From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 16 July 1878
Author: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 July 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 178: 103 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11612 |
From Alfred Moschkau 26 March 1878
Summary
Describes hereditary defect in ear muscle.
Discusses influence of wet nurse on infant.
Describes talking starlings.
Author: | Otto Carl Alfred (Alfred) Moschkau |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Mar 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 252 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11446 |
From S. B. J. Skertchly 27 February 1878
Summary
Sends CD a copy of his memoir on the fenland [Geology of the fenland (1877)].
Outlines the results of his recent researches into the geological history of man, the development of Palaeolithic culture, the occurrence of Palaeolithic remains in the boulder-clays of eastern England, and their relation to glacial and inter-glacial periods.
Author: | Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Feb 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 176 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11379 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … the discovery in their letters to Nature , 21 June 1877, pp. 141–2. Both letters mentioned …
- … about the matter appeared in Nature , 28 June 1877, pp. 162–3, and 5 July 1877, p. 182; …
- … 1877 , pp. 536–46). Skertchly updated his work on the post-tertiary beds in The fenland, past and present (S. H. Miller and Skertchly 1878, pp. 492–588). Skertchly had reported his discovery of Palaeolithic implements near Brandon, Suffolk, in strata he described as middle glacial or earlier in his letter to Nature , …
From Fritz Müller 5 April 1878
Summary
Observations on a sensitive Mimosa.
Comments on structure and positioning of "odoriferous organs" of moths and butterflies,
and feeding habits of butterfly larvae.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 Apr 1878 |
Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11463 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 March 1878
Summary
Supports Torbitt. Keenly aware of danger of growing crops from a single variety. Torbitt’s paper to Belfast BAAS meeting ["On the potato-disease", Rep. BAAS 44 (1874): 134] was sat upon.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Mar 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 103–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11391 |
From G. H. Darwin 28 January 1878
Summary
Has been reading Samuel Haughton on geological time ["Notes on physical geology, no. III", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 26 (1877): 534–46]. It is utter rubbish. Asks whether CD thinks GHD should write a critical note on the subject [see Nature 17 (1878): 509–10].
Author: | George Howard Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Jan 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 65 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11336 |
From G. A. Gaskell 13 November 1878
Summary
Discusses three "laws of race preservation" which are evolving: (1) natural selection; (2) the sociological law of sympathetic selection, or indiscriminate survival; (3) moral law – social selection or the "Birth of the Fittest".
Author: | George Arthur Gaskell |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 13 Nov 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 12 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11744 |
From J. W. Judd 26 June 1878
Summary
Sends a paper by Melchior Neumayr [‘Über unvermittelt auftretende Cephalopodentypen’, Jahrb. K.-K. Geol. Reichsanst. 28 (1878): 37–80].
Plans to marry soon.
Next year he will begin a practical course in geology to supplement his lectures.
Author: | John Wesley Judd |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 June 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 168: 84 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11569 |
From G. H. Darwin [before 9 May 1878]
Summary
Recounts some figures relating deaf-mutism and consanguineous marriages.
GHD has failed to be elected to the Royal Society.
Author: | George Howard Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 9 May 1878] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 66 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11498 |
From Francis Galton 24 May 1878
Summary
Sends some "composite portraits", including three of their family ancestors, as described in Nature [18 (1878): 97–100].
Author: | Francis Galton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 May 1878 |
Classmark: | DAR 105A: 99–100 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11526 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Nature , 23 May 1878 ( Galton 1878 ). Galton used multiple exposures of existing photographs to make a new composite image in order to observe typical characteristics; he also observed that composite photographs were more beautiful than the originals. For examples of his composite photographs, see Pearson 1914–30 , 2: plates 28–35; see also this volume, plate on p. 214. Albert Duncan Austin’s letter was published in Galton 1878 , p. 98 (see Correspondence vol. 25, letter from A. D. Austin, 6 November 1877 ). …
letter | (10) |
Darwin, G. H. | (2) |
Galton, Francis | (1) |
Gaskell, G. A. | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Judd, J. W. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
Darwin, G. H. | (2) |
Galton, Francis | (1) |
Gaskell, G. A. | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … no little discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the …
Photograph album of German and Austrian scientists
Summary
The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade, and contained 165 portraits of German and Austrian scientists. The work was lavishly produced and bound in blue velvet with metal embossing. Its ornate…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron : A practical manual for …
Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 …
German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
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 …
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 …
Dipsacus and Drosera: Frank’s favourite carnivores
Summary
In Autumn of 1875, Francis Darwin was busy researching aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (F. Darwin 1876). This phenomenon occurs when coloured particles within either protoplasm or the fluid in the cell vacuole (the cell sap) cluster…
Matches: 1 hits
- … By John Schaefer, Harvard University* Charles Darwin’s enthusiasm for carnivorous …
1.14 William Richmond, oil
Summary
< Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, celebrated his honorary degree of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma mater for the presentation ceremony…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
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
- … Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both …
Darwin on human evolution
Summary
'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I shall be well abused, for as my son Frank says: "you treat man in such a bare-faced manner." …
The origin of language
Summary
Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of his wide-ranging speculations about the transmutation of species. In his private notebooks, he reflected on the communicative powers of animals, their…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of …
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, …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts of …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …