From W. G. Walker 6 December 1874
Author: | William Gregory Walker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 Dec 1874 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9745 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … On voluntary vomiting. Dogs re-swallow vomited food. …
- … remarked that bitches often vomited up food for their young when the young had reached a …
- … returning like a dog to his vomit’. If the food is, or is supposed to be, injurious,— …
- … some other animals) of voluntarily rejecting food which disagreed with them or which they …
- … unwholesome load. But when they have rejected food in this manner, they shortly afterwards …
From James Dickson 14 December 1872
Summary
Sends CD the case of a man he knew who could reject food voluntarily, in substantiation of the passage in Expression [p. 259] in which CD says "the suspicion arises that our progenitors must formerly have had [this] power".
Author: | James Dickson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Dec 1872 |
Classmark: | DAR 162: 179 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8680 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … possessed the power of voluntarily rejecting food. You have this on the authority of | …
- … case of a man he knew who could reject food voluntarily, in substantiation of the passage …
- … have had the power of voluntarily rejecting food which disagreed with them. ” Your use of …
- … objection being that of parting with the food. On one occasion he was with us in a search …
- … for vomit , and the action in question) food because it disagreed with him, but I have …
From Horatio Piggot 13 September 1877
Summary
Criticises passages of Insectivorous plants. Suggests plants be weighed before and after feeding to prove they have gained nourishment.
Author: | Horatio Piggot |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 13 Sept 1877 |
Classmark: | DAR 174: 44 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11138 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … experiments in feeding the Drosera with Fly food &c require something more to be done to …
- … for this purpose the weight of the plant & the food before & after experiment should …
- … be carefully ascertained, & where mineral food has been taken, the residue of the plant …
- … to find out that they can feed on Animal food: The experiment with Carbonates was hardly …
- … for vegetables as they never take their food in that form. The Secretion of a viscid fluid …
- … the plant would indicate growth from the Fly food: I do not know of what compound a fly is …
- … the ordinary pursuit of plants, obtaining their food externally from Carbon Dioxide in the …
From Arthur Nicols [before 20 March 1873]
Summary
Compares sense of smell in dogs and cats.
Author: | Robert Arthur (Arthur) Nicols |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 20 Mar 1873] |
Classmark: | Nicols 1885, pp. 51–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8817F |
Matches: 5 hits
- … cat was quite familiar with me, and had been kept a long time without food intentionally. …
- … I used fish because it was a food to which she was accustomed, and calculated to emit …
- … me with the conviction that cats discover food by smell with very indifferent success; …
- … cats often seem to experience in finding food thrown down to them, unless they see it …
- … other in the manner of searching for the food. The dog went to work with confidence, and, …
From Francis Darwin [before 21 May 1877]
Summary
Edwin Ray Lankester wants to reprint FD’s paper ‘Food bodies’ in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.
Author: | Francis Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 21 May 1877] |
Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 22 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10520F |
From Francis Darwin [before 22 August 1872]
Summary
Sutton says monkeys often vomit, but cannot say whether they do it voluntarily.
Author: | Francis Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 22 Aug 1872] |
Classmark: | DAR 195.3: 67 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5556 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … power of voluntarily throwing up of’] what food to avoid there would be less occasion * …
- … del ‘power’] of voluntarily throwing up food from the [ stomach ] ; so that the power w d …
- … the thought of having eaten a particular food suggested that human ancestors once had the …
- … others, the knowledge of the kinds of food to be avoided, he would have little occasion to …
From James Gibb 23 February 1875
Summary
Thinks he has observed the origin of the shake of the head as signifying "no" in his seven-month-old son.
Author: | James Gibb |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Feb 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 35 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9867 |
From Karl Höchberg 21 February 1879
Summary
Describes health-related arguments for vegetarianism. Notes arguments that anthropoid apes are vegetarians. Asks whether man is sufficiently adapted to mixed diet so that meat is not harmful?
Author: | Karl Höchberg |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Feb 1879 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 227 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11897 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … do not want to indulge in meat or animal foods at all, but others on sanitary grounds …
- … themselves exclusively or almost exclusively to vegetarian foods. The latter assert that …
- … is in error when it claims that animal food is beneficial to man, as proof for this claim …
- … of nitrogenous to carbonic elements in food stuffs was 1 to 5 or 6. It is argued that no …
- … the utilisation, digestibility and adequacy of food, they say, depends also on physical …
- … composition. It is further argued that animal food, in particular meat, has a demonstrable …
From T. N. Staley 20 February 1874
Author: | Thomas Nettleship Staley |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Feb 1874 |
Classmark: | DAR 89: 191–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9307 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … of bark, in fact a sort of paper). Their food was saltfish, a small species of fish eaten …
- … in my last. Now I cannot say as regards food this has ever altered to any great extent. …
- … The bulk of the people still live on this food. Those who are better off will eat beef & …
- … d . however say on the whole as regards food there has not been change enough to account …
- … with the customs & ideas on the clothing, food & habits of life of the white man resulted. …
From R. W. Griffiths December 1877
Summary
A sheep-breeder friend has found that he can produce twins and triplets in his flock by "a sudden supply of improved feeding stuff" at time of conception. This would appear to remove the objection CD refers to in Descent that animals supplied with an excess of food become sterile.
Author: | Richard William Griffiths |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | Dec 1877 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 227 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11263 |
From Anthony Rich 1 July 1879
Summary
Starlings seem to share their food. Are they communists as they struggle for their existence?
Describes movement of a caterpillar.
Author: | Anthony Rich |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 July 1879 |
Classmark: | DAR 176: 136 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12130 |
From John Goodsir 27 August [1863]
Summary
Has found no Sarcina on the slides of fluid [see 4272] and nothing referable to the food. Will repeat examination if vomiting recurs.
Author: | John Goodsir |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 74 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4278 |
From Allen Stoneham 11 January 1877
Summary
Has read CD’s note on the scarcity of holly berries ["Holly berries" (1877), Collected papers 2: 189–90] resulting from the scarcity of bees. Believes the shortage of bees resulted from the wet year 1875, which led to a very poor honey harvest.
Author: | Allen Stoneham |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Jan 1877 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 259 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10778 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … to a neighbour at Shortlands, which was devoid of food, had the bees, while the snow was …
- … on the ground, out in search of food although the sky was sunless. — From Dec r . …
- … bees until April but either my supplies of food were insufficient or the inhabitants were …
- … through the winter by liberal supplies of food. — I believe my experience has been the …
From B. J. Sulivan 23 February 1874
Summary
The Bishop of Falkland says the Fuegian natives’ health does not suffer through increased civilisation. Relates the Bishop’s observations on the state of Tierra del Fuego and its populace.
Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Feb 1874 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 301 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9311 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … to enjoy as good health as others: perhaps the more regular food with bread and potatoes …
- … compared with the precarious food, especially in winter, in the savage state, may make …
- … changing from an open air life and plenty of food through the chase, to the less healthy …
- … may have arisen from the very different food during two long voyages. There is no doubt …
From James Paget [1873]
Summary
"Sir William Gull has just brought me the enclosed quotations from Chaucer, as illustrations of the closure of the eyes in effort. [In "The Nun’s priest’s tale" in Canterbury tales the fox tricks Chanticleer into crowing, whereupon Chanticleer closes his eyes to make the effort (and gets seized by the fox).] He begs me to send them to you.
I have lately seen a terrier who very distinctly frowns during mental excitement – not always with anger, but often, I think, with anxiety, as in expecting food."
Author: | James Paget, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1873] |
Classmark: | S. Paget ed. 1901, p. 408 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8713 |
From J. D. Hooker 15 July 1874
Summary
Asks what can be the meaning of appendages to tips of leaflets of enclosed Acacia or Mimosa.
Is at fibrin today.
Michael Foster suggests coagulation of protoplasm may be diseased, not digestive, symptom.
F. M. Balfour is at Kew today.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 July 1874 |
Classmark: | DAR 103: 206–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9548 |
From G. B. A. Duchenne 25 March 1871
Author: | Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Mar 1871 |
Classmark: | DAR 162: 243 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7623 |
From A. F. Boardman 8 January 1871
Summary
More speculations [see 5811] on the evolutionary development of man, relating progress to the consumption of better food and the availability of moist air.
Author: | Alexander F. Boardman |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Jan 1871 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 230 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7431 |
From Mary Treat 20 December 1871
Summary
Describes fly-catching activity of Drosera longifolia.
Experiments on Papilio asterias; sex of adult determined by length of larval feeding time.
Author: | Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Davis; Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Treat |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Dec 1871 |
Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 33 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8113 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … specimens were inclined to leave their food several days earlier than others, and these …
- … longer; so, after they had wandered from their food, and even selected places for their …
- … them with a fresh supply of their favorite food, I could almost invariably induce them to …
- … at that stage to be induced to change its food, though they will change in their earlier …
- … to change even then, and frequently fail to transform when their food is thus changed. …
- … They can be induced to change their food to the nearest allied species of plants with less …
- … to produce a male, if I cut off its supply of food, even when it was eating greedily, it …
- … perhaps a little longer, as if in search of food, but finally it almost always changed to …
- … as those of the previous year. Their food-plant was Archangelica hirsuta . I have the …
From A. S. von Mansfelde 17 January 1876
Author: | Alexander Siedschlag von Mansfelde |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Jan 1876 |
Classmark: | DAR 180: 15 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10361 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … but the preparation and transmission of food, and if the offspring takes upon itself any …
- … active individual would, feeds upon this food, the only material which is congenial to its …
- … its capacity to partake of its natural food, and via versa, The greater therefore the …
- … natural consequence of this partaking of food is a growth of the ovum and its subdivision …
- … to the Uterine wall and commences to draw food from that source (The freely moving …
letter | (287) |
Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
Müller, Fritz | (8) |
Blyth, Edward | (7) |
Darwin, Francis | (7) |
Wallace, A. R. | (6) |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Darwin, Emma | (1) |
Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
1831 | (1) |
1835 | (1) |
1836 | (1) |
1838 | (1) |
1839 | (1) |
1842 | (2) |
1844 | (1) |
1846 | (1) |
1848 | (1) |
1849 | (1) |
1851 | (2) |
1854 | (1) |
1855 | (6) |
1856 | (6) |
1857 | (1) |
1858 | (2) |
1859 | (1) |
1860 | (8) |
1861 | (3) |
1862 | (7) |
1863 | (6) |
1864 | (6) |
1866 | (4) |
1867 | (14) |
1868 | (29) |
1869 | (12) |
1870 | (5) |
1871 | (29) |
1872 | (14) |
1873 | (25) |
1874 | (18) |
1875 | (12) |
1876 | (14) |
1877 | (12) |
1878 | (10) |
1879 | (4) |
1880 | (8) |
1881 | (16) |
1882 | (1) |
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
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 …
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. …
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 …