From Edward Blyth [1–8 October 1855]
Summary
Notes on Lyell’s Principles, vol. 2.
EB does not believe in connecting links between genera; there is no tendency to gradation between groups of animals.
Does not believe shortage of food can directly produce any heritable effect on size.
Comments on significance of variations discussed by Lyell. Variation in dentition and coloration.
Behaviour of elephants and monkeys.
When varieties are crossed EB considers that the form of the offspring, whether intermediate or like one or other of the parents, depends upon how nearly related the parents are.
Thinks that in the struggle for existence hybrids, and varieties generally, must be expected to give way to the "beautiful & minute adaptation" of the pure types.
Colours of Indian birds.
Vitality of seeds.
Variation among palms.
Fauna of Malaysia and New Zealand. Ranges of bird species.
[Memorandum originally enclosed with 1760.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1–8 Oct 1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A37–A50 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1762 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … remark that a pony eats as much as a large horse! When dwarfs occur in the human species, …
- … constantly an intermediate offspring. Ditto Horse & Ass; & knobbed & common Geese. Some …
- … is identical with the Ghor-Khur (literally Horse-Ass ), of Sindh, Mesopotamia, &c. We have …
- … 149. “Ancient breed of indigenous horses”. What were they? I doubt that the Chillingham …
- … of ‘the ancient breed of indigenous horses, the wild boar, and the wild oxen, of which …
From Edward Blyth 8 October 1855
Summary
Encloses two sets of notes [see 1761 and 1762]. EB believes that as a general rule species do not inter-mix in nature whereas varieties, descendants of a common stock, do. Origin of varieties. Geographically separated species are sometimes obviously distinct and sometimes apparently identical. EB does not believe that species or races of independent origin need necessarily differ. Local distribution of species of black cockatoo contrasts with the widespread white cockatoo. The occurrence of distinct but related species in different regions of a zoological province, preserved because of geographical barriers. Instances of interspecific hybrids and intraspecific sterility. Local varieties of species. Varieties are subdivisions of the main branches of the tree of organisms, dividing irregularly but remaining independent of the twigs from another branch.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Oct 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A99–A103 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1760 |
From Edward Blyth [22 October 1855]
Summary
Gives references to William Allen’s narrative of the Niger expedition [William Allen and T. R. H. Thompson , A narrative of the expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to the river Niger in 1841 (1848)]: common fowl returning to wildness, details of domestic sheep, ducks, and white fowl.
Range of the fallow deer; its affinity to the Barbary stag.
Natural propensity of donkeys for arid desert.
Indian donkeys often have zebra markings on the legs.
Believes the common domestic cat of India is indigenous.
Occurrence of cultivated plants from Europe in India; success of cultivation. Ancient history of cultivated plants.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum and indicate that it was originally 20 pages long.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [22 Oct 1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A93–A98 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1811 |
| letter | (3) |
| Blyth, Edward | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Blyth, Edward | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. |
'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: 3 hits
- … a neighbouring farmer to the RSPCA in 1852 for working horses with sore necks (see letter from Emma …
- … It is a common observation that cases of brutality to horses, asses, and other large quadrupeds, are …
- … treatment of cattle, 1822, prohibited the ill-treatment of horses, asses, sheep, and cattle, …
Earthworms
Summary
As with many of Darwin’s research topics, his interest in worms spanned nearly his entire working life. Some of his earliest correspondence about earthworms was written and received in the 1830s, shortly after his return from his Beagle voyage, and his…
Matches: 1 hits
- … a Century and all Seasons" reprinted in Hen's Teeth and Horses Toes. In an …
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: 4 hits
- … Darwin himself was very solicitous over the treatment of horses. His erstwhile friend, Frances Power …
- … living in Down village in 1852 on a charge of cruelty to his horses, securing a conviction and fine …
- … he wrote a warning letter to another local farmer, whose horses’ necks were ‘badly galled’, saying …
- … letter to a local farmer, c.1866, about the state of his horses, DAR-LETT-4963. Emma Darwin’s diary …
5873_1488
Summary
From B. J. Sulivan 13 February [1868]f1 Bournemouth Feby. 13. My dear Darwin As Mr Stirling has sent me the recpt. you may as well have it with the Photo of the four Fuegian boys which he wishes me to send you in case you have not seen it. He…
St George Jackson Mivart
Summary
In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … might be effected in man, as are now seen in our horses, dogs, and cabbages? ’ We …
The expression of emotions
Summary
Darwin’s work on emotional expression, from notes in his Beagle diary and observations of his own children, to questionnaires, and experiments with photographs, was an integral part of his broad research on human evolution. It provided one of the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … illustrators to produce drawings and engravings of monkeys, horses, dogs, and cats. He acquired …
Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … asses of the Tartarian deserts cannot equal in numbers the horses of the more luxuriant prairies and …
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
- … Lucy, provides observations on the expression of emotion in horses and babies. She also reports …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
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: 5 hits
- … Smith 1839–40] /on Ruminants [Jardine ed. 1835–6]// on Horses [C. H. Smith 1841]// Exotic Moths …
- … last series on Nat: Hist: [Waterton 1844] tailess horses. Read “Bronn’s Geschicte der Natur.” …
- … of Rural & Domestic Improvement ] Col: Ham: Smith on Horses [C. H. Smith 1841] …
- … Catalogue. Ungulates Grey [J. E. Gray 1843–52]. Much on Horses & Hybrids [DAR *128: 157 …
- … 8a, 11a ——. 1841. The natural history of horses. Vol. 12 in Jardine, William, ed., …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … on your Farm, you may not be aware that the necks of your horses are badly galled … Darwin …
Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, reprinted in 1861. I Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted…
Matches: 5 hits
- … of the mammoth, of a rhinoceros now extinct, and along with horses and cattle unlike any now …
- … though they be, were the remote progenitors of our own horses and cattle. In all candor we must at …
- … of the world now offers more suitable conditions for wild horses and cattle than the pampas and …
- … and megatherium, at the dawn of the present period, wild-horses—certainly very much like the …
- … is a heavy blow and great discouragement to dogs, horses, elephants, and monkeys. Thus stripped of …
Frank Chance
Summary
The Darwin archive not only contains letters, manuscript material, photographs, books and articles but also all sorts of small, dry specimens, mostly enclosed with letters. Many of these enclosures have become separated from the letters or lost altogether,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Pallas states, that in Siberia domestic cattle and horses become lighter-coloured during the winter; …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 4 hits
- … ‘To assert that we could not breed our cart and race horses, long and short horned cattle, and …
- … of the rate of increase of slow-breeding cattle and horses in South America, and latterly in …
- … most curious instance of this; for here neither cattle, nor horses, nor dogs, have ever run wild, …
- … in Paraguay, the flies would decrease—then cattle and horses would become feral, and this would …
Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson
Summary
[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…
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: 1 hits
- … information on the proportion of the sexes in sheep, cattle, horses, and dogs, and circulating …
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … An unidentified correspondent offered facts on Clydesdale horses, Chillingham cattle, Leicester …
Darwin in letters, 1861: Gaining allies
Summary
The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. He had weathered the storm that followed the publication of Origin, and felt cautiously optimistic about the ultimate acceptance of his ideas. The letters from this year provide an…
Matches: 1 hits
- … on most of the common domesticated animals, among them horses, rabbits, pigeons, and poultry. As he …
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
- … the hope of finding more cases of striping in dray and cart horses, of inheritance in fowls, of the …
