To J. D. Hooker 5 November [1854]
Summary
Congratulates JDH on receipt of Royal Medal.
CD gathering facts on aberrant genera of insects.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Nov [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 152 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1597 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … of the Linnean Society on 7 November 1854 (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 November [ …
- … Hooker, [4 November 1853] ). See letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 11 November 1854 . For the …
- … 1854–5): 261). CD had been awarded the Royal Medal in 1853 for his works on geology and for his monograph on the pedunculated Cirripedia (see letter …
To J. D. Hooker 27 [June 1854]
Summary
CD gives his definition of "highness" and "lowness" as "morphological differentiation" from a common embryo or archetype. JDH’s view, with which CD agrees when it can be applied, is the same as Milne-Edwards’, i.e., the physiological division of labour. There is little agreement among zoologists and CD admits his own lack of clarity.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 27 [June 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 121 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1573 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Hooker, [24 June 1854] , and letter to Josiah Wedgwood III, 1 May [1854] , n. 2. Henri …
- … letter to W. D. Fox, [17 January 1850] and n. 3. [Brodie] 1854 . See letter from J. D. …
- … letter to G. R. Waterhouse, [31 July 1843] ). The view generally held by naturalists at the time, drawn from embryology, was that an advance from lower to higher organisms was an advance from the more general to the more special form (see Ospovat 1981 , pp. 216–28 and Appel 1987 , pp. 216–22). CD’s views on highness and lowness in the particular context of ranking the Cirripedia were discussed in Living Cirripedia (1854): …
To J. D. Hooker 1 March [1854]
Summary
Thanks JDH for dedication of Himalayan journals. CD praises the work and suggests stylistic revisions.
Lyell’s remarks on lava beds in letter from Madeira are not original – they refer exclusively to Élie de Beaumont’s data.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Mar [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 118 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1556 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Lyell’s letter to Leonard Horner dated January 1854 from Madeira (see letter to Charles …
- … Lyell, 18 February [1854] , n. 2, and letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 February 1854] , …
- … pp. 237–9. See letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 February 1854] . Roderick Impey Murchison …
- … 1854a , 1: 65–70. See letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 February 1854] . A favourable review …
To J. D. Hooker 1 August [1857]
Summary
Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Aug [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 206, 207 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2130 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 5, letter to J. D. Hooker, 27 [June 1854] , and letter from J. D. …
- … 1857–8. Wollaston 1854 . Koch 1843–4 . Ledebour 1842–53 (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 …
- … 1854] . The proper dosage of chloroform had recently been the subject of discussion in various medical journals following an increase in the number of deaths resulting from its use. See letters …
To J. D. Hooker 26 March [1854]
Summary
CD welcomes the prospect of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society as means for seeing old acquaintances and making new ones. Will try to go up to London regularly.
Admits that the warning from JDH and Asa Gray (that more harm than good will come from combat over the species issue) makes him feel "deuced uncomfortable".
Reflects upon the complexity of Agassiz; how singular that a man of his eminence and immense knowledge "should write such wonderful stuff & bosh".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 26 Mar [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 120 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1562 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … 52, 334–50. CD’s notes about the letter, dated 26 March 1854, are in DAR 205.2: 102. They …
- … ed. 1881 , 2: 176). In his letter to Hooker, 21 February 1854 , Gray referred to the ‘ …
- … races of mankind. In his letter to Hooker of 21 February 1854 , Gray wrote: ‘I confine …
- … 1959 , pp. 233–5). The letter to which CD refers, dated 21 February 1854 (Archives, Royal …
- … gymnosperms generally, see letters from J. D. Hooker, [29 June 1854] and 25 August 1854 . …
- … pp. 39, 57). See letter from J. D. Hooker, [ c . 25 March 1854], n. 3. Henry Holland , …
- … 4, letter to J. F. Royle, [23 April – 28 May 1847] . CD was elected on 24 April 1854 and …
To J. D. Hooker 7 September [1854]
Summary
On individuality.
Huxley’s review exquisite, but too severe on Vestiges; sorry for ridicule of Agassiz’s embryonic fishes.
Stonesfield mammals.
J. O. Westwood deserves Royal Society Medal.
Will begin species work in a few days.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 Sept [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 124 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1588 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … H. Huxley 1854a (see letter to Huxley, 2 September [1854] ). CD refers to George Robert …
- … that were evidently in the missing section of the letter. Living Cirripedia (1854) . Braun …
- … Letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 August 1854 , which is now incomplete. CD refers …
- … 1853b . See letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 August 1854 , n. 13. When CD began work on …
- … issue being discussed, see letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 August 1854 , n. 11, and also …
- … letter to Hooker has not been found among the Darwin correspondence. The original is preserved in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In the summer of 1854, …
- … letter to Albany Hancock, [29 or 30 October 1849] and n. 9). CD’s quandary arose from the several specialised characteristics shared by Cryptophialus and Alcippe that he believed were not simply analogical: their burrowing mode of life and their separation into two sexes. Yet he held that the striking differences in their internal anatomy and in their metamorphoses were great enough to justify placing them in different orders, as discussed in Living Cirripedia (1854): …
To J. D. Hooker 11 [December 1854]
Summary
Debates aberrant species, e.g., Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, with JDH. CD argues they are result of extinction having removed intermediate links to allied forms.
Studying effects of disuse in wings of tame and wild ducks.
Tabulations showing that number of species in a genus is not correlated with number of genera in an order.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 11 [Dec 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 148 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1612 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … and Thomson 1855 (see letter from J. D Hooker, 5 December [1854] , n. 4). CD made this …
- … a point made in letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 November [1854] . The genus Erythroxylon , …
- … The Monday following the letter from J. D. Hooker, 5 December [1854] . J. …
- … 5 December [1854] . See CD’s memorandum attached to the letter from J. D. Hooker, 5 …
- … distinct’. In the letter from J. D. Hooker, 5 December [1854] , Hooker proposed giving CD …
- … CUL. It is lightly annotated by CD. See letters from J. D. Hooker, [15 November 1854] and …
- … Agricultural Gazette , see letter to J. D. Hooker, 4 December [1854] , n. 5. CD later …
- … Bentham’s list, see letter from J. D. Hooker, [after 11 December 1854] . Athenæum , no. …
To J. D. Hooker 4 December [1854]
Summary
Is Bentham’s list of aberrant genera biased by exclusion of genera with many species?
JDH’s belief that Aquilegia varieties are one species is consistent with their great interfertility.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 4 Dec [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 159 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1610 |
To J. D. Hooker [9 or 16 February 1854]
Summary
Has received JDH’s book [Himalayan journals (1854)]. Is very gratified by the dedication to him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [9 or 16] Feb 1854 |
| Classmark: | Oliver N. Hooker (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1552F |
To J. D. Hooker 29 [May 1854]
Summary
CD "lectures" JDH on taking care of his health.
CD’s pleasure in London trip.
CD and Emma have taken season tickets to Crystal Palace.
Edward Forbes’s "Introductory Lecture" is the best CD ever read.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 29 [May 1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 122 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1575 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 November [1854]
Summary
Calculating small number of species in aberrant genera of insects and plants.
Joachim Barrande’s "Colonies", Élie de Beaumont’s "lines of Elevation", Forbes’s "Polarity" make CD despair, as these theories lead to conclusions opposite to CD’s from the same classes of facts.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 Nov [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1601 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … 9. See letter from J. D. Hooker, [6 November 1854] , n. 10. …
- … a geometrical pattern. Edward Forbes . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 July [1854] , n. …
- … Jekel ed. 1849 . See letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 11 November 1854 , n. 1. Waterhouse …
- … Waterhouse’s views. See letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 11 November 1854 , n. 2, for CD’ s …
To J. D. Hooker 7 March [1855]
Summary
Latitude overrules everything in distribution. Alpine distributions are like insular. Tabulating proportions.
T. V. Wollaston’s Madeira insects: many flightless, thus not blown to sea. TVW’s insects do not confirm Forbes’s Atlantis.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 Mar [1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 126 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1643 |
To J. D. Hooker 18 [December 1861]
Summary
Lindley suggests Gongora may be female Acropera.
CD’s orchid book nearly ready for press.
Discovers trimorphism in Lythrum is in H. Lecoq [Études sur la géographie botanique de l’Europe (1854–8)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 18 [Dec 1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 137 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3346 |
To J. D. Hooker 31 December [1858]
Summary
Replies at length to JDH’s worried reaction to his comments on lowness of Australian plants. CD distinguishes between "competitive highness", i.e., which fauna would be exterminated and which survive if two faunas were placed in competition, and ordinary "highness" of classification.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 31 Dec [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 35 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2388 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … issue of ‘highness’ and ‘lowness’ in 1854 (see Correspondence vol. 5, letters to J. D. …
- … 1854] ). CD discussed the point in Origin , pp. 313–15. CD held to this opinion in Origin , p. 379: I suspect that this preponderant migration from north to south is due to the greater extent of land in the north, and to the northern forms having existed in their own homes in greater numbers, and having consequently been advanced through natural selection and competition to a higher stage of perfection or dominating power, than the southern forms. According to the draft in DAR 205.9 (Letters), …
To J. D. Hooker 20 October [1857]
Summary
Returns some of the systematics books borrowed from JDH. Will now take on A. P. and Alphonse de Candolle [Prodromus].
Arrangements for a visit.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 Oct [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 212, 222c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2156 |
To J. D. Hooker [9 December 1861]
Summary
Henri Lecoq’s miserable book on plant geography [Étude sur la géographie botanique de l’Europe (1854–8)].
H. W. Bates’s pleasure at meeting JDH.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [9 Dec 1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 136, 129c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3341 |
To J. D. Hooker 30 July [1866]
Summary
His reasons for rejecting Atlantis hypothesis connecting Madeira and Canary Islands.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 30 July [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 294, 294b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5167 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … T. Lowe, 19 September 1854 ( Correspondence vol. 5). In his letter of [24 July 1866] , …
- … 1854 ; see also Correspondence vol. 5). For the geological inferences drawn from Lowe’s observation, see, for example, Correspondence vol. 8, letter …
- … letters from J. D. Hooker, [17 August 1866] and 18 August 1866 ). CD refers to T. V. Wollaston 1854 , …
To J. D. Hooker 7 July [1854]
Summary
CD’s view requires only that ancient organisms resemble embryological stages of existing ones. Thus "highness" in plants is difficult to evaluate because they have no larval stages. Would compare highest members of two groups, rather than archetype, to determine which group was higher. Against Forbes’s polarity and parallelism.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 July [1854] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 123 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1577 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … D. Hooker, [29 June 1854] ). For CD’s view of archetypes, see letter to T. H. Huxley, 23 …
- … 1854): 528 n. , CD quoted a passage from this work discussing how the problems arising from the phenomenon of degeneration or the simplification of flowers that are usually complex pose difficulties for the taxonomist who defines ‘highness’ in terms of complexity. Mirbel 1809 . CD had relied heavily upon embryological criteria for establishing homologies in his classification of the Cirripedia (see Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix II). Forbes and Hanley [1848–]53 (see letter …
To J. D. Hooker 1 December [1861]
Summary
Rudimentary ovules of Acropera.
High opinion of Bates.
Orchid anatomy.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Dec [1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 135 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3337 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 November [1853]
Summary
Edward Sabine’s official letter announcing CD’s receipt of Royal Society Medal left him cold. JDH’s informal one moved him.
Applauds JDH for supporting John Lindley.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Nov [1853] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 125 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1540 |
| letter | (61) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (59) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (61) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (59) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for …
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid …
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 …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Editorial policy and practice
Summary
Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of the Correspondence. Transcriptions are made from the original or a facsimile where these are available. Where they are not, texts are taken from the best…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of …
Joseph Simms
Summary
The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874, while he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character (Simms 1873). He hoped it might 'prove…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Barnacles
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Darwin and barnacles …
Charles Darwin’s letters: a selection 1825-1859
Summary
The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University of Edinburgh, to the end of 1859, when the Origin of Species was published. The early letters portray Darwin as a lively sixteen-year-old medical student. Two…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University …
3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …
