To [Mary Holland] [April 1860]
Summary
Asks for information about birds eating berries of a mountain-ash.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Mary Holland |
Date: | [Apr 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2395 |
To J. D. Hooker 6 September [1860]
Summary
Thanks JDH for agreeing to observe coats of asses and mules in Middle East.
Asks for observations on vigour of plants as JDH ascends mountains.
Ad hominem article in Athenæum [review of John Tyndall, Glaciers of the Alps, 1 Sept 1860, pp. 280–2].
Reports extensive experiments on Drosera.
Observations on orchid anatomy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 6 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 74 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2908 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle 15 September [1860]
Summary
Asks for any published reference providing account of the movement of the viscid hairs or leaves of Drosera lunata, an Indian Drosera which Lindley cites in Vegetable kingdom, p. 433.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | 15 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 22 September 1860, p. 853 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2918A |
To Charles Lyell 4 December [1860]
Summary
Sale of Origin requires new edition [3d (Apr 1861)].
Further discussion of geological elevation and subsidence in Europe. Compares evidence to that of South America. His theory that semi-fluid matter underlies earth’s crust.
Mentions David Forbes’s explanation of South American nitrate deposits.
Has followed CL’s advice not to reply directly to reviewers.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 4 Dec [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.236) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3006 |
To Charles Lyell 8 October [1860]
Summary
Encloses advertisement [for C. R. Bree, Species not transmutable (1860)].
Discusses Bronn’s chapter of criticisms.
Mentions variation in rats.
Has ordered book by Bree.
Discusses suggestion that southern corners of Australia may once have been islands.
Mentions "wild speculations" about change in earth’s axes.
CL’s ideas on variation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 8 Oct [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.232) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2942 |
From Charles Lyell 30 November 1860
Summary
Satisfied that CD finds his conjectured rate of elevation and long periods of stasis reasonable, even if these periods cannot be estimated. Explaining upheaval by subterranean lava flow makes these pauses plausible. Suspects that mountainous areas move more than lowland and coastal areas. General upheavals or subsidence in Europe in glacial period are unlikely. Believes with Jamieson that there was glacial action in Scotland before its submergence and that it was equally mountainous then. Subterranean upheaval visits different countries by turn. Horizontal Silurian strata must have been submerged and upheaved. Rest has always been the general surface character. Believes, however, that the quantity of late Tertiary movement is against CD’s belief in the constancy of continents and oceans: perhaps since the Miocene period, but not since the Cretaceous.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Nov 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 49–57) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3001A |
To A. D. Bartlett 24 August [1860]
Summary
Sends copy of Origin.
Discusses stripes on hybrid of donkey and wild ass.
Will let ADB know if lady consents to sending rabbits to [Zoological] Gardens.
Asks about gestation of Canidae.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Abraham Dee Bartlett |
Date: | 24 Aug [1860] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4273 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … rabbit said to be found on the Himalayan mountains. Proceedings of the Zoological Society …
From J. D. Hooker [26 November – 4 December 1860]
Summary
Encourages CD’s work in vegetable physiology.
Ascending the Lebanon JDH noted limits of plant distribution as CD requested: lower limits of a genus sharper than upper. Sharpness of boundaries related to a plant’s moisture requirement.
Impressed by "sporadic" distribution at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [26 Nov – 4 Dec 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 158–60 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3000 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ages. 4.17] ‘Limitation of Form on Mountain | Arctic Plants | Sporadic Distrib’ brown …
To Charles Lyell 25 [June 1860]
Summary
Encloses arrow-heads.
Comments on gestation in dogs.
Mentions BAAS meeting at Oxford.
Etty’s illness.
Criticises views of J. W. Dawson on organic and geological change.
The problems of distinguishing varieties and species.
Discusses facts explained by his theory.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 [June 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.220) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2843 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … on coast of Sweden are to great mountains so are the numerous varieties & endless doubt …
From J. D. Hooker [6–11 December 1860]
Summary
JDH’s page-by-page criticisms on Origin, first edition, as requested by CD for preparation of the third edition.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [6–11 Dec 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 218 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3013 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … a few southern vegetable forms on the mountains of Borneo and Abyssinia. ’ He did not add …
To Asa Gray 7 January [1860]
Summary
Comments on AG’s memoir on Japanese plants [see 2599]; relationship of Japanese flora to N. American.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 7 Jan [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (15) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2645 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … country is on the west side of the Rocky Mountains: nor of course do I know whether the …
To Daniel Oliver 24 [September 1860]
Summary
Admires DO’s correlation of spiny tree species and dry hot climate. CD suggests that spines, like strange aroma of desert plants, protect against browsing where there are few plants.
Fragrance and unisexuality.
Dimorphism in Viola tricolor.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 24 [Sept 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 22 (EH 88206006) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2960 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … viz protection. — This struck me much on stony mountains of Chile. — You allude to another …
To T. H. Huxley 1 November [1860]
Summary
THH’s term "Pithecoid Man" is a theory in itself.
CD is convinced that his doctrine of a mundane period of glaciation is correct.
Henrietta’s serious illness.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 1 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 141) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2972 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Middle East. He and his party ascended the mountains of Lebanon before visiting Syria and …
From Charles Lyell 24 November 1860
Summary
CL has calculated that elevation and subsidence of certain formations in Sweden and Norway take place at the rate of 2 1/2 feet per century. He now proposes to estimate the age of a bed by including a conjecture that pauses occur in the oscillations in the ratio of 4 periods of stasis to one of movement. Applying this formula to Scotland, the last subsidence and re-elevation would be 590,000 years and the age of the beds with human implements would be 20,000 years.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 40–8) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2996A |
Matches: 1 hit
- … inland oscillations, especially in mountain chains, may be greater than the sea-coast …
To Asa Gray 26 November [1860]
Summary
Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.
Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.
Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 26 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (27) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2998 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … evidence of glaciation in the Lebanon mountains (Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 591–2). See also …
To Charles Lyell 14 January [1860]
Summary
Review of Origin in Gardeners’ Chronicle [31 Dec 1859].
Criticises views of J. G. Jeffreys on non-migration of shells. Cites case of Galapagos shells.
Mentions Edward Forbes’s theory of submerged continental extensions. Cites Hooker’s [introductory] essay [in Flora Tasmaniae (1860)] for evidence against any recent connection between Australia and New Zealand.
Discusses Huxley’s views of hybrid sterility.
Questions whether Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire believed in species change. Mentions views of Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
The distribution of cave insects.
CD’s study of man.
The problems of locating French and German translators.
Huxley’s criticism of Owen’s views on human classification.
The sale of Origin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 14 Jan [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.192) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2650 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … alpine plants continued to survive on mountain tops in the temperate zones ( E. Forbes …
From James Lamont [23 February 1860]
Summary
Believes the British and Norwegian species of red grouse are merely strongly marked varieties of the same species.
Writes of the effect of importing a few brace of a wilder breed of grouse into Argyleshire and of their change in territory since 1846.
His explanation of game becoming "wilder": he thinks it is due to a difference in their enemies – man replacing hawks leads to flight replacing cowering.
Author: | James Lamont, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [23 Feb 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 150–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2710 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ripa” frequents the high, grey, rocky mountains as does the Scottish Ptarmigan; and the …
To Charles Lyell 25 November [1860]
Summary
Discusses elevation and subsidence of Europe.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.235) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2997 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … from the enormous ranges of so many mountain-chains (resulting from cracks which follow …
From Asa Gray 23 January 1860
Summary
American edition of Origin. AG’s assessment of the book’s weak and strong points. Suggests Jeffries Wyman would be a useful source of facts and hints for CD.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Jan 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 98 (ser. 2): 22–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2663 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … cold period, would have remained on mountain tops in temperate regions ( E. Forbes …
To J. D. Hooker 15 [May 1860]
Summary
Lyell, de facto, first to stress importance of geological changes for geographical distribution.
Asa Gray has given CD too much credit for theories of geographical distribution.
Reaction to hostile criticism
and debt to Lyell, Huxley, JDH, and W. B. Carpenter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 [May 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 56 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2802 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … changed climate from greater former height of mountains as explaining identity of alpine & …
letter | (21) |
Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (2) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Harvey, W. H. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Bartlett, A. D. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Lyell, Charles | (7) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Gray, Asa | (3) |
Bartlett, A. D. | (1) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
Harvey, W. H. | (1) |
Holland, Mary | (1) |
Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
Lamont, James | (1) |
Oliver, Daniel | (1) |
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he wrote to Darwin about a local girl living in a mountain town on the island of Tenerife. …
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
Matches: 3 hits
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
4.40 'Phrenological Magazine'
Summary
< Back to Introduction Among the stranger uses of Rejlander’s photograph of Darwin (the very popular profile view) was as an illustration in Lorenzo Niles Fowler’s Phrenological Magazine of 1880; it accompanied an article titled ‘Charles Darwin – A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and off-hand, and acts on the spur of the moment.’ The ‘mountain of Firmness’ over his ears makes …
Monte Sarmiento
Summary
Peaks in Tierra del Fuego
Matches: 1 hits
- … Fitzroy sends mountain heights in Tierra del Fuego. …
Frances Power Cobbe
Summary
Cobbe was born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at home, at Newbridge House, county Dublin, except for two years at a school in Brighton: she hated the school. After she left, she kept house for her mother and father, and after her mother's death for…
Matches: 1 hits
- … referred to her in a letter to Darwin as a 'disenchanting mountain of flesh'. Cobbe, …
Books on the Beagle
Summary
The Beagle was a sort of floating library. Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … volcanic phenomena in South America; and on the formation of mountain chains and volcanos, as the …
Darwin and barnacles
Summary
In a letter to Henslow in March 1835 Darwin remarked that he had done ‘very little’ in zoology; the ‘only two novelties’ he added, almost as an afterthought, were a new mollusc and a ‘genus in the family Balanidæ’ – a barnacle – but it was an oddity. Who,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … at the same low tide, resembles a miniature volcanic mountain range extruded by the rock itself, 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…
4.22 Gegeef et al., 'Our National Church', 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction The second version of Our National Church. The Aegis of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was commissioned by the freethinker, radical and secularist George Jacob Holyoake. It was published by John Heywood of Manchester and London…
Matches: 1 hits
- … version of the print was published, and is now raised to the mountain top, the highest point in the …
Darwin on childhood
Summary
On his engagement to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1838, Darwin wrote down his recollections of his early childhood. Life. Written August–– 1838 My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approximately tell, and which must have been before…
Matches: 1 hits
- … admirer was old Peter Hailes the bricklayer, & the tree the Mountain Ash on the lawn. All …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … research into contemporary theories of volcanic activity, mountain formation, and the elevation of …
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…
Interview with Emily Ballou
Summary
Emily Ballou is a writer of novels and screenplays, and a prize-winning poet. Her book The Darwin Poems, which explores aspects of Darwin’s life and thoughts through the medium of poetry, was recently published by the University of Western Australia Press.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … just the beginning of light. William dove off the mountain cascading into blue vapour, …
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…
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … migrated through the tropical regions near the equator along mountain ranges – these would have …
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…