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Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest

Summary

The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of  Origin. Darwin got the fourth…

Matches: 18 hits

  • The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of
  • and also a meeting with Herbert Spencer, who was visiting Darwins neighbour, Sir John Lubbock. In
  • Pound foolish, Penurious, Pragmatical Prigs’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1866] ). But
  • all but the concluding chapter of the work was submitted by Darwin to his publisher in December. …
  • able to write easy work for about 1½ hours every day’ ( letter to H. B. Jones, 3 January [1866] ). …
  • once daily to make the chemistry go on better’ ( letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866] ). …
  • see you out with our beagles before the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866
  • work doing me any harmany how I cant be idle’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 August [1866] ). …
  • production of which Tegetmeier had agreed to supervise ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January
  • you go on, after the startling apparition of your face at R.S. Soirèewhich I dreamed of 2 nights
  • so you are in for it’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [  c . 10 May 1866] ). Henriettas
  • teleological development ( see for example, letter to C. W. Nägeli, 12 June [1866] ). Also in
  • common broom ( Cytisus scoparius ) and the white broom ( C. multiflorus ) in his botanical
  • and June on the subject of  Rhamnus catharticus  (now  R. cathartica ). Darwin had become
  • of separate sexes. William gathered numerous specimens of  R. catharticus , the only species of  …
  • replied with a modified list, adding Fritz Müllers  Für Darwin , and a recent fossil discovery in
  • selection, and with special creation ( letter from W. R. Grove, 31 August 1866 ). Hooker later
  • indeed at poor Susans loneliness’ ( letter from E. C. Langton to Emma and Charles Darwin, [6 and 7

Cross and self fertilisation

Summary

The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…

Matches: 23 hits

  • the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwins belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells
  • on plants with two or three different forms of flowers, Darwin had focused on the anatomical and
  • of different forms of pollen. Although many plants that Darwin observed had flowers with adaptations
  • rates, growth, and constitutional vigour. Although Darwin was no stranger to long months and years
  • … … is highly remarkableIn September 1866, Darwin announced to the American botanist
  • is highly remarkable’ ( To Asa Gray, 10 September [1866] ). By early December, the French botanist
  • for several years ( To Édouard Bornet, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin began a series of experiments, …
  • … ). It was only after a new season of experiments that Darwin would confirm that this poppy shed its
  • access to flowers was only the tip of the iceberg. Darwin next focused on the California
  • climatic conditions’ ( From Fritz Müller, 1 December 1866 ). Darwins interest was piqued and he
  • when self-fertilised, although fewer than crossed plants. Darwin sent some of these seeds to Müller, …
  • … [1868] ). Müller, in turn, sent seeds from his plants to Darwin and both men continued to
  • Müller remarked, on receiving a new batch of seeds from Darwin, ‘that it wascurious to see, on
  • seeds of Ipomœa. I remember saying the contrary to you & M r  Smith at Kew. But the result is
  • 17 March [1867] ). He noted another factor in a letter to Gray, remarking, ‘I am going on with my
  • not exist in Britain. During a visit to Darwin in May 1866, Robert Caspary, a specialist in
  • I am already plagued by foreign Translators, Reviewers, &c.’ ( To John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). …
  • In June 1873, Delpino informed Darwin that gardeners in Florence kept varieties of sweet peas
  • … [1873] ). In September, Darwin wrote a long letter to Nature commenting on a seemingly
  • the set of all my works, I would suggest 1,500’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 ). In the
  • of hybrids, has not yet been produced’ ( From ARWallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this
  • were also positive, but George Henslow, in his review in GardenersChronicle , criticised Darwin
  • without consulting my book’ ( To  GardenersChronicle , 19 February [1877] ). In contrast, as

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: 20 hits

  • Darwin begansorting notes for Species Theoryon 9 September 1854, the
  • day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles ( Darwin's Journal ). He had long
  • to paper in a more substantial essay. By this point, Darwin had also admitted to his close friend
  • he acknowledged, ‘ like confessing a murder ’. While Darwin recognised he had far more work to do
  • reaction to the transmutation theory it contained convinced Darwin that further evidence for the
  • of Vestiges to him. It took another ten years before Darwin felt ready to start collating his
  • six months before he started sorting his species notes, Darwin had worried that the process would
  • I shall feel, if I when I get my notes together on species &c &c, the whole thing explodes
  • immutability of species ’, he told his cousin William Darwin Fox. Experimental work
  • set up to provide crucial evidence for his arguments. Fox, Darwin assumed, would have bred pigeons
  • intensely bred to exaggerate particular characters, would, Darwin believed, clearly exhibit the
  • amusementand be ahorrid bore ’. Contrary to Darwins expectations, however, the pigeon
  • Henrietta . In April 1855, at the same time as Darwin began his pigeon breeding programme, …
  • Hoping to benefit from Hookers botanical expertise, Darwin inquired: ‘ will you tell me at a
  • to the entire natural history community by sending a letter to the GardenersChronicle , …
  • land bridges suggested by the naturalist Edward Forbes. Darwin declared to Hooker in July 1856y
  • geograph. distribution, geological historyaffinities &c &c &c.. And it seems to me, …
  • it adequately. On 18 June 1858, Darwin received a now lost letter from Wallace enclosing his essay
  • I had, however, quite resigned myself & had written half a letter to Wallace to give up all
  • and a half chapters were edited and published in 1975 by R. C. Stauffer under the title Charles

Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments

Summary

The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…

Matches: 24 hits

  • In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwins mind was the writing of  The variation of animals and
  • letters on climbing plants to make another paper. Darwin also submitted a manuscript of his
  • protégé, John Scott, who was now working in India. Darwins transmutation theory continued to
  • Argyll, appeared in the religious weeklyGood Words . Darwin received news of an exchange of
  • Butler, and, according to Butler, the bishop of Wellington. Darwins theory was discussed at an
  • year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend of
  • in August. There was also a serious dispute between two of Darwins friends, John Lubbock and
  • The death of Hugh Falconer Darwins first letter to Hooker of 1865 suggests that the family
  • having all the Boys at home: they make the house jolly’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] …
  • had failed to include among the grounds of the award ( see letter from Hugh Falconer to Erasmus
  • his letters to Darwin, and Darwin responded warmly: ‘Your letter is by far the grandest eulogium
  • may well rest content that I have not laboured in vain’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 6 January [1865] …
  • always a most kind friend to me. So the world goes.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 February [1865] …
  • for our griefs & pains: these alone are unalloyed’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 February 1865
  • gas.— Sic transit gloria mundi, with a vengeance’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] ). …
  • added, ‘I know it is folly & nonsense to try anyone’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] …
  • ineffective, and Darwin had given it up by early July ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865] …
  • Darwin had received a copy of Müllers bookFür Darwin , a study of the Crustacea with reference
  • … … inheritance, reversion, effects of use & disuse &c’, and which he intended to publish in
  • instalment of Friedrich Rolles  Der Mensch  (Rolle 1866), a study of the development of human
  • other things, Darwins theory; this was reported in the  GardenersChronicle . Samuel
  • He wrote to Hooker, ‘I doubt whether you or I or any one c d  do any good in healing this breach. …
  • Hookers behalf, ‘He asks if you saw the article of M r . Croll in the last Reader on the
  • … ‘As for your thinking that you do not deserve the C[opley] Medal,’ he rebuked Hooker, ‘that I

Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts

Summary

At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of  Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…

Matches: 25 hits

  • At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of  …
  • had surfaced since the fourth edition appeared at the end of 1866 and had told his cousin William
  • … & I am sick of correcting’ ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to W. D. Fox, 12 December [1868
  • Well it is a beginning, & that is something’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869] ). …
  • material on emotional expression. Yet the scope of Darwins interests remained extremely broad, and
  • plants, and earthworms, subjects that had exercised Darwin for decades, and that would continue to
  • Carl von  Nägeli and perfectibility Darwins most substantial addition to  Origin  was a
  • a Swiss botanist and professor at Munich (Nägeli 1865). Darwin had considered Nägelis paper
  • principal engine of change in the development of species. Darwin correctly assessed Nägelis theory
  • in most morphological features (Nägeli 1865, p. 29). Darwin sent a manuscript of his response (now
  • made any blunders, as is very likely to be the case’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). …
  • than I now see is possible or probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , …
  • is strengthened by the facts in distribution’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Darwin
  • tropical species using Crolls theory. In the same letter to Croll, Darwin had expressed
  • of information which I have sent prove of any service to M r . Darwin I can supply him with much
  • … & proximate cause in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ).  More
  • April 1869 ). Since his marriage to Annie Mitten in 1866, Wallace had become involved in the
  • and the bird of paradise  (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and
  • an injustice & never demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). …
  • species that Darwin had investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a
  • in the formation of the soil ( letter to  GardenersChronicle , 9 May [1869] ). In March
  • genus that he had studied in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This
  • Sweetland Dallass edition of Fritz Müllers  Für Darwin  (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an
  • whole meeting was decidedly Huxleys answer to D r  M c Cann. He literally poured boiling oil
  • when he was thrown by his horse. Having been advised in 1866 by the doctor Henry Bence Jones to go

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: 24 hits

  • On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July
  • … … of having grown older’. This portrait, the first of Darwin with his now famous beard, had been
  • 52 hours without vomiting!! In the same month, Darwin began to consult William Jenner, …
  • prescribed a variety of antacids and purgatives, and limited Darwins fluid intake; this treatment
  • the dimorphic aquatic cut-grass  Leersia . In May, Darwin finished his paper on  Lythrum
  • he had set aside the previous summer. In October, Darwin let his friends know that on his
  • and he received more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the
  • As Darwin explained to his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the
  • observations indoors ( Correspondence  vol. 11). In a letter of [27 January 1864] , Darwin
  • gradation by which  leaves  produce tendrils’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [8 February 1864] ). …
  • fearfully for it is a leaf climber & therefore sacred’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 June [1864] …
  • matters which routinists regard in the light of axioms’ ( letter from Daniel Oliver, [17 March 1864
  • long series of changes . . .’ When he told Asa Gray in a letter of 29 October [1864] that he was
  • …  paper was published, Darwin remarked to Hooker in a letter of 26 November [1864] that nothing
  • of the two species with the common oxlip. In a letter of 22 October [1864] , Darwin triumphantly
  • by this case to add it to future publications, including the 1866 edition of  Origin . He
  • on different species. of all classes of men Gardeners are the most troublesome
  • would be provoked by Scotts position, suggesting that the gardeners were often at odds with one
  • warned Darwin: ‘Do pray take care, of all classes of men Gardeners are the most troublesomethey
  • expertise. He maintained his contacts with a large body of gardeners, horticulturalists, and animal
  • for Variation , he asked readers of the  GardenersChronicle  to consult their old gardening
  • 5 September 1864 ). Fritz Müeller sent his bookFür Darwin , and Darwin had it translated by a
  • but Lyell says when I read his discussion in the Elements [C. Lyell 1865] I shall recant for fifth
  • on intellectual &ampmoral  qualities’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 [May 1864] ). …

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: 22 hits

  • Re: DesignAdaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and othersby Craig
  • as the creator of this dramatisation, and that of the Darwin Correspondence Project to be identified
  • correspondence or published writings of Asa Gray, Charles Darwin, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Jane Loring
  • Actor 1Asa Gray Actor 2Charles Darwin Actor 3In the dress of a modern day
  • Agassiz, Adam Sedgwick, A Friend of John Stuart Mill, Emma Darwin, Horace Darwinand acts as a sort
  • the play unfolds and acting as a go-between between Gray and Darwin, and between the audience and
  • this, he sends out copies of his Review of the Life of Darwin. At this time in his life, Asa
  • friends in England, copies of hisReview of the Life of Darwin’… pencilling the address so that it
  • Joseph D Hooker GRAY:   3   Charles Darwinmade his home on the border of the little
  • his University) and is much less his own man. A letter from England catches his attention
  • 11   My dear HookerWhat a remarkably nice and kind letter Dr A. Gray has sent me in answer to my
  • be of any the least use to you? If so I would copy itHis letter does strike me as most uncommonly
  • on the geographical distribution of the US plants; and if my letter caused you to do this some year
  • By the way I ventured to send a few days ago a copy of the GardenersChronicle, with a short report
  • a brace of letters 25   I send enclosed [a letter for you from Asa Gray], received
  • might like to see it; please be sure [to] return it. If your letter is Botanical and has nothing
  • Atlantic. HOOKER:   28   Thanks for your letter and its enclosure from A. Gray which
  • notions of natural Selection and would see whether it or my letter bears any date, I should be very
  • 55   My good dear friend, forgive me. This is a trumpery letter influenced by trumpery feelings. …
  • paragraph, in which I quote and differ from you[r178   doctrine that each variation has been
  • ARTS AND SCIENCES, PROCEEDINGS XVII, 1882 4  C DARWIN TO JD HOOKER 10 MAY 1848
  • AUGUST 1865 172  C DARWIN TO A GRAY 16 APRIL 1866 173  C DARWIN TO ASA

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: 26 hits

  • In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to
  • … (DAR 119) opens with five pages of text copied from Notebook C and carries on through 1851; the
  • used these notebooks extensively in dating and annotating Darwins letters; the full transcript
  • … *128). For clarity, the transcript does not record Darwins alterations. The spelling and
  • book had been consulted. Those cases where it appears that Darwin made a genuine deletion have been
  • to be Read [DAR *119: Inside Front Cover] C. Darwin June 1 st . 1838
  • … [DAR *119: 2v.] Whites regular gradation in man [C. White 1799] Lindleys
  • 8 vo  p 181 [Latreille 1819]. see p. 17 Note Book C. for reference to authors about E. Indian
  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824
  • 183440]: In Portfolio ofabstracts34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm
  • M rs  Frys Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … [Fellows 1839] Catherine 48 Life of Collins R.A. [Collins 1848] Phases of Faith
  • Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleays letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • of Dublin ] Vol 1.— abstracted. Nov. Some vols. of GardenersMagazine [ Gardener's
  • Novum organum.— Work on Hybridism reviewed in Gardeners Chronicle in 1852. by Wagner? [Unger
  • Horticole No 911 89  1853 [Lecoq 1853]. Reviewed in Gardeners Ch. July 3153 [Anon. 1853] …
  • in Nat. Hist. (Kippist) Linn. Soc. 95 The Gardeners Magazine of Botany [ Gardener& …
  • Distrib. Price William & Norgate 2126 [A. Murray 1866] Wollaston Coleoptera
  • experiments performed by Lord Arthur Hervey in 1843 in  GardenersChronicle and Agricultural
  • Ungers book on hybridism was reviewed in  GardenersChronicle and Agricultural Gazette , no. 32
  • of H. Lecoq's work on  Mirabilis ].  GardenersChronicle and Agricultural Gazette  no. 31, …
  • 1848Memoirs of the life of William   Collins, Esq., R.A.  2 vols. London.  *119: 23; 119: …
  • by Richard Owen.  Vol. 4 of  The works of John Hunter, F.R.S. with notes . Edited by James F. …
  • Robert. 1843Memoirs of the life of John   Constable, R.A., composed chiefly of his letters. …
  • 18091.]  *119: 22v.; 119: 22a Murray, Andrew. 1866The geographical distribution of   …
  • Peacock, George. 1855Life of Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.S.  London.  *128: 172; 128: 21