From W. W. Reade 3 May 1872
Summary
Glad Mrs Darwin likes his preface, but fears she will not like his tone on religion.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 59 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8310 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872. [Lewes, George Henry. ] 1868a. …
- … with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872. Reade, …
- … 1872. The martyrdom of man. London: Trübner & Co. Reade, William Winwood. 1873. The African sketch-book. 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. Variation : The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. …
From W. W. Reade 13 February 1872
Summary
Sending sheets of his forthcoming work on Africa [Martyrdom of man (1872)] with views that differ from CD’s on music and sexual selection.
The Pall Mall Gazette will review the new [6th] edition of the Origin, together with Mivart’s Genesis of species [1871].
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 52 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8210 |
From W. W. Reade 14 October [1872]
Summary
Huxley will be asked to review Expression in Pall Mall Gazette.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Oct [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 64 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8558 |
From W. W. Reade 7 September 1872
Summary
Sends extract [from Carl Johan Andersson, Lake Ngami (1856)] on expression.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 62 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8514 |
From W. W. Reade 1 February 1871
Summary
Sir Andrew Smith says Hottentots and Kaffirs laugh till they cry.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Feb 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 45 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7473 |
From W. W. Reade 25 September 1871
Summary
Sees his ideas on conscious and non-conscious intelligence are already in Murphy [J. J. Murphy, Habit and intelligence (1869)].
Encloses an extract from S. W. Baker’s The Albert N’yanza [1866] on the behaviour of the giraffe [See Origin, 6th ed., p. 178], and some references to Baker’s Nile tributaries [1867].
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 69: A49; DAR 176: 51 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7968 |
From W. W. Reade 16 February 1872
Summary
Defends Descent against CD’s self-disparagement. The parts on the moral sense seem to him the finest in the book.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 53 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8215 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872. Reade, …
- … 1872. The martyrdom of man. London: Trübner & Co. Tylor, Edward Burnett. 1871. Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom. 2 vols. London: John Murray. …
From W. W. Reade 20 September 1871
Summary
Surprised at Mivart’s harsh review [Q. Rev. 131 (1871): 47–90], considering courteous tone of his book. Assures CD he has not been converted by Mivart.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 50 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7955 |
From W. W. Reade 18 February 1872
Summary
Compares Origin to Newton’s Principia and Adam Smith’s Wealth of nations.
His view of CD’s response to Mivart.
On mammae;
gradualism of evolution;
suicide among savages.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 74–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8218 |
From W. W. Reade 4 June 1870
Summary
The Negro’s idea of beauty is the same as white man’s.
Believes the Jollops select for blackness.
Native immunity from coast fever is not complete.
Has found stone instruments.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 38 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7216 |
From W. W. Reade 20 February 1872
Summary
Saw editor of the Pall Mall Gazette about review of Origin and Genesis of species.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 54 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8221 |
From W. W. Reade 5 November 1872
Summary
Observations on expression: women gnash teeth when sexually excited. W. Africans do not kiss.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 65 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8600 |
From W. W. Reade 12 September 1871
Summary
Prefers W. C. Wells’s explanation of the formation of the Nehro type to CD’s sexual selection.
Outlines his view of the origin of man by natural selection.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 47 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7936 |
From W. W. Reade 15 September 1871
Summary
Believes CD will not consider him a good Darwinian since he accepts natural selection only as a secondary law.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 48 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7947 |
From W. W. Reade 18 September 1871
Summary
There is a primary law of growth and innate improvement. Natural selection is a secondary law that operates to "arrange the details". This is not Lamarckian, because will is not involved.
Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].
Amused by critics who say CD is metaphysically unsophisticated.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 49 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7950 |
From W. W. Reade 3 April 1872
Summary
Sends preface of his book [see 8241]; he acknowledges debt to CD, but does not claim to have given a correct exposition of Darwinism.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 58 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8272 |
From W. W. Reade 18 December [1874]
Summary
Bishop J. W. Colenso supports his old contention that the Kaffirs (including Zulus of South Africa) are Negroes.
[Horace Waller’s] The last journals of David Livingstone [in central Africa (1874)] cites CD’s plant research and has many facts "for Darwin".
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Dec [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 72 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9764 |
From W. W. Reade 12 March 1872
Summary
Has just finished his work [? The martyrdom of man (1872)]. The new points are: (1) Negroes have whiskers; (2) their music is sometimes agreeable; (3) the Kaffirs are Negroes.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Mar 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 55 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8241 |
From W. W. Reade 4 March 1871
Summary
Praise for gentle but resolute tone of Descent.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Mar 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 46 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7546 |
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: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
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: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
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: 1 hits
- … If I lived 20 more years, & was able to work, how I sh d . have to modify the “Origin”, & …
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: 1 hits
- … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the publication of his …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1874, the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart caused Darwin and his son George serious …
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: 1 hits
- … On 6 March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If …
John Maurice Herbert
Summary
John Maurice Herbert was a close friend of Darwin’s at Cambridge University. He was affectionately called ‘Cherbury’ by Darwin, a reference to the seventeenth-century philosopher Edward Herbert, Baron Cherbury, who, like John Herbert, hailed from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … John Maurice Herbert was a close friend of Darwin’s at Cambridge University. He was affectionately …
Earthworms
Summary
As with many of Darwin’s research topics, his interest in worms spanned nearly his entire working life. Some of his earliest correspondence about earthworms was written and received in the 1830s, shortly after his return from his Beagle voyage, and his…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Earthworms and Wedgwood cousins …
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: 1 hits
- … Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of …
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The following extracts and selected letters explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This term is the plain expression of the facts,—Nat. selection is a metaphorical …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species , published in 1877, …
Movement in Plants
Summary
The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The power of movement in plants , published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical …
4.14 'Fun' cartoon, 'That troubles'
Summary
< Back to Introduction Of all the cartoons showing Darwin as an ape, ‘That troubles our monkey again’ by John Gordon Thomson is the only one that hints, albeit playfully, at improper behaviour. Descent of Man had been criticised for its apparent…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Of all the cartoons showing Darwin as an ape, ‘That troubles …
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
