To J. D. Hooker 6 April [1865]
Summary
Asks to borrow Botanische Zeitung (1860) with Friedrich Alefeld on Pisum [pp. 204–5].
JDH should ask George Busk whether he knows a better doctor than William Jenner "for giving life to a worn out poor devil".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 6 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 262 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4805 |
To J. D. Hooker 9 February [1865]
Summary
Falconer’s death haunts him. Personal annihilation not so horrifying to him as sun cooling some day and human race ending.
His health has been wretched.
Masters has written his agreement with CD’s "Climbing plants".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 9 Feb [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 260 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4769 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 January [1865]
Summary
Has finished long paper on "Climbing plants". Prefers sending it to Linnean Society if Bentham does not think it too long.
For New Zealand flora [1864–7] CD suggests JDH count plants with irregular corollas and compare with England.
Does not quite agree about Reader.
Is Tyndall author of piece on spiritualism?
CD’s illness diagnosed as "suppressed gout".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 Jan [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 257a–c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4742 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … see, for example, Correspondence vol. 11, letter to M. T. Masters, 6 April [1863] . See …
- … government (see Correspondence vol. 11, letter from J. D. Hooker, 6 January 1863 ), was …
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, 1 January 1865 and nn. 2 and 3. CD refers to ‘Climbing plants’ , an extract of which was read at the Linnean Society on 2 February 1865. The copyist of CD’s manuscript was the Down schoolmaster, Ebenezer Norman , who had worked in this capacity for many years (see LL 1: 153). An entry in CD’s Account book–cash account (Down House MS) dated 15 March 1865 records a payment of £5 11 …
To J. D. Hooker [1 May 1865]
Summary
Feels a little better, but sickness continues.
Wants to borrow Robert Caspary’s paper on the union of buds in Cytisus [see 5012].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [1 May 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 267 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4825 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 December [1865]
Summary
Is working one hour a day now, on illegitimate seedlings of Lythrum and Primula.
Begins to doubt John Scott’s accuracy about primrose and cowslip.
Does JDH believe in Karsten’s denial of parthenogenesis of Coelebogyne?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 Dec [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 278, 278b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4953 |
To J. D. Hooker 17 April [1865]
Summary
On Lubbock’s plans.
Visited by Antoine Auguste Laugel.
Guessed right on Bentham’s "Planchon".
Much struck by Thomson’s article on nomenclature [see 4812]; importance of this subject.
Sorry best scientists read so little; few read any long papers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 17 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 265 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4814 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 [February 1865]
Summary
Hildebrand has sent copy of his paper on Pulmonaria in Botanische Zeitung.
How much should CD contribute to Falconer’s bust?
Oswald Heer on alpine and Arctic floras.
A. R. Wallace on geographical distribution in Malay Archipelago.
Lyell’s new edition of Elements. Wishes someone would do a book like it on botany.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 [Feb 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 261 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4772 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 June [1865]
Summary
Bad month of sickness. John Chapman’s ice bag on spine.
Does not quite agree with JDH about Lubbock’s plagiarism charges. Lyell’s memory must have failed him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 June [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 269, 269b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4846 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 and 28 [October 1865]
Summary
Thinks Royal Society’s failure to honour W. J. Hooker may be due to small number of botanists on Council.
Interest in H. J. Carter’s papers in Annals and Magazine of Natural History on lower organisms.
On Wallace; anthropology.
H. H. Travers’ paper on Chatham Islands [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9 (1865): 135–44].
W. C. Wells’s paper of 1813 ["Essay on dew", Two Essays (1818)] anticipates discovery of natural selection.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 and 28 Oct 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 277 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4921 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … and n. 2, and Correspondence vol. 11, letter to J. D. Hooker, [28 August 1863] and …
- … in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to J. D. Hooker, 11 September [1857] ). CD’s …
- … 11, above), and was forced to admit that the bird’s presence was strong evidence for the existence of a former land-bridge connecting the islands to New Zealand. Hooker favoured Edward Forbes’s theory that oceanic islands were once connected to the major continents but CD had reservations about it ( E. Forbes 1846 ; see, for example, Correspondence vol. 5, letter …
To J. D. Hooker 19 January [1865]
Summary
"Climbing plants" sent off.
Encourages JDH to include notes on gradation of important characters in Genera plantarum or to write a paper on the subject. Has given prominence to gradation of unimportant characters in climbing plants. Believes that it is common for the same part in an individual plant to be in different states. Same may be true of important parts – for example position of ovule may differ.
Two articles in last Natural History Review interested him; "Colonial floras" [n.s. 5 (1865): 46–63]
and "Sexuality of cryptogams" [n.s. 5 (1865): 64–79].
Fact of similarity of orders in tropics is extremely curious. Thinks it may be connected with glacial destruction.
Leo Lesquereux says he is a convert for the curious reason that CD’s books make birth of Christ and redemption by grace so clear to him!
"Not one question [for JDH] in this letter!"
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 19 Jan [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 258a–c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4748 |
To J. D. Hooker [29 July 1865]
Summary
Was glad to read JDH’s article on glaciers of Yorkshire ["Moraines of the Tees Valley", Reader 6 (1865): 70].
Reader article [6 (1865): 61–2] about English and foreign men of science is unjust.
Lubbock is now lost to science.
B. Verlot’s pamphlet on variations of flowers [Sur la production et la fixation des variétés dans les plantes d’ornement (1865)] is very good.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [29 July 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 273 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4874 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Lubbock praising the book (see letter to John Lubbock, 11 June [1865] and n. 2). John …
- … 11. Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn. : Archon Books, Shoe String Press. Geikie, Archibald. 1863. On the phenomena of the glacial drift of Scotland. Glasgow: John Gray. Gray, Jane Loring, ed. 1893. Letters …
To J. D. Hooker 3 October [1865]
Summary
Encloses letter [from A. R. Wallace?] about the Reader.
Wants his opinion of a letter from Fritz Müller on climbing plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 3 Oct [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 276 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4907 |
To J. D. Hooker [4 June 1865]
Summary
Agrees with JDH on Lyell–Lubbock controversy except that Lubbock’s printed note does not seem to him insulting. Hopes JDH can heal the breach.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [4 June 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 270 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4852 |
From Charles Lyell to J. D. Hooker [31 May 1865]
Summary
Emcloses copies of correspondence concerning his dispute with John Lubbock.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [31 May 1865] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (JDH/2/1/14 f.323); The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Gen. 113/3650–3, 3813–20, 3821–4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4844F |
Matches: 6 hits
- … 11 of Lyell 1863c , that Lubbock had written his paper ( Lubbock 1861 ) after Lyell had completed his chapter on Danish shell-mounds; see n. 6, above. Lyell’s explanation of the discrepancy is given in the third enclosure (letter …
- … 11. of your work, they would almost inevitably have come to the conclusion that I had borrowed from you. That note gave me, & would I think give the Public an entirely different impression from that which, as it appears, you intended to convey. As regards the letter …
- … letter of yours, that the wording of your note at page 10 of the preface about my borrowing of you without acknowledgement strikes me as unfriendly in its tone & as a decided overstatement of the facts. It omits entirely the explanation which I gave you of what induced me to put in the note at page 11 …
- … letter from John Lubbock to Charles Lyell, 13 March 1865; University of Edinburgh, Lyell 1 Gen. 113/3644–5); Lyell’s reply has not been found. The text of the note to which Lyell refers is as follows ( C. Lyell 1863c , p. 11): …
- … 11. no reader will imagine that this was after I had given you frankly a full explanation both written & personal of what had occurred. They will simply suppose that you had learnt from a third person that I was sorry that the contradiction of dates in my note & text had been found out. I shall take a copy of this letter …
- … 11 of his work, that my article on the Danish Shell-mounds was published after his sheets were written , is an inadvertence, regretted, I have reason to believe, as much by its author as it is by me. Lubbock refers to Antiquity of man ( C. Lyell 1863c ); the ‘article on Danish shell-mounds’ is Lubbock 1861 . Lubbock published three further archaeological papers in the Natural History Review ( Lubbock 1862a , 1862b , and 1863a ). For Hooker’s early consideration of this note, see the letter …
To J. D. Hooker 27 [or 28 September 1865]
Summary
Agrees with JDH on difference in grief over loss of father and of child. His love of his father.
The Reader.
Politics and science.
Health improved by Bence Jones’s diet.
[Dated "Thursday 27th" by CD.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [27 or 28] Sept 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 275 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4901 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 September 1865] and n. 15. Ellen Frances Lubbock . CD may be referring to an article in The Times , 11 …
- … letter to Asa Gray, 15 August [1865] , n. 12). From 22 August 1865, Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records CD’s weight at weekly intervals. His weight on 22 August was 11 …
From Charles and Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker [10 July 1865]
Summary
Health very bad. All scientific work stopped for 2½ months.
E. B. Tylor’s Early history of mankind [1865] impresses him.
Would like JDH’s opinion of last number of Spencer’s [Principles of] Biology [vol. 1 (1864)], especially on umbellifers. CD not satisfied with Spencer’s views on irregular flowers.
ED reports on CD’s health.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin; Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [10 July 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 272 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4868 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 20 May (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [17 June 1865] and n. 11). Emma Darwin recorded in …
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 May 1865] and n. 13) but ill health had prevented CD from reading it earlier. CD made several references to Tylor 1865 in Descent and cited the second edition, Tylor 1870 , three times in Expression. There are annotated copies of Tylor 1865 and 1870 in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 810–11). …
To J. D. Hooker 4 May [1865]
Summary
On FitzRoy’s life and character.
Carl von Siebold’s cases of males and females of gall insects [True parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)]. Each sex produced on different plants.
Haeckel’s astonishing case of propagation in a Medusa.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 4 May [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 268a–b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4827 |
| letter | (17) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (16) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (17) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (16) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
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 …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
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 …
Darwin's 1874 letters go online
Summary
The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1874 through his letters and see a full list of the letters. The 1874 letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 …
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 …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letters | Selected Readings Darwin's first reflections on human progress were …
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 …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I cannot bear to think of the future The year 1876 started out sedately enough with …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I think we have proved that the sleep of plants is to lessen injury to leaves from radiation …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
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 …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
