From Henry Doubleday 3 May 1860
Summary
Has read Origin with pleasure.
Has performed many experiments which confirm his opinion that primrose, oxlip, and cowslip are three distinct species.
Author: | Henry Doubleday |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 162.2: 237 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2781 |
From J. S. Henslow 5 May 1860
Summary
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 186: 47 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2783 |
From Charles Lyell 7 May 1860
Summary
Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.
Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.
Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 396 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2787 |
From William Masters 8 May 1860
Author: | William Masters |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 166–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2792 |
From H. C. Watson 10 May 1860
Summary
Returns reviews of Origin.
F. J. Pictet [Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] goes further than he himself realises.
Naturalists will resist CD’s views until faith in certain "impassable" barriers between existent species is shaken.
Gives CD an instance of convergence.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 160–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2793 |
From John Cattell 12 May 1860
Summary
Cannot provide plants CD requested.
Has sowed several kinds of lettuce seed near each other and has never observed them to cross naturally [see Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 173 n.].
Author: | John Cattell |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 77: 171–2a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2796 |
From Henry Doubleday 16 May 1860
Summary
Answers CD’s questions about his experiments with primroses, cowslips, and oxlips. HD is aware experiments must often be repeated many times. Has never met with the oxlip except where primrose and cowslip grow together.
Author: | Henry Doubleday |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 162.2: 238 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2804 |
From Asa Gray [10 July 1860]
Summary
Cases of "dioecio-dimorphism" as in primroses are widespread. AG always considered them the first step toward bisexuality.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [10 July 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 110 (ser. 2): 77 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2819 |
From J. D. Hooker 8 June 1860
Summary
Glad to hear good news of Etty [Henrietta Darwin].
CD’s observations on Scaevola are capital. The indusium collects the pollen and is the homologue of the pollen-collecting hairs of Campanula. A boat-shaped organ forms a second indusium, the inside base of which forms the stigmatic surface. The latter later protrudes as horns, forming the stigma.
Describes W. H. Harvey’s scientific career and thinks his letter interesting. Agrees with Harvey that the primary agency of natural selection is as great a mystery as ever. [Response to 2823.]
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 June 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 157a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2825A |
From Charles Lyell 15 June 1860
Summary
Rejects CD’s comparison of natural selection with the architect of a building. The architect who plans and oversees construction should not be confused in his function with the wisest breeder. That would be to deify natural selection.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 June 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 108–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2832A |
From John Higgins 19 June 1860
Summary
Sends a plan of the Anwick Estate: will value it on Saturday next (23 June 1860).
Will purchase it for CD at the auction on 25 June if he can secure favourable terms.
Author: | John Higgins |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 June 1860 |
Classmark: | Lincolnshire Archives (HIG/4/2/3/14) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2836F |
From Frederick Bond [16? June 1860]
Author: | Frederick Bond |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [16? June 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 168 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2837 |
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 John Higgins 16 June 1860
Summary
Has not received any replies from the parties.
Either he or his son will value the property after JH’s return to Alford.
Author: | John Higgins |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 June 1860 |
Classmark: | Lincolnshire Archives (HIG/4/2/3/7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2837F |
From Frederick Bond 26 June 1860
Author: | Frederick Bond |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 June 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 169 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2847 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 July 1860
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 July 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 141–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2852 |
From Hugh Falconer 9 July [1860]
Summary
Hyaena remains show how recently Sicily was joined to Africa.
Reports on the Oxford meeting of BAAS.
Author: | Hugh Falconer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 9 July [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 164.1: 5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2863 |
From Charles Hardy 23 July 1860
Author: | Charles Hardy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 July 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 170 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2877 |
From T. H. Huxley 6 August 1860
Summary
Announces great ally for CD: K. E. von Baer "worth all the Owens & Bishops that ever were pupped". Quotes Baer: "J’ai énoncé les mêmes idées que M. Darwin", but based only on zoological geography.
Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 Aug 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 98 (ser. 2): 31–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2891 |
From Charles Théophile Gaudin [15 August 1860]
Summary
Offers to supply CD with information about a new "race" of bees with a larger proboscis. They produce more honey as a result of being able to probe to greater depths.
Author: | Charles-Théophile Gaudin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [15 Aug 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 164 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2897 |
Lyell, Charles | (16) |
Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
Oliver, Daniel | (5) |
Gray, Asa | (4) |
Bond, Frederick | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (100) |
Lyell, Charles | (16) |
Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
Oliver, Daniel | (5) |
Gray, Asa | (4) |