To T. H. Huxley 3 February [1857]
Summary
Thanks THH for his response on glacial movement. Hopes Tyndall will experiment on broken ice and explain how two pieces of ice can freeze together.
Sorry to hear of THH’s row with Richard Owen.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 3 Feb [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 104) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2045 |
To T. H. Huxley 26 September [1857]
Summary
Agassiz’s superficiality and wretched reasoning powers. But he stirred up Europe on glaciers. Lyell has been working on their effects – testing work of others.
CD believes "Natural Systems" ought to be simply genealogical. "Time will come when we shall have true genealogical trees of each great kingdom of nature."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 26 Sept [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 54) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2143 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Huxley, [before 3 October 1857] , and letter to T. H. Huxley, 3 October [1857] . CD …
- … his visit to the Swiss Alps in August 1857. In a published letter to John Tyndall (T. …
- … September [1857] . For Huxley’s response and CD’s further remarks, see letter from T. H. …
- … the Swiss Alps by 3 September 1857 (L. Huxley ed. 1900, 1: 146). See letter to T. H. …
- … 1857 b), Huxley criticized Agassiz’s earlier investigations of the same glaciers ( Agassiz 1847 ). Charles and Mary Lyell were making a tour of southern Europe. While in Switzerland, Lyell had studied glacial phenomena and had reported some of his observations in letters …
To T. H. Huxley 3 October [1857]
Summary
Thinks naturalists look for something further than Cuvier’s view of classification. Poses a theoretical problem on the classification of the races of man to prove that a genealogical system is best.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 3 Oct [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 139) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2150 |
To T. H. Huxley 27 May [1865]
Summary
Thanks for Catalogue.
Has had a bad month. Somewhat improved as a result of John Chapman’s ice-bag cures.
Asks THH to read MS on his hypothesis Pangenesis. THH only man whose judgment on it would be final with him.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 27 May [1865] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 214) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4837 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Huxley, 16 December [1857] , and letter to J. D. …
- … the proof-sheets of the preface in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to T. H. …
- … vol. 6, letter to T. H. Huxley, [before 12 November 1857] . For a discussion of …
- … 1857] ). According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), John Chapman visited CD on 20 May 1865. See also letter …
To T. H. Huxley 9 July [1857]
Summary
Thanks THH for his cautionary response on Brullé, but departs from THH in thinking that Barnéoud, if true, would shed light on Milne-Edwards’ proposition that the wider apart classes of animals are the earlier they depart from common embryonic plan.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 9 July [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 50) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2122 |
To T. H. Huxley 5 July [1857]
Summary
Asks THH’s opinion on embryological views of G. A. Brullé [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 13 (1844): 484–6] and F. M. Barnéoud [Ann. des Sci. Nat. ser. 3, Bot. 6 (1846): 268–96] and on Milne-Edwards’ classification.
Has been reading John Goodsir ["On the morphological constitution of the skeleton of the vertebrate head", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 5 (1857): 123–78].
Has embryology of bats ever been worked out?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 5 July [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 67) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2118 |
To T. H. Huxley 9 December [1856]
Summary
Grateful for Siebold’s wonderful facts [C. T. E. von Siebold, On a true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1856), trans. by W. S. Dallas (1857)].
Vitality of spermatozoa.
Hybridisation of bees. Bees are in one respect his greatest theoretical difficulty.
CD still convinced about the relation of cement receptacles and ovarian tubes [in Crustacea].
Birth of C. W. Darwin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 9 Dec [1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 42, 374) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2017 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … CD read the translation early in 1857. See letter to T. H. Huxley, 8 July [1856] , in …
- … 1857 ) is in the Darwin Library–CUL. He discussed this work in Natural selection , p. 365. CD cited the fact ‘that in the Queen Hive Bee it is exclusively the unimpregnated eggs which produce males’ in Natural selection , p. 365 n. 3. John Lubbock was preparing a paper on the parthenogenesis of Daphnia (see letter …
To T. H. Huxley 16 December [1857]
Summary
THH’s catalogue [THH and R. Etheridge, A catalogue of the collection of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology (1865), part published in 1857] best résumé he has seen of science of natural history. On classification he is not quite sure that he wholly goes along with THH. Encloses a few criticisms of THH’s preface.[enclosure survives as copy only].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 16 Dec [1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 151); DAR 145: 178 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2185 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … of Practical Geology (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 December [1857] ). The work, with …
- … classification in letters to T. H. Huxley, 15 September [1857] , 26 September [1857] , [ …
- … 1857]. It is likely that the following comments on Huxley’s introduction, transcribed from a copy in DAR 145, were enclosed with this letter. …
To T. H. Huxley 3 [September 1855]
Summary
Approves drawing. No one who cannot draw should attempt to be a naturalist. Suggests corrections to [Lepas?] drawing. Comments on position of ganglia, cement glands, and stomach.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 3 [Sept 1855] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 18) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1759 |
To T. H. Huxley 11 April [1864]
Summary
Thanks for Lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy [1864].
If Owen wrote article on "Oken" [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.] and French work on archetype he never did a baser act [see ML 1: 246 n.].
Bad health lately.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 11 Apr [1864] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 203) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4459 |
To Thomas Henry Huxley 24 February [1858]
Summary
Congratulations on birth of THH’s daughter [Jessie].
On aboriginal dun colour of horses.
Examples of inaccuracies and perpetuation of errors [on hybrids] by "compilers, of which I am one".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 24 Feb [1858] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 107) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2224 |
To Thomas Henry Huxley 3 January [1861]
Summary
Congratulates THH on first number of Natural History Review.
THH’s article on brain ["On the zoological relations of man with the lower animals", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 67–84] completely smashes Owen.
Owen’s Leeds address [Rep. BAAS (1858): xlix–cx].
In his historical sketch of opinion on species CD has picked out some sentences [by Owen] with which he will take some revenge. CD is not bold enough to come to an open quarrel.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 3 Jan [1861] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 155, 372–6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3041 |
Matches: 2 hits
To T. H. Huxley 17 January [1857]
Summary
Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.
CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 17 Jan [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2041 |
To T. H. Huxley 13 [December 1856]
Summary
Pleased by what THH says on cement glands and organs in higher Crustacea. Content to be moderately right.
Hopes THH will dissect the Conchoderma.
Asks for cases of organs in which there is no apparent transition from other organs or in which transition can be shown in an unexpected way and for instances of odd and inexplicable connections between parts, such that if one part varies the other varies also.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 13 [Dec 1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 44, 375) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2020 |
To T. H. Huxley 13 [March 1859]
Summary
Thanks for THH’s examples of serially modified and homologous parts in Radiata. Cannot understand how he forgot such cases.
Agassiz’s Essay on classification [1859] utterly impracticable rubbish.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 13 [Mar 1859] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 258) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2430 |
To T. H. Huxley 8 August [1860]
Summary
News of K. E. von Baer’s support is magnificent – far outweighs Owen and Agassiz. Asks THH to tell Baer that a statement from him would be of utmost value.
R. Wagner [in an article on Louis Agassiz’s principles of classification, Göttingsche gelehrte Anzeiger (1860) pt 2: 761–800] "goes half way" between Agassiz and Origin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 8 Aug [1860] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 133) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2893 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Agassiz 1857–62 , reprinted separately as Agassiz 1859 . Wagner received a letter from CD …
- … letter. Louis Agassiz reviewed Origin in the American Journal of Science and Arts , popularly known as ‘Silliman’s journal’ after the founding editor Benjamin Silliman. There is an annotated copy of the review ( Agassiz 1860 ) in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL, presented to CD by Benjamin Silliman Jr . Agassiz’s critique was drawn from a discussion of the species question in his forthcoming third volume of Contributions to the natural history of the United States ( Agassiz 1857– …
To T. H. Huxley 13 September [1854]
Summary
Thanks for help on presentation copies of Living Cirripedia, vol. 2.
Suggests he examine cementing apparatus of Balanus.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 13 Sept [1854] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 16) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1592 |
To T. H. Huxley 23 April [1853]
Summary
On THH’s paper on cephalous Mollusca [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 143 (1853) pt 1: 29–66]. Discovery of the type or "idea" (in THH’s sense, not Owen’s or Agassiz’s) is one of the highest ends of natural history.
Discusses anamorphism;
position of heart in Cleodora.
Variability within species;
cementing process in cirripedes.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 23 Apr [1853] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 4) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1480 |
To T. H. Huxley 4 May [1856]
Summary
It seems improper that his advances to G. B. Sowerby Jr for payment of engravings should not have been mentioned to Council of Ray Society. His appreciation of the Society.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 4 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 35) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1868 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letters to J. S. Bowerbank, Ray Society , 28 September [1851] , and to John Lubbock , 10 [September 1853], n. 3). The Ray Society repaid CD £67 on 21 November 1857. …
- … letter to T. H. Huxley, 2 April [1856] ). Huxley, a member of the council of the Ray Society , had apparently mentioned to CD during his visit to Down in April that owing to the failure of a number of members to pay their subscriptions and to over-publication, the society was facing bankruptcy. In 1857, …
To T. H. Huxley [before 12 November 1857]
Summary
Glad THH has taken up aphid question versus Owen ["On the agamic reproduction and morphology of Aphis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 22 (1858): 193–236].
Fertilisation and inheritance discussed. Speculates that fertilisation may be a mixture rather than a fusion. Can understand in no other way why crossed forms tend to go back to ancestral forms.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | [before 12 Nov 1857] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 58) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2166 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to G. H. K. Thwaites, 10 December 1855) . CD developed his theory of inheritance, ‘pangenesis’, and set it out in Variation 2: 357–404. CD was in London from 17 to 20 November 1857 ( …
- … 1857 –8, p. 216). ‘The mild Hindoo’: see Charles Mackay in The hope of the world (1840): ‘Taught by his creed behold the mild Hindoo | Committing murders of the blackest hue. ’ Burnett 1854 , p. 63. George Henry Kendrick Thwaites had first reported observing conjugation in the Diatomaceae at the 1847 meeting in Oxford of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. CD attended the meeting and conversed with Thwaites (see letter …
Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
Huxley, T. H. | (25) |
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
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. …
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was …
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 …
The "wicked book": Origin at 157
Summary
Origin is 157 years old. (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859. To celebrate we have uploaded hundreds of new images of letters, bringing the total number you can look at here to over 9000 representing more than…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Origin is 157 years old. (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 …
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 …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand …
Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
Summary
Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared. Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I suppose “natural selection” was bad term but to change it now, I think, would make confusion …
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 …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
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 …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When I was in spirits I sometimes fancied that my book w d be successful; but I never even …
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 …