To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 19 November [1873]
Summary
Sends the very little globulin and haemoglobin he has to be tested with artificial gastric juice. He could get more from Samuel William Moore. Perhaps T. L. Brunton knows about the digestion of chlorophyll by animals.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
Date: | 19 Nov [1873] |
Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9155 |
To Edward Frankland 12 July 1873
Summary
Seeks the assistance of a professional chemist in securing a qualitative analysis of the fluid secreted by the glands of Drosera which have the power of dissolving animal matter out of the bodies of insects. [See 8979.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Frankland |
Date: | 12 July 1873 |
Classmark: | The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8977A |
To T. L. Brunton 3 December 1873
Summary
Is interested in comparative nutritive values of chondrin and gelatin. The former seems to excite Drosera more, though albumen does so to a higher degree than either. Also asks if chlorophyll is digested by animals; Drosera digests it hardly at all.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st baronet |
Date: | 3 Dec 1873 |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9168 |
To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 14 September [1873]
Summary
Very pleased at JSBS’s discovery ["On the electrical phenomena which accompany the contractions of the leaf of Dionaea muscipula", Rep. BAAS 43 (1873): 133].
Asks for pure animal substances [proteins] for Drosera experiments. His other sources have been T. L. Brunton, Edward Frankland, W. A. Miller (now dead), and Hoffmann of Berlin [A. W. von Hofmann?].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
Date: | 14 Sept [1873] |
Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9056 |
To [W. W. Baxter?] 11 May [1873]
Summary
Requests litmus paper and gum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
Date: | 11 May [1873] |
Classmark: | Columbia University in the City of New York, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Herter Box 1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8319 |
To M. D. Conway 12 September [1873]
Summary
Thanks for strange debate, which CD returns. Principle of evolution has first-rate supporters in [Edward Sylvester?] Morse and Theodore Nicholas Gill.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Moncure Daniel Conway |
Date: | 12 Sept [1873] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9051 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … letter and the letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] ). See letter from M. …
- … D. Conway, 10 September [1873] . See letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] and …
- … on 5 September 1873. See letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] and n. 2. …
- … Advancement of Science (see letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] and n. 4); in …
To Ernst Haeckel 20 January 1873
Summary
On EH’s Die Kalkschwämme [1872].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
Date: | 20 Jan 1873 |
Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1: 52/29) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8743 |
To Edward Frankland 13 October 1873
Summary
Finds the negative information sent by EF of great interest [see 9094].
More on his own experiments and the perplexing results when using the sensitive litmus paper.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Frankland |
Date: | 13 Oct 1873 |
Classmark: | The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9096A |
To Francis Galton 28 May 1873
Summary
Comments about questionnaire CD completed for FG [for Galton’s English men of science (1874)].
Describes his early interest in collecting and his education.
Asks about determining the mean heights of two groups of men.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Galton |
Date: | 28 May 1873 |
Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/15); Pearson 1914–30, 2: 178 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8924 |
To Edward Frankland [10 November 1873]
Summary
Requests permission to call upon EF either Friday or Saturday morning [14 or 15 November].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Frankland |
Date: | [10 Nov 1873] |
Classmark: | The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9137A |
To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 24 June 1873
Summary
Wishes JSBS to look over an abstract of his Drosera experiments and to answer some questions on it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
Date: | 24 June 1873 |
Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-10) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8948 |
To Nature [before 3 April 1873]
Summary
"The following fact with respect to the habits of ants, which I believe to be quite new, has been sent to me by a distinguished geologist, Mr J. D. Hague [see 8788]; and it appears well worth publishing."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Nature |
Date: | [before 3 Apr 1873] |
Classmark: | Nature, 10 April 1873, pp. 443–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8853 |
To James Crichton-Browne 4 March [1873]
Summary
Pleased that JC-B will review Expression.
Fears he will not be able to improve the book with JC-B’s "wonderfully curious" photographs because Murray printed such a large edition.
Would be glad to have JC-B’s notes on inheritance – "a most important subject".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Crichton-Browne |
Date: | 4 Mar [1873] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 343 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8798 |
To Nature [before 24 July 1873]
Summary
Sends a letter from J. D. Hague confirming his earlier observation [see 8788] of frightened behaviour of ants when they come upon dead ants. CD had asked for confirmation because J. T. Moggridge had suggested that the ants’ behaviour was alarm at the scent of the observer’s fingers.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Nature |
Date: | [before 24 July 1873] |
Classmark: | Nature, 24 July 1873, p. 244 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8985 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 August 1873
Summary
Asks JDH why so many plants are protected by a thin layer of waxy matter or with fine hairs.
Wrote to John Smith for a plant of Oxalis sensitiva, but it has not acted well.
Rejoices over Ayrton’s retirement. Hopes W. P. Adam, his successor, is a good sort of man.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 Aug 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 270–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9007 |
To J. D. Hooker 18 October [1873]
Summary
Hopes to get another species of Desmodium from Mr Rollisson.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 18 Oct [1873] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (JDH/3/6 Insectivorous plants 1873–8 f.3a) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9100 |
To Francis Darwin 22 October 1873
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
Date: | 22 Oct 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 271.3: 10 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9106 |
To J. D. Hooker 31 October 1873
Summary
On Nepenthes.
Asks JDH, if he publishes, to mention CD’s work on digestive powers of Drosera so that charges of plagiarism will not be made against CD later when he publishes.
Describes at length his observations on the movements of Desmodium.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 31 Oct 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 95: 300–3 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9118 |
To J. D. Hooker 17 February 1873
Summary
Is drawing up the account of his crossing experiments. Requests JDH to add the families after nine genera, the names of which he encloses. Whenever there is no objection he would like to arrange the families in some sort of natural order.
Recommends Spalding’s article on instinct in Macmillan’s Magazine [27 (1873): 265–81].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 17 Feb 1873 |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 257–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8769 |
To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 15 August 1873
Summary
Thinks it would be worth while testing for electrical changes in the leaves of insectivorous plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
Date: | 15 Aug 1873 |
Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-13) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9013 |
letter | (46) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (4) |
Frankland, Edward | (4) |
Darwin, G. H. | (3) |
Lyell, Charles | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (46) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (4) |
Frankland, Edward | (4) |
Darwin, G. H. | (3) |
Reading my roommate’s illustrious ancestor: To T. H. Huxley, 10 June 1868
Summary
My roommate at Harvard College was Tom Baum, now a Hollywood screenwriter. Tom’s full name is Thomas Henle Baum, his middle name a reference to a German physician ancestor for whom the ‘Loop of Henle’ in the kidney had been named. Other than this iconic…
Matches: 1 hits
- … My roommate at Harvard College was Tom Baum, now a Hollywood screenwriter. Tom’s full name is …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
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 …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
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, 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: 1 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began …
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 …
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 …
Schools Gallery: Using Darwin’s letters in the classroom
Summary
English| History| Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead the way Year 9 English pupils at Ulverston Victoria High School spent several weeks studying Darwin’s letters, including comparing sections from Darwin’s ‘Voyage of the Beagle’ to letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … English | History | Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead …
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: 1 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts of …
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s daughter Henrietta wrote the following journal entries in March and July 1871 in …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species , …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 1 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not …
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 …
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 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 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 …