To Charles Lyell [8 April 1851]
Summary
Detailed critique of CL’s A manual of elementary geology [3d ed. (1851), used in editing 4th ed. (1852)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [8 Apr 1851] |
| Classmark: | Kinnordy MS (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1384 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … C. Lyell 1852 , p. 85), ‘some’ is changed to ‘many’. On the letter Lyell bracketed this …
- … 1852 , 1855) he altered the wording to read: ‘ Elater , Carabus , &c. ’ Although this comment was marked ‘5 th Ed. ’ by Lyell on the letter, …
- … letter it was marked ‘5 th ’ by Lyell. In the fourth edition Lyell changed the wording to ‘an animal belonging to the Crustacea’ ( C. Lyell 1852 , …
- … letter, ‘x’ was inserted before ‘p. 66’, and a vertical line was drawn through the comment. Lyell changed the text of the fourth edition ( C. Lyell 1852 , …
- … 1852 , p. 448, made the point that the fan-like structure resulted from combining portions of two arches. No reference to Studer 1851–3 was made, but CD’s observations on the same point in South America , p. 155, were added. It was CD’s contention that cleavage in slaty rocks and foliation in metamorphic schists were caused by mechanical processes and were unrelated to the original sedimentary depositions. For CD and Lyell’s earlier differences on this question, see Correspondence vol. 4, letter …
To J. D. Hooker 31 [January 1860]
Summary
CD preparing historical sketch, which will go into second American edition of Origin.
Asks JDH to copy out Naudin’s line on finality.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 31 [Jan 1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 38 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2671 |
To [W. E. Darwin] [1857?]
Summary
Will be grateful for facts from Mr Linton on numbers of eggs from goldfinch–canary crosses.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [1857?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 187 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2029 |
To W. D. Fox 22 [March 1860]
Summary
Only proof that internal organs and bones were intermediate would convince CD of the possibility of the astounding [deer] hybrid WDF has reported.
Has WDF positive knowledge that common ganders do not always turn white?
Has begun his larger books. New editions of Origin will appear.
What is right and wrong in it will soon be sifted.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 22 [Mar 1860] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 127) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2733 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter was intended to interrupt and neutralise the formation of oxalic acid and urea during the digestive process. See Headland 1852 , …
- … letter to W. D. Fox, 18 May [1860] . According to Frederick William Headland’s theory of the action of medicines, ‘nitro-muriatic acid’ (nitro-hydrochloric acid) was valuable in the treatment of blood disorders such as gout. He recommended its usage specifically in cases of oxaluria, a condition that was attributed to ‘some fault in the complicated processes of assimilation and nutrition’ ( Headland 1852 , …
To J. D. Hooker 3 August [1863]
Summary
Tendril plants received.
Has just completed large crossing experiment with Lythrum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 3 Aug [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 201 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4261 |
To Williams & Norgate 13 [May 1860]
Summary
Orders latest issues of North British Review and Dublin Magazine of Natural History. Also would like an order placed for him for a French translation of F. Unger, Versuch einer Geschichte der Pflanzen-Welt [1852], if such a translation has appeared.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Williams & Norgate |
| Date: | 13 [May 1860] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2797 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 January [1859]
Summary
Wallace has written and is well satisfied with the joint presentation.
CD requests some facts to make case in his abstract for former glacial action in Himalayas.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 23 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2403 |
To J. D. Hooker 30 September [1857]
Summary
C. F. Ledebour [Flora rossica (1842–53)] particularly useful for variety tabulation. Results generally favourable.
Additions to Down House.
Last two chapters of MS took six months to write.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 30 Sept [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 210 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2148 |
To A. R. Wallace 3 November 1880
Summary
High praise for Island life; ARW’s "best book". Encloses notes of comments and criticism. Hooker pleased by dedication.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 3 Nov 1880 |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434 ff. 292–3); Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (Wallace Papers WP/6/4/1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12791 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 [May 1864]
Summary
CD’s pleasure at JDH’s willingness to help Scott find a position in India.
Naudin underrates contamination of his experiments by insects. Thus CD doubts Naudin’s results on rapidity and universality of reversion in hybrids.
Wallace’s paper on man [see 4494] reflects his genius, although CD does not fully agree with it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 [May 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 236 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4506 |
To Herbert Spencer 2 February [1860]
Summary
Has prepared a historical sketch [of writers on origin of species] for foreign editions of Origin. It includes HS. He was too ill to provide it for the 1st ed.
Sorry Murray has not sent HS his copy of Origin, as he was instructed.
Huxley will put CD and E. A. Darwin down for HS’s gigantic [publishing] programme. Suggests Dr Drysdale be approached about it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
| Date: | 2 Feb [1860] |
| Classmark: | University of London, Senate House Library (MS.791/47) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2680 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1852] to show how thoroughly his argument harmonizes with that I have used at the close of that essay. See also letter …
- … letter to Herbert Spencer, 25 November [1858] ). CD’s copy of the second volume is in the Darwin Library–Down. Spencer’s essay ‘The development hypothesis’, number 2 of ‘The Hawthorne papers’ originally published in The Leader in 1852, …
To James Dwight Dana 9 September [1851]
Summary
Thanks him for letter and Balanus specimen.
Acasta is curious; may be a new genus.
Is sending copy [of Fossil Cirripedia 1]. Correcting proofs [of Living Cirripedia 1].
Mentions comment by Hermann Abich on JDD’s chapters on the Sandwich Islands [in Geology (1849)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 9 Sept [1851] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 43) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1453 |
To J. D. Hooker 25 [August 1863]
Summary
CD’s illness: he is vomiting "vegetable" cells.
Dutrochet has published the best of CD’s observations on tendrils [see Climbing plants, p. 1 n.].
Lyell has found Joshua Trimmer’s Arctic shells on Moel Tryfan.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 25 [Aug 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 204 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4274 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letters, 1792–1896. Edited by Henrietta Litchfield. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1915. Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1852. …
- … 1852 ); there is a presentation copy of the pamphlet in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. The reference is to the French plant physiologist René Joachim Henri Dutrochet and to Dutrochet 1843 and 1844 (see letter …
To T. H. Huxley 23 April [1853]
Summary
On THH’s paper on cephalous Mollusca [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 143 (1853) pt 1: 29–66]. Discovery of the type or "idea" (in THH’s sense, not Owen’s or Agassiz’s) is one of the highest ends of natural history.
Discusses anamorphism;
position of heart in Cleodora.
Variability within species;
cementing process in cirripedes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 23 Apr [1853] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1480 |
To J. D. Caton 24 May 1869
Summary
Discusses secondary hoofs in antelope and deer.
Mentions tuft of hair on turkey hen.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Dean Caton |
| Date: | 24 May 1869 |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 255 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6757 |
To John Lubbock 10 [September 1853]
Summary
Asks about source of paper on the metamorphosis of Pycnogonida for C. S. Bate.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 10 [Sept 1853] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.97) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1365 |
To Charles Lyell 7 June [1853]
Summary
Describes meeting of Geological Society [1 June 1853].
Mentions his criticism of Murchison’s lecture on flints.
Describes Robert Chambers’ "On the glacial phenomena in Scotland" [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 54 (1853): 229–82].
Mentions controversial election of members to the Royal Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 7 June [1853] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.107) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1518 |
To ? 31 December [1852–3]
Summary
Responds to correspondent’s request for information about shells from the Coquimbo beds in Chile. Difficulty in deciding on age of deposits and species. Notes views of Alcide d’Orbigny.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 31 Dec [1852-3] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Autograph File, D) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13872 |
To John Stevens Henslow 11 December [1851]
Summary
Sends cirripede specimens for Ipswich Museum.
Asks how much a village fireworks display would cost.
Comments on the need in education for good habits of expression and accurate observation instead of making "wretched Latin verses".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 11 Dec [1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A85–A88 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1463 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter from J. S. Henslow, 2 November 1840 ; Russell-Gebbett 1977 , p. 75). CD’s Account book (Down House MS) has an entry on 20 July 1852 …
- … letter to J. S. Henslow, 16 September [1842] ; Russell-Gebbett, p. 100). The ten plates referred to are those of Living Cirripedia (1851), which was then in press. An entry dated 20 July 1852 …
To James Dwight Dana 15 June [1851]
Summary
Thanks for note of 13 May and tracings of the "curious Bopyrid".
Is astonished at amount of work JDD does and frightened it will cause ill-health, such as CD has experienced.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 15 June [1851] |
| Classmark: | Gilman 1899, p. 310 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2107 |
| letter | (193) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (33) |
| Dana, J. D. | (14) |
| Lyell, Charles | (12) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (8) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (193) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (33) |
| Dana, J. D. | (14) |
| Lyell, Charles | (12) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (8) |
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend …
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
George Busk
Summary
After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until the material was sent, in 1852, for study by George Busk, one of the foremost workers on the group of his day. In 1863, on the way down to Malvern Wells, Darwin had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 …
Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
Summary
Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it’s hard to choose from many letters that stand out, but one of this editor’s favourites, that always brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it …
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: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Arthur Mellersh
Summary
Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at the time when Darwin was travelling around the world. One account suggests an inauspicious start to their friendship; apparently Mellersh introduced himself…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
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
- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
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 …
Fritz Müller
Summary
Fritz Müller, a German who spent most of his life in political exile in Brazil, described Darwin as his second father, and Darwin's son, Francis, wrote that, although they never met 'the correspondence with Müller, which continued to the close of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Francis Darwin, in Life and letters of Charles Darwin , wrote of Fritz Müller They …
