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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: 28 hits

  • … be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August …
  • … pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such …
  • … And … one looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • … was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • … inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October …
  • … in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • … that Mr Williams was ‘a cheat and an imposter’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 ). …
  • … his, ‘& that he was thus free to perform his antics’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 29 January [1874 …
  • … Darwin had allowed ‘a spirit séance’ at his home ( letter from T. G. Appleton, 2 April 1874 ). …
  • … edition, published in 1842 ( Correspondence  vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 17 …
  • … Hooker, and finally borrowed one from Charles Lyell ( letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January …
  • … to take so sweetly all the horrid bother of correction’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 21 [March …
  • … sent an apology for misinterpreting Darwin on this point ( letter from J. D. Dana, 21 July 1874 ); …
  • … Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It …
  • … of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwin’s publisher. So …
  • … to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was …
  • … number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George …
  • … anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and …
  • … as ‘the natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • … to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of …
  • … the sale was agreed in April for £300 ( letter from John Lubbock, 2 April 1874 ), a high price …
  • … for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results …
  • … attached to a thread after immersion it looks like a ball of rock crystal refracting the light most …
  • … of other insect-eating plants. The surgeon and botanist John Ralfs sent  Utricularia  from …
  • … in order to work on its difficult structures ( letter to John Ralfs, 13 July [1874] ). The …
  • … a printed appeal for funds, raising £860 ( Circular to John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, …
  • … from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] ). He tried to persuade John Murray to publish a second edition …
  • … authority on marriage customs in  Descent  ( see letter John Murray, 9 May [1874] ). He …

4.24 'Daily Graphic', Nast satire

Summary

< Back to Introduction In 1874 the Harvard philosopher John Fiske published his magnum opus, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, in which he set out to explain the far-reaching significance of Darwin’s and Herbert Spencer’s evolutionary theories. He…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … to Introduction In 1874 the Harvard philosopher John Fiske published his magnum opus, …
  • … cartoon by the famous Thomas Nast, entitled ‘Professor John Fisk [sic] flys the evolution kite in …
  • … adds that ‘The unknowable is the kite, the string of the ball is evolution, the rolls of paper are …
  • … polemic was clearly an ordeal to the recipient. Darwin’s letter of thanks to Fiske was …
  • … The Daily Graphic 5: 474 (12 Sept. 1874), front page. John Fiske, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy …
  • … 1874); there were many subsequent editions. Fiske’s letter to Darwin, introducing himself and …
  • … (10 June 1879) and DCP-LETT-12606 (14 May [1880]). John Spencer Clark, The Life and Letters of …

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: 26 hits

  • … ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run’ ( letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1882 ) …
  • … fertility of crosses between differently styled plants ( letter from Fritz Müller, 1 January 1882 …
  • … In January, Darwin corresponded with George John Romanes about new varieties of sugar cane produced …
  • … François Marie Glaziou (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Arthur de Souza Corrêa, 20 …
  • … quite untirable & I am glad to shirk any extra labour’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 6 January …
  • … probably intending to test its effects on chlorophyll ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). …
  • … we know about the life of any one plant or animal!’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). He …
  • … of seeing the flowers & experimentising on them’ ( letter to J. E. Todd, 10 April 1882 ). …
  • … find stooping over the microscope affects my heart’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). …
  • … Quarterly Review , owned by Darwin’s publisher John Murray, carried an anonymous article on the …
  • … sooner or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The …
  • … leaves into their burrows ( Correspondence vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 …
  • … on the summit, whence it rolls down the sides’ ( letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 ). The …
  • … light on it, which would have pleased me greatly’ ( letter from J. H. Gilbert, 9 January 1882, …
  • … annelid seemed to have rather the best of the fight’ ( letter from G. F. Crawte, 11 March 1882 ). …
  • … by the American educator Emily Talbot (Talbot ed. 1882). His letter to Talbot written the previous …
  • … by the flippant witlings of the newspaper press’ ( letter from A. T. Rice, 4 February 1882 ). Rice …
  • … men, and their role as providers for the family. In his letter, he conceded that there was ‘some …
  • … Darwin had a less heated discussion with the painter John Collier on the topic of science and art. …
  • … himself to so dreadful a man, as Huxley’ ( letter to John Collier, 16 February 1882 ). Collier had …
  • … be the same without my consciousness?’ ( letter from John Collier, 22 February 1882 ; T. H. Huxley …
  • … praised by his scientific peers. A lecture by Robert Stawell Ball that was printed in Nature …
  • … and admirers. One of the most touching was from John Lubbock, whose interest in natural history at …
  • … we adjourned as a small tribute of respect’ (letter from John Lubbock to Francis Darwin, 20 April …
  • … ). Darwin’s former mentor at University of Cambridge, John Stevens Henslow, was not a …
  • … Origin, a number of Darwin’s friends, Huxley, John Lubbock, and Charles Lyell, each addressed the …

Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution

Summary

The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’.  Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

Matches: 30 hits

  • … shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December …
  • … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
  • … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
  • … who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). …
  • … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
  • … thro’ apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] …
  • … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
  • … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
  • … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
  • … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
  • … to their belief that all demons and spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 …
  • … . . Could you make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] …
  • … or crying badly; but I fear he will not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] …
  • … Lucy Wedgwood, who sent a sketch of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). …
  • … is the inclination to finish my note on this subject’  ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). …
  • … the previous year (see  Correspondence  vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His …
  • … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
  • … towards each other, though in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). …
  • … version of the theory of descent by natural selection in a letter to Darwin, prompting much anxiety …
  • … But who is to criticise them? No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). …
  • … me to be able to say that I  never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). …
  • … design. Darwin commented on Mivart’s essay in a letter to William Henry Flower: ‘I am glad …
  • … time wd be wasted if I once began to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ) …
  • … laborious & valuable labours on the Primates’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 23 April [1870] ). …
  • … Ape than such an Ape differs from a lump of granite’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 22 April 1870 …
  • … withstood the excitement of a commemoration than I could a ball at Buckingham Palace’ ( letter to B …
  • … the mother and foetus during pregnancy. As a case in point, John Jenner Weir described the offspring …
  • … also discussed recent experiments by Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall that provided evidence for the …
  • … a memorandum. He asked his neighbour, the naturalist John Lubbock, who was now MP for Maidstone, to …
  • … reference to mankind of much importance ’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 17 July 1870 ). The motion to …

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: 27 hits

  • … in Unconscious memory in November 1880 and in an abusive letter about Darwin in the St James’s …
  • … memory in Kosmos and sent Darwin a separate letter for publication in the Journal of Popular …
  • … publishers decided to print ‘500 more, making 2000’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January 1881 ) …
  • … the animal learnt from its own individual experience ( letter from G. J. Romanes, 7 March 1881 ). …
  • … whether observations of their behaviour were trustworthy ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 March [1881] …
  • … eager to send his draft to the printers without delay, asked John Murray, his publisher, to make an …
  • … about the sale of books being ‘a game of chance’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 12 April 1881 ). On 18 …
  • … laboratory. The Lake District may have reminded Darwin of John Ruskin, who lived there. Sending the …
  • … for more suggestions of such plants, especially annuals ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 21 March …
  • … supposed he would feel ‘less sulky in a day or two’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 July 1881 ). The …
  • … dead a work falls at this late period of the season’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 30 July 1881 ). …
  • … conversation with you’, a Swedish teacher told him ( letter from C. E. Södling, 14 October 1881 ), …
  • … add, however little, to the general stock of knowledge’ ( letter to E. W. Bok, 10 May 1881 ). …
  • … regular ‘bread-winners’ ( Correspondence vol. 30, letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). …
  • … any future publication & to acknowledge any criticism’ ( letter to C. G. Semper, 19 July 1881 …
  • … view of the nature & capabilities of the Fuegians’ ( letter to W. P. Snow, 22 November 1881 ). …
  • … the kindly protection of the high priests of science’ ( letter from Francisco de Arruda Furtado, 29 …
  • … Nature , which he thought ‘an excellent Journal’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 4 July [1881] ). In …
  • … minds, without being in the least conscious of it’ ( letter to Alexander Agassiz, 5 May 1881 ). …
  • … this produced about the year 1840(?) on all our minds’ ( letter to John Lubbock, [18 September 1881 …
  • … big one’ and had ‘gone much out’ of his mind ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 20 June [1881] ). Feeling …
  • … than for originality’, and telling Hooker, ‘Your long letter has stirred many pleasant memories of …
  • … poured in so atrocious a manner on all physiologists’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 18 April 1881 ). …
  • … George Jesse and Frances Power Cobbe. Jesse, in a private letter, stated that Darwin must not have …
  • … Royal Commission for the regulation of vivisection, and a letter from Cobbe in The Times made …
  • … on 27 May . Romanes assured Darwin that the artist, John Collier, Huxley’s son-in-law, was ‘such a …
  • … Darwin told his old Cambridge University friend John Price on 27 December . As Darwin rejoiced in …

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: 5 hits

  • times at intervals. He tries to imitate simple sounds, asball”.— He learned to smack his hand &amp
  • our door N o  12 and N o  11 is in the slit for the Letter box.— he decidedly ran past N o  11
  • has learned them from my sometimes changing the first letter in any word he is usingthus I say
  • … , pp. 1312. [6Correspondence  vol. 2, letter from Emma Wedgwood, [23 January 1839] . …
  • … (Wedgwood and Wedgwood 1980, facing p. 34). [32John Allen Wedgwood, vicar of Maer. …