From Charles Lyell 3 October 1859
Summary
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: B1–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501 |
DCP-LETT-2501F
Summary
Cancelled: Known only from reference in letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859]
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [4 October 1859] |
Classmark: | |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501F |
To Charles Lyell 11 October [1859]
Summary
CL’s comments on Origin. Mentions corrections to last chapter suggested by CL.
Comments on lack of peculiar bird species on Madeira and Bermuda. Emphasises importance of American types in Galapagos.
Denies necessity of continued creation of primitive "Monads".
Denies need for new powers and any principle of improvement.
Discusses gradations of intellectual powers.
Adaptive inferiority and extinction of groups of species and genera.
Asserts that climate is less important than the struggle with other organisms.
Suggests an experiment involving primroses and cowslips.
The chapter on hybridisation.
Rudimentary organs.
Gives opinion of Lamarck’s work.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 11 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.172) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2503 |
To Charles Lyell 20 October [1859]
Summary
Comments on CL’s letters.
Discusses foreign animals naturalised in Australia and elsewhere.
Affirms man’s capacity to survive in Eocene climate.
Comments on American types.
Denies necessity for "continued intervention of creative power".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 20 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.173) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2507 |
From Charles Lyell 22 October 1859
Summary
Wishes CD would enlarge on the doctrines of [Pyotr Simon] Pallas about the various races of dogs having come from several distinct wild species or sub-species.
Suggests organisms have a latent principle of improvement which is brought out by selection or breeding.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A1/242: 15–24) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2508F |
To Charles Lyell 25 October [1859]
Summary
Discusses P. S. Pallas’ theory of origin of domestic dog breeds. CD believes domestic dogs descended from more than one aboriginal wild species but ultimately "we believe all canine species have descended from one parent and the only question is whether the whole or only part of difference in our domestic breeds has arisen since man domesticated them".
Races of man offer great difficulty. The doctrine of Pallas and Agassiz that there are several species "does not help us" in the least.
Hopes Henry Holland will not review Origin.
CD’s and CL’s difference on "principle of improvement" and "power of adaptation" is profound. Improvement in breeds of cattle requires neither. Urges him to reread first four chapters of Origin carefully. Natural selection is not to be contrasted with "improvement": every step involves improvement in relation to the conditions of life. There is no need for a "principle" to intervene.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.174) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2510 |
From Charles Lyell 28 October 1859
Summary
Since dogs have same gestation period as the wolf it is likely that the wolf is the ancestral wild species, if it is just one species.
CD’s belief that domestic dogs are descended from several distinct aboriginal species seems to contradict views on sterility of hybrids and variation in Origin. If domestic varieties came from hybrids of wild species it will be impossible to trace ancestry. Opponents will exploit these problems.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/4: 170–3) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2512A |
To Charles Lyell 31 [October 1859]
Summary
Further discussion of origin of domestic dog breeds.
Effects of crossing separate races.
Comments on rate of artificial and natural selection.
The origin of pigeon breeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 31 [Oct 1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.175) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2513 |
From Charles Lyell 4 October 1859
Summary
Response to Origin. Praise for summary of chapter 10 and chapter 11.
The dissimilarity of African and American species is ‘necessary result of “Creation” adapting new species to the pre-existing ones. Granting this unknown & if you please miraculous power acting’.
C. T. Gaudin writes of Oswald Heer’s finding many species common between Miocene floras of Iceland and Switzerland. Interesting for CD’s migration theory.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 170: 81; The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Notebook 241, pp. 75–90) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3132 |
letter | (9) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
Lyell, Charles |