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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: 25 hits

  • … The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The …
  • … machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December [1870] ). Finishing Descent; …
  • … some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working hard on …
  • … I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had previously read proof-sheets …
  • … shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). Henrietta disagreed: ‘Certainly …
  • … of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February 1870] ). Darwin was also encouraged …
  • … apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] ). …
  • … & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870?] ). …
  • … [1868] ; this volume, letter to Thomas Woolner, 10 March [1870] ). Darwin included Woolner’s …
  • … findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March 1870 ). Indeed, Darwin noted the same …
  • … bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). Researching expression: …
  • … spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 ). Keen for more evidence of …
  • … hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] ). Darwin made a similar request of …
  • … not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] ). Darwin’s queries were part …
  • … of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). He also wrote to a leading Dutch …
  • … to finish my note on this subject’  ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). Human …
  • … more fully in a collection of essays published in April 1870 (Wallace 1870a). Wallace wrote to …
  • … naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). Despite their increasing …
  • … in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). Darwin alluded here to the …
  • … No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). Darwin very rarely used the …
  • … never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). St George Jackson Mivart …
  • … to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ). In his letters to Mivart, Darwin …
  • … on the Primates’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 23 April [1870] ). He also tried to recruit Mivart’s …
  • … lump of granite’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 22 April 1870 ). Mivart hinted that his …
  • … attending college lectures for the time being ( letter to [E.W. Blore], [October 1870 or later] ). …

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: 3 hits

  • … Letter 7179 - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, [5 May 1870] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, …
  • … Letter 7124 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [8 February 1870] Darwin seeks Henrietta’s …
  • … Letter 7123 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [March 1870] Darwin thanks his daughter, …

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: 3 hits

  • … adjourned as a small tribute of respect’ (letter from John Lubbock to Francis Darwin, 20 April 1882 …
  • … contents of bats?’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, 14 March 1870 ). One of Darwin’s other great …
  • … much of him’ ( letter to George Cupples, 20 September [1870] ). Despite Darwin’s insistence …

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: 16 hits

  • set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from RFCooke, 12 February 1872 ). …
  • by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in July 1870, and was now halted so that the further
  • unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-FReinwald, 23 November 1872 ). To
  • selection is somewhat under a cloud’, he wrote to JETaylor on 13 January , and he complained
  • from his ignorance, he feels no doubts’ ( letter to FCDonders, 17 June 1872 ). Right up to the
  • by her husband, Richard Buckley Litchfield ( letter to HELitchfield, 13 May 1872 ). Delivery
  • … 'I know that I am half-killed myself’ ( letter to HELitchfield, 25 July 1872 ). A
  • cause was taken up by his friends, in particular John Lubbock and John Tyndall, as one battle in the
  • a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to WEGladstone, 20 June 1872 ).  Darwin
  • agreed to let them have it for love!!!’ ( letter from RFCooke, 1 August 1872 ). It had
  • …  & have not taken care of ourselves’ ( letter from RFCooke, 20 November 1872 ). A
  • in the face of a disappointed public ( letter from RFCooke, 25 November 1872 ). Among those
  • Mary Lloyd, were vying to read it first ( letter from FPCobbe, [26 November 1872] ). …
  • darkness by an industrial strike ( letter from RFCooke, 6 December 1872 ).  Caught out by the
  • than usual. One such old friend was Sarah Haliburton, née Owen, to whose sister, Fanny, Darwin had
  • reward to which any scientific man can look’ ( letter to FCDonders, 29 April [1872] ). …

Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?

Summary

Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … or previously acquired knowledge” (A. R. Wallace 1870, p. 204). Moggridge suggested instead that …
  • … as not to cause offence or embarrassment. As Ellen Frances Lubbock advised, “I  do  think … it …

Discussion Questions and Essay Questions

Summary

There are a wide range of possibilities for opening discussion and essay writing on Darwin’s correspondence.  We have provided a set of sample discussion questions and essay questions, each of which focuses on a particular topic or correspondent in depth.…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … (1867), Francis Galton on inheritance theory (pangenesis) (1870-1)] How did Darwin involve his …
  • … [In different human races (David Forbes, 1868, W. Reade, 1870-1) As a product of natural selection, …