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Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online

Summary

To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…

Matches: 11 hits

  • of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first
  • it behaved in similar ways to the Drosera secretion. In 1875, Klein was a very controversial
  • I liked the man .’   Other highlights from the 1875 letters include: I am very
  • of my books.  ( Letter to RFCooke, 29 June [1875] ) Darwin wrote this to his
  • new Editions .  ( Letter to JDHooker, 18 August [1875] ) Darwin also completed
  • if  the experiment made this possible  ( Letter to HELitchfield, 4 January [1875] ) …
  • made false statements  ( Letter to John Lubbock, 8 April 1875 ) Relations between the
  • energy as yours almost always succeeds  ( Letter to GHDarwin, 13 October [1875] ) …
  • help his father and brothers with scientific instruments: in 1875, he designed a hygrometer. …
  • his great works ( Letter to ABBuckley, 23 February 1875 ) The year was saddened
  • in my time  ( Letter to JDHooker, [12 December 1875] ) In December, Darwin was

Darwin and vivisection

Summary

Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…

Matches: 20 hits

  • on Virchow for experimenting on the Trichinae’ (letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January [1875] ). …
  • physiologists to present their own petition (letter to T. H. Huxley, 14 January 1875 ). In
  • prospect of animals suffering for science. In a letter to E. Ray Lankester, he wrote: ‘You ask about
  • not sleep to-night’ ( Correspondence vol. 19, letter to E. R. Lankester, 22 March [1871] ). In
  • within Darwins family. In his letter of 14 January 1875 to Huxley, Darwin mentioned the effect
  • … (letter from Emma Darwin to F. P. Cobbe, 14 January [1875] ). In the course of the public
  • to Huxley (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 12 February 1875 ). Darwin was in London from 31
  • who produced a new sketch for a petition (letter from T. H. Huxley, [4 April 1875] ). This was
  • on 7 April (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 7 April [1875] ), and circulating it to others in
  • were made (letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 10 April 1875 ), and another version was prepared
  • of Lords (see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April 1875] ). He was still unsure whether
  • to Down, however, it was decided to draft a formal bill. Litchfield drew up a sketch that was
  • Royal Society of London (letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 April [1875] ). The next day he wrote to
  • … ‘we wd do whatever else you think best’ (letter to E. H. Stanley, 15 April 1875 ). After further
  • of the documents contain marginal notes and revisions in Litchfields hand. The changes made to the
  • are evident in Darwins correspondence in April and May 1875. The initial petition (DAR
  • order of the clauses. In the revised sketch, dated 24 April 1875, the penalty for unlawful
  • for each offence. This version also contained notes in Litchfields hand for an alternative title
  • expressed their dismay at this alteration (letter from T. H. Huxley, 19 May 1875 , letter from J. …
  • corrections had been made (letter to Lyon Playfair, 26 May 1875 , and letter from Lyon Playfair, …

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

Summary

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…

Matches: 24 hits

  • … during his periods of severe illness. Yet on 15 January 1875 , Darwin confessed to his close …
  • … mouthpiece of ‘Jesuitical Rome’ ( Academy , 2 January 1875, pp. 16–17). ‘How grandly you have …
  • … again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January 1875 ). Darwin had also considered …
  • … learned of Klein’s testimony from Huxley on 30 October 1875 : ‘I declare to you I did not believe …
  • … carried out on live animals in laboratories. In January 1875, he received details of experiments by …
  • … printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). In the event, the book …
  • … in a review of the book in the Academy , 24 July 1875, by Ellen Frances Lubbock: ‘in Utricularia …
  • … day That ever you were born (letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 2 July] 1875).   …
  • … which I had long wished to see,’ he wrote on 21 April 1875 , ‘and now that I have seen it, I am …
  • … do a good deal of “hammering”,’ he wrote on 14 July 1875 . ‘I shall not let Pangenesis alone …
  • … his own theory of heredity in a series of articles in 1875 and 1876, based partly on his studies of …
  • … & more’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [ c . February 1875?] ). By May, having finished …
  • … proofmaniac’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875] ). But Francis also found …
  • … on astronomy, or the Duke of Wellington on art (Max Müller 1875, pp. 305–7). The debate between Max …
  • … researches (Carus trans. 1875b; the series is Carus trans. 1875–87). More controversial was the …
  • … Darwin wrote: ‘An anonymous compliment | received Feb 16th 1875’.   The great and the good …
  • … Insectivorous plants ( letter to D. F. Nevill, 15 July [1875] ). Such visitors from the upper …
  • … I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). Finally it was arranged for the …
  • … Eeles Dresser. ‘The horror was great’, Henrietta Emma Litchfield wrote to her brother Leonard on 14 …
  • … of twining plants (letters from Lawson Tait, 16 March [1875] and 27 March [1875] ). ‘As I am …
  • … Nepenthes & will soon publish’, Darwin warned on 17 July 1875 . But Tait was undaunted. He …
  • … Thiselton-Dyer ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 7 July 1875 ). It was Thiselton-Dyer who …
  • … was appropriate for so distinguished a nominee. Already in 1875, Lankester had been elected a fellow …
  • … of Lyell’s failing health from Hooker in 1874 and January 1875. On 22 February, he was notified of …

Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers

Summary

In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … could see that Butler, as he told his daughter Henrietta Litchfield on 4 January , ‘would like …
  • … not have read the evidence given by physiologists to the 1875 Royal Commission for the regulation of …

Animals, ethics, and the progress of science

Summary

Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In Descent, he argued that some animals exhibited moral behaviour and had evolved mental powers analogous to conscience. He gave examples of cooperation, even…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … but inconclusive (see letter from G. J. Romanes, 14 July 1875 ). Eventually Romanes, who had …
  • … physiologists’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 18 July 1875 ). Darwin was concerned that the method be …
  • … let loose from hell’ ( letter to F. B. Cobbe, [14 January 1875] ). Darwin’s involvement in …
  • … position most frankly in a letter to Henrietta, 4 January [1875] . I have long thought …
  • … view I have rejoiced at the present agitation. ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January [1875] ) …
  • … as doomed to death in this country. ( letter To T. H. Huxley, 14 January 1875 ) Legislation …

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: 5 hits

  • … not retract his criticism in his own second edition (Dana 1875, p. 274). Descent …
  • … (Correspondence vol. 23, from J. D. Hooker, 3 January [1875] ), preferring to attack Mivart in …
  • … Anthropogenie  in the  Academy   (2 January 1875; see Appendix V, pp. 644–5) . The affair …
  • … wrote a polite, very formal letter to Mivart on 12 January 1875 , refusing to hold any future …
  • … and a second French edition was published in January 1875 ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald , 4 February …

Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?

Summary

Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … would culminate in two books,  Insectivorous plants  (1875) and  Cross and self fertilisation  …

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: 6 hits

  • … vol. 23, letter from Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, 20 September 1875 ). He began to compile an account …
  • … end of the previous year. He had been incensed in December 1875 when the zoologist Edwin Ray …
  • … The controversial issue had occupied Darwin for much of 1875. In January 1876, a Royal Commission …
  • … to Insectivorous plants , which was published in July 1875, with a US edition published later …
  • … in February 1876 (despite bearing a publication date of 1875), Darwin must have been gratified by …
  • … Darwin, who had communicated the paper to the society in 1875 at Tait’s request, with the ‘awful job …

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: 5 hits

  • … had taken a strong interest in the vivisection debate in 1875, and had even testified before a Royal …
  • … he is a good deal depressed about himself’ (letter from H. E. Litchfield to G. H. Darwin, 17 March …
  • … is very calm but she has cried a little’ (letter from H. E. Litchfield to G. H. Darwin, [19 April …
  • … at least be a valid ground for divorce’ ( letter to H. K. Rusden, [before 27 March 1875] ). In …
  • …  vol. 23,  letter from Charlotte Papé, 16 July 1875 ). She now addressed Francis, who could best …