Lyell’s response in the letter from Charles Lyell, 25 September 1860 . …
- … Charles Lyell, 11 August [1860] , in which CD offered to send Lyell his manuscript on the origin of domestic dogs. A further letter, …
- … Lyell apparently refers to Owen’s lowest division, the Lyencephala, which included the monotremes and marsupials predominantly found in Australia. See R. Owen 1859a , pp. 24–6, 33. R. Owen 1846a , p. 197. Lyell refers to Göppert 1842 . See the letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 21 November 1859
Summary
Questions CD’s view in Origin that domestic dogs are not descended from a single stock. Occasional crossings of domestic stock with wild species could explain cases of reversion towards wild specific forms. CD’s views on hybridity do not then have to be contradicted in constructing an ancestral stock.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Nov 1859 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/4: 195–7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2540A |
From Charles Lyell 6 October 1860
Summary
Wonders why the coracoid bone in the flightless Apteryx is so large when the clavicles are reduced. The clavicles are even separate in the ostrich. The large coracoid in reptiles is explained by the connection to the forelimbs.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 Oct 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 22) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2940A |
From Charles Lyell [after 3 October 1860]
Summary
CD would have carried the public more if he had explained adaptations by multiple causes, some unknown and some well known, i.e., natural selection.
Discusses Hooker’s views of extinction on St Helena.
Work on antiquity of man suspended.
Stopped by 11th edition of Principles of geology [1872].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [after 3 Oct 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 397 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2937 |
From Charles Lyell 20 August 1862
Summary
Jamieson has revisited Glen Roy and confirmed his theory of glacier lakes.
A. G. More considers CD the most profound of reasoners.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Aug 1862 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 358; The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/B9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3691 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to Charles Lyell, 6 September [1861] ), subsequent …
- … see Correspondence vol. 10, enclosure to letter to Charles Lyell, 14 October [1862] ). In …
- … Lyell’s Principles of geology ( C. Lyell 1830–3 , 3: 140): ‘the longevity of species in the mammalia is, upon the whole, inferior to that of the testacea. … Their more limited duration depends, in all probability, on physiological laws which render warm-blooded quadrupeds less capable, in general, of accommodating themselves to a great variety of circumstances, and consequently, of surviving the vicissitudes to which the earth’s surface is exposed in a great lapse of ages. ’ See also Correspondence vol. 10, letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell [22 November 1859]
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [22 Nov 1859] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.11: 139 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2551 |
From Charles Lyell 11 March 1863
Summary
Defends position he takes on species [in Antiquity of man]. CD overestimates CL’s capacity to influence public. Will not dogmatise on descent of man; prepared to accept it, but it "takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past". Cannot go to Huxley’s length with regard to natural selection. Responds to CD’s comments on Antiquity of man.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Mar 1863 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 362–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4035 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … matters to which CD responded (see letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] and nn. …
- … See n. 1, above. See also letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 20. See letter …
- … See letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 43. In a letter to J. D. Hooker of …
- … Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 25. The reference is to Andrew Crombie Ramsay . In a letter …
- … Lyell 1863a in the Saturday Review , 7 March 1863, p. 311, stated that, strictly speaking, the work was ‘a trilogy, the constituent elements of which should be headed respectively, Prehistoric Man, Ice, and Darwin. ’ CD was ‘greatly disappointed’ that Lyell had not written more positively in support of the transmutation of species in Antiquity of man ( C. Lyell 1863a ; see letter to Charles …
- … Lyell relied heavily on quotations from other authors, leaving his own position on the subject unclear. See also n. 2, above. Adam Sedgwick , one of CD’s former mentors, was critical of Origin (see Correspondence vol. 7, letter from Adam Sedgwick, 24 November 1859 ). The orientalist John Crawfurd , to whom CD sent a presentation copy of Origin , published one of the first negative reviews of the book ( [Crawfurd] 1859 ; see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 3 October 1859
Summary
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: B1–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 , and letter …
- … reaction to Lyell’s point is not known, but see the letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [ …
- … to Charles Lyell, 3 May [1856] ). For Lyell’s interest in CD’s pigeon work, see letter …
- … Charles Lyell , 2 September [1859] , and to John Murray , 2 September [1859]). In 1856, Lyell had encouraged CD to publish his species theory (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
From Charles Lyell 19 June 1860
Summary
Sees Huxley’s deification of matter and force as a reaction to the way Paley likened the "Unknown Cause" to the mind of man so that new causes could be introduced. If you wish to retain free will which is inconsistent with constant law, Paley’s position is better. Free will is a recently introduced cause on our planet. It cannot be fully attributed to secondary causes.
What CD says about the variation in gestation of the hound is remarkable.
The astonishing fertile rabbit–hare hybrids encourage belief in Pallas’s theory of the multiple origin of dogs.
Does the regularity of gestation in man indicate a common stock?
Hooker’s observation of absence of forms peculiar to extra-Arctic Greenland indicates that the time since the beginning of the glacial period is brief in geological terms.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 June 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 117–23) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2837A |
From Charles Lyell 25 September 1860
Summary
Returns "excellent" MS in which CD favours hybrid origin of domestic dog, which CL believes strengthens case for common progenitor of wild species.
Doubts CD’s authorities for antiquity of dingo.
Variation will raise many points for investigation.
"Leporine" hare–rabbit hybrid should be investigated.
Has re-read passages in Origin that CD suggested.
Annals of Natural History would probably reprint Gray’s review of Origin at their own expense.
CD’s thought that modern reptiles could not develop into existing Mammalia but only into another high form is a "grand notion" compatible with "the infinite capacity of the creative power".
Comments on New Guinea marsupials.
Still thinks that the Australian genera and species are so well fitted for extraordinary droughts that they would get the better of the dingo.
Suggests that once there were more races of man, though from common stock. Competition and then hybridity checked divergence.
Falconer’s views on elephant classification. CL attaches little value to Falconer’s objection that mastodons and elephants do not come in chronologically, as they should in CD’s view.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Sept 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 3–12) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2927A |
Matches: 6 hits
- … to Lyell ( Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 25 October [1859] ): He …
- … CUL). Selwyn 1858 and 1860. See letter to Charles Lyell, 23 [September 1860] . Lyell …
- … of Malta. ’ (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 339). See also letter to Charles Lyell, 28 [ …
- … Charles Lyell, 11 August [1860] . CD described the ‘doctrine’ of Pyotr Simon Pallas concerning the origin of domestic breeds of dogs in a previous letter …
- … Lyell evidently considered this to have been a corrected reprint and rather refers to the major alterations that CD was intending to incorporate into the third edition of Origin , published in 1861. Lyell refers to the supposed hybrid between a hare and a rabbit said to have been bred in Angoulême, France. See letter to Charles …
- … Lyell had seen the so-called leporines at the gardens early in July 1860 (Wilson ed. 1970, p. 465). Bartlett conducted many breeding experiments for CD at the gardens, but an account of this particular cross has not been located in the Darwin Archive. CD was preparing the first part ( Variation ) of a substantial work, in which he planned to provide all the details and citations he had been unable to include in Origin . See letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 6 and 8 September 1838
Summary
Would like to talk over Salisbury Craigs with CD.
CL’s father enthusiastic over Journal of researches.
Comments on Élie de Beaumont’s theory of mountain elevation.
Asks about parallel lines of upheaval and depression in the Pacific.
Glad CD likes Athenaeum Club.
Comments on methods of work.
Invites CD to visit Kinnordy.
Defends BAAS: "in this country no importance is attached to any body of men who do not make occasional demonstrations of their strength in public meetings".
With respect to Glen Roy, notes existence of deposits destitute of shells.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 and 8 Sept 1838 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell 1881 2: 43 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-425 |
From Charles Lyell [c. 16 July 1841]
Summary
Regrets not seeing CD before leaving on trip [to the U. S.]. CD’s move from London will be a privation for CL.
Returns charts on coral reefs.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 16 July 1841] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A1–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-604 |
From Charles Lyell 22 October 1859
Summary
Wishes CD would enlarge on the doctrines of [Pyotr Simon] Pallas about the various races of dogs having come from several distinct wild species or sub-species.
Suggests organisms have a latent principle of improvement which is brought out by selection or breeding.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A1/242: 15–24) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2508F |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Lyell’s related queries in the letter from Charles Lyell, 4 October 1859 (this volume, …
- … vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] ). These letters are part of CD and …
- … Lyell refers to Georges Cuvier . In Le règne animal ( Cuvier 1817 ), Cuvier gives the gestational period of dogs ( ibid , p. 153), but not that of wolves. Lyell refers to Joseph Dalton Hooker . See Origin , pp. 365–82. See Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell [28–31 March 1862]
Summary
Suggests that the height of the water which formed the shelves in Glen Roy was determined not by the height of the blocking glacier but by the height of a col. Notes problems in the idea.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [28–31 Mar 1862] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.274) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3463 |
From Charles Lyell 16 January 1865
Summary
His view of Origin.
Belief of Duke of Argyll that substituting "variation" and "selection" for creation deifies them.
Thinks Argyll would accept evolution except for man.
A’s view of humming-birds.
Describes discussion with [Victoria,] Princess Royal of Prussia, about evolution.
New edition of Elements consistent with Origin.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 Jan 1865 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 384–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4746 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] , letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] , and letter from …
- … 1866 , and first enclosure to letter from Charles Lyell to J. D. Hooker, [31 May 1865] …
- … Lyell 1867–8 , 2: 492). In previous editions, Lyell had argued against the transmutation of species (see, for example, C. Lyell 1853 , p. 585). See letter to Charles …
From Charles Lyell 8 September 1860
Summary
Believes CD’s argument against special creation based on absence of terrestrial mammals on islands isolated before Pliocene era is very strong. However, the absence means Cetacea and bats have not modified towards terrestrial existence. There is similar lack of development of bats and rodents in Australia. Constancy among land shells of Madeira over long period shows that the majority of their species are immutable: a minority of "metamorphic" species maintains the overall number of true species while extinction removes many. Emphasis on the role of extinction discomfits CD’s opponents since the power of generation of new species ought to keep pace. Mentions Ammonite deposits with reference to CD’s comments on their apparent sudden extinction [Origin, pp. 321–2]. Perhaps absence of transmutation on slowly subsiding atolls indicates the slow rate of selective change.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Sept 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 179–86) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2908A |
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 …