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
- … read the proof-sheets of the preface in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to T. …
- … H. Huxley, 16 December [1857] , and letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 25 December [1857] ). According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), John Chapman …
- … to T. H. Huxley, [before 12 November 1857] . For a discussion of nineteenth-century …
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 |
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: 5 hits
- … London: John Murray. Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857–61. History of civilization in England. 2 …
- … vol. 6, letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 June [1857] ). CD’s annotated copy of Travers 1864 , …
- … a German academy of naturalists) in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to J. …
- … D. Hooker, 11 September [1857] ). CD’s informant was Charles Loring Brace , a nephew of …
- … 1865 and n. 13). CD refers to Buckle 1857–61 and to Emma Darwin (see letter from J. …
To Fritz Müller 20 September [1865]
Summary
Thanks for interesting letter on climbing plants.
FM’s view on Anelasma seems probable.
Difficulty quoted by FM from A. Agassiz on embryology of Echinodermata is quite beyond CD.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Date: | 20 Sept [1865] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4895 |
To George Henslow [2–5 November 1865]
Summary
Reports the results of an experiment to compare the weight of seeds produced in plants of [Medicago sativa] by self-pollination and by insect pollination.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Henslow |
| Date: | [2–5 Nov 1865] |
| Classmark: | Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 9 (1867): 328 n. |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4929F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and other leguminous plants, made between 1857 and 1859, are in DAR 157a: 33–8 and 45–8. …
To B. D. Walsh 27 March [1865]
Summary
Comments on BDW’s papers ["On certain entomological speculations of the New England school of naturalists", Proc. Entomol. Soc. Philadelphia 3 (1864): 207–49; "On insects inhabiting the galls of certain species of willow", ibid. 3 (1864): 543–644]; much is new to CD.
Asks about wide-ranging insect genera,
Rocky Mt. wingless insects,
willow hybrids,
galls,
and other subjects.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Date: | 27 Mar [1865] |
| Classmark: | Field Musuem of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh 3) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4797 |
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 |
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 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 Asa Gray 19 April [1865]
Summary
Congratulates AG on the "grand news of Richmond".
Still interested in dimorphism and would welcome new cases.
Working on Variation
and correcting proofs of Climbing plants.
Would like seed of AG’s dimorphic Plantago.
Cannot understand how the wind could fertilise reciprocally dimorphic flowers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 19 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (77) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4467 |
To B. D. Walsh 9 July [1865]
Summary
Thanks BDW for his interesting letter [4839] and for the case of Panagaeus, a genus almost sacred to him since Cambridge days.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Date: | 9 July [1865] |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh 4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4867 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … paper on reproduction in Daphnia ( Lubbock 1857 ) for comment (see Correspondence vol. 6, …
To J. D. Hooker [17 June 1865]
Summary
Huxley’s capital, witty letter.
Charles Kingsley has written of his interest in "Climbing plants".
Health has been very bad.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [17 June 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 271 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4862 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … during the Indian Mutiny or Sepoy War of 1857–8. The novel received a favourable review in …
To F. W. Farrar 2 November [1865]
Summary
Has enjoyed FWF’s volume [Chapters on language]. Had found Max Müller’s theory obscure and weak.
Believes FWF would come to agree with him on species if he studied general questions in natural history. To argue for immutability of species on the basis of geology resembles a wise savage in a nation with no books saying his language has never changed.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Frederic William Farrar |
| Date: | 2 Nov [1865] |
| Classmark: | University of Virginia Library, Special Collections (3314 1: 80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4929 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Hensleigh Wedgwood, [before 29 September 1857] , and Correspondence vol. 8, letter from …
To James Philip Mansel Weale 6 May [1865]
Summary
Sends advice on naturalist matters.
W. H. Harvey’s work [with Wilhelm Sonder, Flora capensis (1859–65)],
and Robert Brown’s publication ["On the organs and mode of fecundation in Orchideae and Asclepiadeae", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 16 (1833): 685–745].
Writes of having seen in S. America a Hymenopteran with tarsi covered with pollen-masses of Asclepias.
Interested in JPMW’s researches in South American caverns.
Mentions poor health.
Thanks for tracings.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Philip Mansel Weale |
| Date: | 6 May [1865] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.308) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4828 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] , Correspondence vol. 10, letter to H. …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … distribution of Crustacea in 1856 and 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6). In his work on …
| letter | (15) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Walsh, B. D. | (2) |
| Farrar, F. W. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Henslow, George | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Walsh, B. D. | (2) |
| Farrar, F. W. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
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: 11 hits
- … of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed aspects of …
- … as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test …
- … the alpine plants pretty effectually’ complained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May …
- … of calculation was wrong ( letter to John Lubbock, 14 July [1857] ). Darwin thought his results …
- … experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden vegetables like …
- … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette in October 1857, to be followed by a second notice in 1858. …
- … find the work: am I not a kind Father?’ Darwin wrote in 1857, soon followed by the complaint ‘You …
- … to end!’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, [17 February 1857] and 21 [July 1857] ). The problem of …
- … of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and hardly the veiled …
- … are all vividly displayed in Darwin's letters. By the end of 1857, Darwin was well on the way …
- … long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] ). From this letter it is evident …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was in Darwin’s day. To J. D. Hooker, 3 June [1857] : on the struggle for existence in …
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
- … 2070: Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, C. R., [before 29 Sept 1857] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …
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: 3 hits
- … natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same …
- … to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). …
- … was sent to A. Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October 1857 [‘or perhaps’ del ]’. The printed …
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: 4 hits
- … the Origin of Species…’ FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: 1857-1858 In which Gray and Hooker …
- … JUNE 1855 20 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 21 A GRAY TO C DARWIN, …
- … MARCH 1862 35 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 36 A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
- … OCTOBER 1858 59 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, 12 OCTOBER 1857 60 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, …
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
- … ’s appearance, but there is a fascinating scrap from 1857 comparing his views on species to …
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: 3 hits
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…
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
- … written in 1842 , and, as he told Asa Gray in September 1857 , he intended to call the ‘ big …
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: 7 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
- … 5 3 March 1857 The struggle for existence as bearing on …
- … 6 31 March 1857 On natural selection (DAR 10.2; …
- … 7 29 September 1857 Laws of variation: varieties & …
- … 8 29 September 1857 Difficulties on the theory of …
- … 9 29 December 1857 Hybridism (DAR 12; Natural …
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
- … of other cells. (Letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 14 April 1857 .) In a later letter …
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 …
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…
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,…
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…
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: 3 hits
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: 7 hits
- … ago’, he wrote to the American botanist Asa Gray in July 1857, it occurred to me that …
- … staggered about the permanence of species.— By 1857, Darwin had found the confidence to …
- … And this much acceleration I owe to you. ’ In February 1857, the rate of this acceleration was …
- … the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of strength …
- … in theory of the descent of species ’. In December 1857, Darwin had expressed his satisfaction that …
- … there is no good & original observation ’. In 1857, Darwin recorded in his journal that …
- … varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I am now preparing …
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: 3 hits
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
- … with an abstract of his views sent to Asa Gray in September 1857. The correspondence between Darwin, …
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: 21 hits
- … 112 Jukes. “Students Manual of Geology” [Jukes 1857]— published a few years ago, good on …
- … Lucas l’Heredite Naturelle [Lucas 1847–50] 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami …
- … Thackeray English Humourists [Thackeray 1853] 1857 Jan. Cockburn life of Selby [ …
- … 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6]: Quits [Tautphoeus] 1857] 29 Lutfullah. Life of …
- … Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 Sir J. Mackintosh …
- … Oct. 22. Olmstead Journey through Texas [Olmsted 1857] Dec. Motley’s History of Dutch …
- … 1853]— Aug.— Sherard Osborne’s Quedah [Osborn 1857] d[itt]o d[itt]o Arctic Journal …
- … Harris 1842] Jukes Student Manual of Geology [Jukes 1857] Azara’s Quadrupeds [Azara …
- … *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857. History of civilization in …
- … 21v., 22; 119: 19a Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. 1857. The life of Charlotte Brontë . …
- … [Abstract in DAR 205.3: 138.] 119: 20a ——. 1857. The student’s manual of geology. …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 15v. Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches …
- … 3 vols. Vivay. [Other eds.] *119: 22 Lutfullah. 1857. Autobiography of Lutfullah: a …
- … *119: 23; 128: 5 Napier, William Francis Patrick. 1857. The life and opinions of General …
- … of Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 1858, 1859 . 2 vols. Edinburgh and …
- … on their economy . New York. 128: 25 ——. 1857. A journey through Texas; or, a winter …
- … an Arctic journal\. London. 128: 25 ——. 1857. Quedah; or, stray leaves from a journal …
- … Rouvroy, Louis de, Duke de Saint-Simon Vermandois. 1857. The memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 1v.; 119: 12a Smiles, Samuel. 1857. The life of George Stephenson, …
- … New York. *128: 178 [Tautphoeus, Jemima von]. 1857. Quits; a novel . 3 vols. London. …
- … . Edited by J. C. Morris. Madras. 1833–51. Second series, 1857–. [Abstract in DAR 74: 177.] *119: …
