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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: 19 hits

  • The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the
  • in relation to Sex’. Always precise in his accounting, Darwin reckoned that he had started writing
  • gathered on each of these topics was far more extensive than Darwin had anticipated. As a result,  …
  • and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated debates sparked by Darwins proposed election to the French
  • 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] ) …
  • … , the latter when she was just eighteen years of age. Darwin clearly expected her to make a
  • 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
  • throapes & 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 Duchennes 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
  • who sent a sketch of a babys brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). He also wrote to
  • … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
  • including Alexander Agassiz and his family, Anton Dohrn, Albert Günther, Joseph Hooker, Rudolf

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: 22 hits

  • …   On 6 March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any
  • he ought to do what I am doing pester them with letters.’ Darwin was certainly true to his word. The
  • and sexual selection. In  Origin , pp. 8790, Darwin had briefly introduced the concept of
  • in satisfying female preference in the mating process. In a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace in 1864, …
  • to the stridulation of crickets. At the same time, Darwin continued to collect material on
  • his immediate circle of friends and relations. In July 1868 Darwin was still anticipating that his
  • which was devoted to sexual selection in the animal kingdom. Darwin described his thirst for
  • Murray to intervene, complaining on 9 January , ‘M r . Dallasdelayis intolerableI am
  • would be a great loss to the Book’. But Darwins 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] ). …
  • reviews. On 7 August 1868 , he wrote him a lengthy letter from the Isle of Wight on the formation
  • it was by Gray himself, but Darwin corrected him: ‘D r  Gray would strike me in the face, but not
  • … . It is a disgrace to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was
  • April 1868 . The letter was addressed tothe Rev d  C. Darwin M.d’; Binstead evidently assumed
  • I did not see this, or rather I saw it only obs[c]urely, & have kept only a few references.’ …
  • as life he wd find the odour sexual!’ ( letter to A . R. Wallace, 16 September [1868] ). Francis
  • south of France to Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood on 9 Novembe r, describing sphinx moths that were
  • question of theOrigin of Species”’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 4 October 1868 ). …
  • hands of the enemies of Nat. Selection’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 8 [April] 1868 ). …
  • of her two-month old daughter Katherine ( letter from C. M. Hawkshaw to Emma Darwin, 9 February
  • rest mostly on faith, and on accumulation of adaptations, &c) … Of course I understand your

Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts

Summary

At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of  Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…

Matches: 27 hits

  • At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of  …
  • appeared at the end of 1866 and had told his cousin William Darwin Fox, ‘My work will have to stop a
  • … & I am sick of correcting’ ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to W. D. Fox, 12 December [1868
  • Well it is a beginning, & that is something’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869] ). …
  • material on emotional expression. Yet the scope of Darwins interests remained extremely broad, and
  • plants, and earthworms, subjects that had exercised Darwin for decades, and that would continue to
  • Carl von  Nägeli and perfectibility Darwins most substantial addition to  Origin  was a
  • a Swiss botanist and professor at Munich (Nägeli 1865). Darwin had considered Nägelis paper
  • principal engine of change in the development of species. Darwin correctly assessed Nägelis theory
  • in most morphological features (Nägeli 1865, p. 29). Darwin sent a manuscript of his response (now
  • made any blunders, as is very likely to be the case’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). …
  • are & must be morphological’. The comment highlights Darwins apparent confusion about Nägelis
  • than I now see is possible or probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , …
  • is strengthened by the facts in distribution’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Darwin
  • tropical species using Crolls theory. In the same letter to Croll, Darwin had expressed
  • a very long period  before  the Cambrian formation’ ( letter to James Croll31 January [1869] …
  • data to go by, but dont think we have got that yet’ ( letter from James Croll, 4 February 1869 ). …
  • garden ( letter from Frederick Smith, 8 October 1869 ). Albert Günther, assistant in the zoology
  • of information which I have sent prove of any service to M r . Darwin I can supply him with much
  • … & proximate cause in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ).  More
  • and the bird of paradise  (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and
  • an injustice & never demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). …
  • species that Darwin had investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a
  • genus that he had studied in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This
  • Sweetland Dallass edition of Fritz Müllers  Für Darwin  (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an
  • creation, if he is not completely staggered after reading y r  essay’. The work received a
  • whole meeting was decidedly Huxleys answer to D r  M c Cann. He literally poured boiling oil

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: 26 hits

  • The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the publication of his
  • book out of my head’. But  a large proportion of Darwins time for the rest of the year was devoted
  • way, and the initial reception of the book in the press. Darwin fielded numerous letters from
  • offered sharp criticism or even condemnation. Darwin had expected controversy. ‘I shall be
  • a bare-faced manner.”‘ The most lively debate centred on Darwins evolutionary account of the
  • taste. Correspondence with his readers and critics helped Darwin to clarify, and in some cases
  • year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression. Darwin continued to investigate the
  • also brought a significant milestone for the family, as Darwins eldest daughter Henrietta was
  • during several past years, has been a great amusement’. Darwin had been working fairly continuously
  • 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 OldhamThey club together to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). …
  • ones 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-powerand 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 ). …
  • is a thing which I sh d  feel very proud of, if anyone c d . say of me.’ After the publication
  • was achieved throughthe medium of opinion, positive law &c’, and transmitted by culture, not
  • criticisms. Alexander Agassiz, Abraham Dee Bartlett, Albert Günther, George Busk, T. H. Huxley, …
  • in the world except. laughing. crying grinning pouting &c. &c’, he wrote to Hooker on 21
  • so giddy I can hardly sit up, so no more’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 4 August [1871] ). On 23
  • annually on an acre of land at 16 tons (letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [20 November 1871] ). He also
  • … ( letter to Asa Gray, 16 July [1871] , letter to S. R. S. Norton, 23 November [1871] ). …