To George Johnston 23 November 1852
Summary
Recommends GJ for Government pension.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Johnston |
| Date: | 23 Nov 1852 |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1491 |
To Albany Hancock 25 December [1852]
Summary
Discusses capacity of some cirripedes to bore into rock.
Mentions Alcippe specimens borrowed from AH.
Relation of sexes in Ibla and Scalpellum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Albany Hancock |
| Date: | 25 Dec [1852] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1495 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Cirripedia (1854): 512–18, CD repeated the arguments he had given in this letter and …
- … Cirripedia (1854): 314. Hancock apparently gave a cautionary reply (see CD’s letter to …
- … 1854): 514). CD had requested specimens of the new genus of Cirripedia that Hancock had discovered in 1849 (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter …
To ? 31 December [1852–3]
Summary
Responds to correspondent’s request for information about shells from the Coquimbo beds in Chile. Difficulty in deciding on age of deposits and species. Notes views of Alcide d’Orbigny.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 31 Dec [1852-3] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Autograph File, D) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13872 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … that CD wrote the letter before publishing Living Cirripedia (1854) , to which he does not …
- … 1854): 227–8. Balanus coquimbensis is a synonym of B. laevis subsp. coquimbensis . Alcide Charles Victor Dessalines d’Orbigny had also examined CD’s South American fossil shells ( South America , p. iv). See Correspondence vol. 3. See Correspondence vol. 3, letter …
To J. D. Dana 15 February [1852]
Summary
Sending first volumes on Living and Fossil Cirripedia. Solicits JDD’s opinion, especially on sexual relations of Scalpellum and Ibla, on which he "hardly expect[s] to be believed".
Sends unusual crustacean specimen collected by B. J. Sulivan.
The Sporillus sent by JDD is a very curious species of Acasta [see Living Cirripedia 2: 319].
Asks JDD to identify and give geographical distribution of pieces of coral in which some cirripedes are imbedded.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 15 Feb [1852] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 43) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1473 |
To J. D. Hooker [April 1852]
Summary
Questions on variation in nature: taxa varying in one region but not another. Variation between vs within species. Rarity of variation in important organs within a species. G. R. Waterhouse’s views on variation in highly developed organs, which CD relates to variation in rudimentary organs.
Asks for cases of obligate self-fertilising plants.
[CD annotation proposes using the Steudel Nomenclator botanicus (1821–4) to determine if variable species occur in genera with many species.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [Apr 1852] |
| Classmark: | DAR 107: 66–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1496 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Library–CUL. See letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 November [1854] . CD subsequently added ‘(2)’ …
- … CD refers to Steudel 1840–1. See letters from J. D. Hooker, [3 November 1854] and [ …
- … 1854] for CD’s further examination of this question. Hooker added in pencil: ‘Limosella Stratiotes many water plants’. CD wrote the names again in ink over Hooker’s note. These species of water plants and their self-fecundation are discussed in Natural selection , p. 63. Hooker added some arithmetical calculations in the margin of the final paragraph in ink, and wrote, also in ink, ‘Berberis Darwinii’. This plant had been named by Hooker from specimens collected by CD on the Beagle voyage (see Correspondence vol. 2, letter …
To J. D. Dana 25 November [1852]
Summary
Thanks JDD for information.
Discusses Acasta sporillus.
Comments on review of first volume of Living Cirripedia [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 14 (1852): 125–7].
Asks JDD to examine Lerneidae.
Will read with interest the geographical discussion of Crustacea when JDD’s volume [Crustacea (1852–5)] appears. John Lubbock will purchase a copy.
Discusses error in Living Cirripedia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 25 Nov [1852] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 43) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1492 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … 1854): 218–22). Dana had classified gorgonians in Dana 1848 . A reference to the blind cave animals found by Benjamin Silliman Jr (see letter …
- … letter to J. D. Dana, 15 February [1852] ). For CD’s descriptions, see Living Cirripedia (1854) : …
- … 1854): 303, CD stated: Had not the genus Acasta been already founded and extensively admitted, certainly I should not have formed it; but considering the close similarity in habits, aspect, and structure, of the nine species of Acasta, and considering the already large size of the genus Balanus, I hope I may stand excused for admitting Acasta as a sub-genus. CD was surprised that Dana had found unattached living specimens of Acasta sporillus (a synonym of Euacasta sporillus ) since other species of Acasta were found attached to sponges or sponge-like hosts (see letter …
To ? 19 December [1852 or 1854]
Summary
Ray Society has given CD 22 copies [of Living Cirripedia, vol. 1].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 19 Dec [1852 or 1854] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.100) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1464 |
To George Crawford Hyndman 16 April [1852]
Summary
Thanks GCH for Balanus specimens.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Crawford Hyndman |
| Date: | 16 Apr [1852] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1479 |
To A. A. Gould 29 February [1852]
Summary
Sends presentation copy of Fossil Cirripedia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Augustus Addison Gould |
| Date: | 29 Feb [1852] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Augustus A. Gould papers, 1831–66 MS Am 1210: 226) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1475 |
To J. D. Dana 8 May [1852]
Summary
Gratified by JDD’s opinion of his work.
Discusses problem of homologies of cirripede larva in first stage and reasons for his view.
JDD’s information on corals was just what CD needed.
Would like specimen of blind cave rat described by B. Silliman [Jr] ["On the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 11 (1851): 336] for Waterhouse to examine.
Discusses origin of Australian valleys; he disagrees with JDD’s river-erosion hypothesis.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 8 May [1852] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 43) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1481 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to Henri Milne-Edwards, 18 November [1847] . See Living Cirripedia (1851): 37 and Living Cirripedia (1854): …
- … 1854): 109–10, the latter also including a figure taken from Burmeister 1834 (Plate XXX, fig. 1). In fact, Burmeister’s figure does not correspond to any cirripede larval stage. It shows a settled cyprid larva, but with only three pairs of legs instead of the six pairs it should have. CD believed the figure represented an intermediate between the nauplius, with three pairs of appendages, and the final cyprid larva, with six. See Correspondence vol. 4, letter …
To W. D. Fox 24 [October 1852]
Summary
News of his health; has been well of late, but cannot stand excitement. Hereditary weakness is another of his bugbears.
At work on cirripedes – "I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 24 [Oct 1852] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 81) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1489 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter to Emma Darwin, [24 June 1846] , n. 2). William Erasmus Darwin , CD’s oldest son. CD’s estimate was optimistic. He did not see the proofs of the later Cirripedia volumes until 1854 (‘ …
- … 1854) . Osmaston Hall, the Fox family home near Derby. CD’s Health diary (Down House MS) indicates that he suspended his douche treatment on 22 August, noting: ‘Six weeks treatment; not much good effect, extremely tired in Evening. I do not think last Treatment did me much good. —’ The Health diary shows that CD was unusually well during October 1852: this good health continued to the end of the year. See CD’s letter …
To Richard Owen 17 July [1852]
Summary
Gratified by what RO says about his book [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1 (1851)]. The anatomical work is the only part he is really interested in; finds the "mere systematic part infinitely tedious"; but will be surprised if he is ever proved wrong on the males of Ibla and Scalpellum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Richard Owen |
| Date: | 17 July [1852] |
| Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections Owen correspondence 9/188) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1484 |
To Japetus Steenstrup 3 January [1852]
Summary
Asks JS to compare cirripede specimens with those of Lorenz Spengler to establish comparative nomenclature.
Requests reference to article describing Xenobalanus.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johannes Japetus Smith (Japetus) Steenstrup |
| Date: | 3 Jan [1852] |
| Classmark: | Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen (NKS 3460 4to) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1469 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1854): 240–6). He discussed problems involved in establishing the nomenclature in Balanidae, complaining that ‘when no notice is taken of such points of importance, as whether the walls are permeated by pores, whether the radii are smooth-edged, whether the scuta are striated, it is impossible to identify with any approach to certainty sessile Cirripedes’ ( ibid . , p. 241). Many of the species of this family therefore have numerous synonyms. See letter …
| letter | (13) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Dana, J. D. | (3) |
| Unidentified | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (1) |
| Gould, A. A. | (1) |
| Hancock, Albany | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Dana, J. D. | (3) |
| Unidentified | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (1) |
| Gould, A. A. | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for …
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Editorial policy and practice
Summary
Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of the Correspondence. Transcriptions are made from the original or a facsimile where these are available. Where they are not, texts are taken from the best…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Full texts are added to this site four years after the letter is published in the print edition of …
Joseph Simms
Summary
The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 September 1874, while he was staying in London. He enclosed a copy of his book Nature’s revelations of character (Simms 1873). He hoped it might 'prove…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The American doctor and author of works on physiognomy Joseph Simms wrote to Darwin on 14 …
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: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Barnacles
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Darwin and barnacles …
Charles Darwin’s letters: a selection 1825-1859
Summary
The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University of Edinburgh, to the end of 1859, when the Origin of Species was published. The early letters portray Darwin as a lively sixteen-year-old medical student. Two…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters in this volume span the years from 1825, when Darwin was a student at the University …
3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …
