To Charles Lyell 14 January [1860]
Summary
Review of Origin in Gardeners’ Chronicle [31 Dec 1859].
Criticises views of J. G. Jeffreys on non-migration of shells. Cites case of Galapagos shells.
Mentions Edward Forbes’s theory of submerged continental extensions. Cites Hooker’s [introductory] essay [in Flora Tasmaniae (1860)] for evidence against any recent connection between Australia and New Zealand.
Discusses Huxley’s views of hybrid sterility.
Questions whether Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire believed in species change. Mentions views of Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
The distribution of cave insects.
CD’s study of man.
The problems of locating French and German translators.
Huxley’s criticism of Owen’s views on human classification.
The sale of Origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 14 Jan [1860] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.192) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2650 |
To Charles Lyell 18 [and 19 February 1860]
Summary
Encloses reviews by Asa Gray and Bronn. Comments on Bronn review. Mentions review by Wollaston.
Comments on paper by W. H. Harvey in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1860): 145–6]. Discusses Harvey’s belief in the permanence of monsters.
Discusses CL’s objection that still-living primitive forms failed to develop.
The survival of Lepidosiren and other primitive types of fish and mammals.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 18 and 19 Feb 1860 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.199) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2703 |
To Charles Lyell [1 August 1861]
Summary
Mentions Dutch translation [of Origin].
Discusses evolutionary origin of sexuality.
Asa Gray’s suggestion that variation was directed by a higher power and Herschel’s view of providential arrangement in nature.
Compares variation in domestic and wild species.
Asks CL for introductions for his son William in Southampton, where he has joined a bank.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [1 Aug 1861] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.259) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3223 |
From C. J. F. Bunbury to Charles Lyell 20 February 1866
Summary
Discusses CD’s and J. D. Hooker’s letters to Lyell concerning Louis Agassiz’s theory of the glaciation of the Amazon basin in Brazil.
| Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 20 Feb 1866 |
| Classmark: | F. J. Bunbury ed. 1891–3, Later life 1: 144–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5011F |
To Charles Lyell [12 March 1841]
Summary
Discusses at length Louis Agassiz’s book [Études sur les glaciers (1840)] and Agassiz’s explanation of moraines. Defends his own theory of the importance of floating ice. Relates glacier theory to his own interpretation of Glen Roy.
Mentions a paper he is writing on South American boulders and till [Collected papers 1: 145–63].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [12 Mar 1841] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.25) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-595 |
To Charles Lyell 20 May 1869
Summary
Cites article by David Forbes dealing with the geology of the S. American Cordillera ["Geology of Bolivia and South Peru", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 17 (1861): 7–62].
Discusses the flexures of the Cordillera, the age of the mountains, and basaltic dikes in granite areas.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 20 May 1869 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.370) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6751 |
To Charles Lyell 11 February [1857]
Summary
Discusses a proposed expedition to Australia. Urges collecting and investigating productions of isolated islands. Recommends dredging the sea-bottom.
Mentions keeping Helix pomatia alive in sea-water.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 11 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.145) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2050 |
To Charles Lyell 25 June [1856]
Summary
Criticises at length the concept of submerged continents attaching islands to the mainland in the recent period. Notes drastic alteration of geography required, the dissimilar species on opposite shores of continents, and differences between volcanic islands and mountains of mainland areas. Admits sea-bed subsidence, but not enough to engulf continents. Denies that theory can explain island flora and fauna.
Considers Edward Forbes’s idea a check on study of dissemination of species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 25 June [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.132) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1910 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter, except for CD’s signature, is in the hand of the copyist. CD corrected the copy and filled in many gaps left by the copyist, as well as making some additions. Only these alterations have been noted in the Manuscript alterations and comments section. CD’s draft is preserved in DAR 50 (ser. 4): 6–11. …
To Charles Lyell [3 March 1866]
Summary
Has returned memorial to Chancellor of Exchequer; thanks CL for his note.
Lengthy remarks on cool period. Did not know of CL’s interest. New facts in new German and English [4th] editions of Origin will be too late for CL’s use. CD’s ten-year-old MS on cool period is available.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [3 Mar 1866] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.315) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5025 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 11 of his ‘big book’ on species, ‘Geographical distribution’, were written in 1856. The manuscript CD refers to is in the Darwin Archive–CUL, DAR 14: D1–47 (see Natural selection , pp. 534–66). CD apparently refers to his theory of migration during the glacial period, on which Lyell had commented in his letter …
To Charles Lyell [8 August 1846]
Summary
Comments on forthcoming edition [7th (1847)] of CL’s Principles. Mentions other books relevant to CL’s needs by Hooker, H. G. Bronn, Edward Forbes, and J. G. Kölreuter. Discusses his own books on volcanoes and the geology of S. America.
Mentions expected visit to Down by the Lyells.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [8 Aug 1846] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.49) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-990 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to J. S. Henslow, 18 May – 16 June 1832 , and Autobiography , pp. 77, 101, for CD’s adoption of Lyell’s views. CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. The third volume of Lyell’s previous edition ( C. Lyell 1840a ) contained an extended discussion of the transmutation and first appearance of species (chapters 1–11). …
To Charles Lyell 20 November [1860]
Summary
Admires Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions, but it will discourage investigation of distribution.
Mentions Oswald Heer’s proposed map of Atlantis.
Discusses extinction of plants caused by the glacial era. Migration of plants and animals during glacial period.
Encourages CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].
Comments on unfriendly reviews. Asks CL’s opinion about including a reply to reviewers in next edition of Origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 20 Nov [1860] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.233) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2989 |
To John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, W. B. Carpenter, and Michael Foster [7 April 1874]
Summary
Circular requesting recipients to sign an enclosed [missing] statement [relating to appeal for Naples Zoological Station] if they approve of it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury; Philip Lutley Sclater; Charles Lyell, 1st baronet; William Benjamin Carpenter; Michael Foster |
| Date: | [7 Apr 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 97: C52–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9384 |
| letter | (52) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (50) |
| Bunbury, C. J. F. | (2) |
| Lyell, Charles | |
| Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
| Foster, Michael | (1) |
| Lubbock, John | (1) |
| Sclater, P. L. | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (52) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (50) |
| Bunbury, C. J. F. | (2) |
| Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
| Foster, Michael | (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 …
