To George Henry Kendrick Thwaites 10 December 1855
Summary
Mentions seeing GHKT at BAAS meeting at Oxford [1847].
Reports he is working on variation of species. Asks about varieties of pigeons and other poultry, and asks for specimens from Ceylon.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Henry Kendrick Thwaites |
Date: | 10 Dec 1855 |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.118) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1795 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … seeing GHKT at BAAS meeting at Oxford [1847]. Reports he is working on variation of …
- … Bibliography Thwaites, George Henry Kendrick. 1847. On conjugation in the Diatomaceæ. …
- … Ceylon, had read a paper ‘On conjugation in the Diatomaceæ’ ( Thwaites 1847 ) at …
- … the 1847 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which CD …
To Hugh Miller 29 March [1855]
Summary
Requests HM’s article in the Witness [24 Feb 1855; see HM, "On the late severe frost", Proc. R. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh 1 (1854–8): 10–14], on the effects of frost on shells. CD expresses admiration for the two works by HM he has read.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Miller |
Date: | 29 Mar [1855] |
Classmark: | National Trust for Scotland (Hugh Miller’s Cottage, Cromarty) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1657 |
From Charles Lyell 23 April 1855
Summary
CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 6: 7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1672 |
From H. C. Watson 11 July [1855]
Summary
Returns CD’s list of Azores plants with information on the distribution of the species added. Encloses a list, extracted from CD’s list, of those plants common to Europe and the Azores that were probably not introduced by man.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 27 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1715 |
To J. D. Hooker 18 [July 1855]
Summary
Has read a paper, presumably by JDH, using the Madeiran flora to argue against Forbes’s doctrine.
JDH asked how far CD will go in attributing common descent; he intends to show "the facts & arguments for & against the common descent of species of same genus; & then show how far the same arguments tell for or against forms, more & more widely different".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 18 [July 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 142 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1719 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 April [1855]
Summary
Pea self-fertilisation: has forty-five varieties growing side by side.
Describes seed-salting experiments: e.g., immersion in tank filled with snow. Reports some successful germinations.
Made list of naturalised plants from Asa Gray’s Manual [of Botany] to calculate the proportions of the great families.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 128 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1667 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 April [1855]
Summary
CD has begun seed-salting experiments. Wants JDH to write which seeds he expects to be easily killed [in salt water].
CD’s idea that coal-plants lived in salt water like mangroves made JDH savage.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 7 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 127 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1661 |
To Arthur Henfrey 17 March [1855]
Summary
Can AH give information about D. A. Godron, "De l’espèce et des races" [Mem. Soc. Sci. Lett. & Arts Nancy (1847): 182, 239–88]? CD unable to locate reference.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Arthur Henfrey |
Date: | 17 Mar [1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1648 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Mem. Soc. Sci. Lett. & Arts Nancy (1847): 182, 239–88]? CD unable to locate reference. …
To J. D. Hooker 2 June [1855]
Summary
Asks JDH not to send H. C. Watson’s paper on Azores plants [Hooker’s Lond. J. Bot. 2 (1843): 1–9, 125–31, 394–408; 3 (1844): 582–617; 6 (1847): 380–97].
CD cannot endure trying all the Azorean seeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 2 June [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 134 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1692 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 9, 125–31, 394–408; 3 (1844): 582–617; 6 (1847): 380–97]. CD cannot endure trying all the …
To Charles Lyell 14 January [1855]
Summary
Has found a house on Baker Street to take for a month.
Mentions Daniel Sharpe’s study of the Grampians.
Association of various metamorphic rocks and relationship of their foliation to their dip and strike. Discusses foliation of schists and its origin. Comments on fluidity of gneiss and schists.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 14 Jan [1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.111) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1630 |
From Edward Blyth [30 September or 7 October 1855]
Summary
Origin of domestic varieties. EB ascribes "abnormal" variations to man’s propagation of casual monstrosities; believes "normal" variations, e.g. European races of cattle, are a consequence of man’s selecting the choicest specimens. Gives examples of "abnormal" variations; they give rise to features that have no counterpart among possible wild progenitors. Divides domestic animals into those whose origin is known and those whose origin is unknown. Considers that the wild progenitors of nearly all domestic birds are known. Fowls and pigeons show many varieties but if propagated abnormalities are ignored each group can be seen to be variations of a single species, the ancestors of which can be recognised without difficulty. Discusses varieties and ancestry of the domestic fowl. Variation in the wild; the ruff shows exceptional variability; other species of birds show variability in size of individuals. Remarks that markings sometimes vary on different sides of the same animal. Comments on the want of regularity in leaf and petal patterns of some plants. Discusses domestic varieties of reindeer and camels. Origin of humped cattle. Reports the rapid spread of a snail in lower Bengal that was introduced as a single pair five or six years previously.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of part of this memorandum. Memorandum originally enclosed with 1760.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [30 Sept or 7 Oct] 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A25–A36 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1761 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Schomburgk , in British Guiana ( R. Schomburgk 1847–8 , 2: 83–4). Vrolik 1829 . Tarandus …
- … Naturwissenschaften 2: 1–26. Schomburgk, Richard. 1847–8. Reisen in Britisch-Guiana in den …
- … to Brian Houghton Hodgson’s view ( Hodgson 1847 , p. 1007), Blyth believed: ‘we have …
- … progenitors’ ( Blyth 1841 , p. 881). Hodgson 1847 is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection– …
From John Rae 21 February 1855
Author: | John Rae |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Feb 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 249 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1636 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the Hudson’s Bay Company. During the years 1847 to 1854, he was involved in several of the …
To J. D. Hooker 23 [June 1855]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 23 [June 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 138 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1702 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Watson 1843 –4 and Watson 1847 . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 27 May [1855] . Some of the …
To T. H. Huxley 10 June [1855]
Summary
Asks whether THH will attend Council of Royal Society and speak for him on Joachim Barrande and J. D. Dana.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 10 June [1855] |
Classmark: | Janet Huxley (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1697 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Heathorn in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1847 during the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake . …
From Edward Blyth 4 August 1855
Summary
Sends a skeleton of a Bengal jungle cock.
Has never heard of trained otters breeding in captivity.
Introduced domestic rabbits are confined to the ports of India.
Canaries and other tame finches and thrushes brought into India do not breed well.
Origin of the domestic canary. Tendency of domesticated birds to produce "top-knot" varieties.
The tame geese of lower Bengal are hybrids; those of upper Bengal are said to be pure Anser cygnoides.
Wild Anser cinereus occur in flocks in the cold season.
Discusses at length different breeds of domestic cats and possible wild progenitors. Wild and domestic cats occasionally interbreed. The Angora variety breeds freely with the common Bengal cat and all stages of intermediates can be found.
Believes pigeons have been bred in India since remote antiquity.
Discusses whether mankind is divided into races or distinct species.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Aug 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A69–A78 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1735 |
To J. D. Hooker 6 November [1855]
Summary
Naudin’s theory, in J. Decaisne’s review of Flora Indica, of subspecies descended from a single stock only adds to the confusion. John Lindley and M. J. Berkeley cut down species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 6 Nov [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 153 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1773 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 169). He had read Mons 1835–6 on 21 June 1847 ( Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 119: …
To W. D. Fox 27 March [1855]
Summary
Thanks WDF for his offer of assistance in collecting varieties of poultry. Describes his needs. He will raise his own pigeons.
Often doubts whether, despite all help, the problem of species will not overpower him.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 27 Mar [1855] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 88) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1656 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Zoological Society of London (1847–59). The penguin duck walked in an upright …
To Charles Lyell 10 January [1855]
Summary
Discusses views of Daniel Sharpe on foliation and cleavage. Recalls his own previous discussion [in South America].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 10 Jan [1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.110) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1626 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … other fragments in cleaved rocks in Sharpe 1847 and 1849. See C. Lyell 1855 , pp. 605–6. …
To Charles Lyell [21 January – 11 February 1855]
Summary
Relationship of schists to alternating beds of slate in western Tierra del Fuego and the Chonos Islands.
Comments on Sharpe’s theory of curved cleavage planes.
Example of metamorphosis in a "clay-slate porphyry region". Importance of previous lines of cleavage and stratification in foliation of metamorphosed rock.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | [21 Jan – 11 Feb 1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.112) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1633 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … in South America , pp. 162–8. Sharpe 1847. In South America , p. 155, CD stated: ‘I …
From H. C. Watson 17 August 1855
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Aug 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 28 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1743 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … enclosed list of papers &c. printed before 1847, (& which was subjoined to Testimonials …
Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
Blyth, Edward | (4) |
Watson, H. C. | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (1) |
Rae, John | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Lyell, Charles | (3) |
Fox, W. D. | (1) |
Henfrey, Arthur | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (23) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Blyth, Edward | (4) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Watson, H. C. | (2) |
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/Glen-Roy01825665_0045.jpg?itok=Z2WJRq5c)
Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…
Matches: 1 hits
- … [4 September 1843] To Charles Lyell, 8 [September 1847] To Robert Chambers, 11 …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/HOOKER-J-D-01-02357.jpg?itok=B9fvNDdE)
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: 5 hits
- … in the level of land came under renewed scrutiny. In 1847 David Milne, the Scottish geologist, …
- … remains ( letter to the Scotsman , [after 20 September 1847] ). Other letters to colleagues at …
- … thrown away’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 8 [September 1847] ). The second geological theory …
- … uniqueness fully. Sometime before the end of December 1847, John Edward Gray, keeper of the …
- … severe problem for Darwin during this period, especially in 1847 and during the last half of 1848 …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/Edward%20Lumb.jpg?itok=RpFE-XgU)
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
Matches: 1 hits
- … after Darwin’s return to England, since a letter of 1847 refers to information sent through Mr …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/DAR%20119_003.jpg?itok=0ANdkYJL)
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: 25 hits
- … of Anat.— Instinct by D r . Alison [W. P. Alison 1847]. No 19. July. 1840 27 Annales des …
- … . Hooker. read Fortune’s Travels in China [Fortune 1847] read Lettres philosop. sur l …
- … Travels in Peru (translated) [J. J. von Tschudi 1847] Gardners Travels in Brazil [Gardner …
- … [North 1826]. (Erasmus) read Hebrew Monarchy [Newman] 1847] Berniers …
- … 1843]. (Emma) (read) M rs Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . …
- … animals 54 folio Plates. Maclise 2”12.6. [Maclise 1847] good for woodcuts. (Roy. Coll. of Surgeons) …
- … to publish one. 45 Gosse. Birds of Jamaica [Gosse 1847], recommended by Yarrel …
- … Society of Edinburgh ] Youatt on Pig [Youatt 1847]. Westminster Rev. Oct. 49. Article …
- … [DAR *119: 23] Prescotts Peru [W. H. Prescott 1847] Sleemans Travels to Khiva. 47 …
- … 1841] Edwardes. Voyage up Amazon [W. H. Edwards 1847].— Cunningham Life of Wilkie …
- … Edwards Voyage up Amazon [W. H. Edwards 1847] } Home Library L …
- … [Metzger 1841] Alison on Instinct [W. P. Alison 1847]. 79 Art. Generation [A. Thompson …
- … 1846], skimmed. miserable [DAR 119: 18a] 1847. Jan 14 th Mem: du Museum …
- … 8 th Tschudis Travels in Peru [J. J. von Tschudi 1847] 15. Skimmed 7 th Edit of Lyell’s …
- … 7 published end 1838.— [DAR 119: 18b] 1847 Jan 13 th Life of Tcholtzee …
- … —— 30 Von Ensigen’s Memoirs [Varnhagen von Ense 1847] Col. Lib Aug. 25. North’s lives of L. …
- … Sismondi. Polit. Econ. Essay translated [Simonde de Sismondi 1847], poor Nov. 1. Goethe …
- … —— 28 th Sir J. Barrow autobiography [Barrow 1847].— poor [DAR 119: 19a] 1847. …
- … Spratt & Forbes, travels in Lycia [Spratt and Forbes 1847] 12 th Putsche & Vertuch …
- … 9 th H. C. Watson. Cybele Britannica [H. C. Watson 1847–59].— —— 13 th Phytologist [ …
- … 1824] —— Fortune Wanderings in China [Fortune 1847] Aug 6 th Lettres Philosop. sur …
- … Aug 16. Vestiges of Creation VI th Edit. [Chambers 1847] —— Report of Brit. Assoc. [ …
- … th . Report. Zoolog. 1843. 1844. Ray Soc. [Ray Society 1847] Physio-philosophy. Oken [Oken 1847]. …
- … 6. H. Miller First Impressions of England [H. Miller 1847]. Nov. 10 Prichard Physical Researches. …
- … Treatise [Roget 1834] 9 th Jukes Voyage [Jukes 1847]. Vol. I & II. W. F. Edwards Des …
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 1113 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [2 September 1847] Darwin questions Mrs. …
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 1113 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [2 September 1847] Darwin questions Mrs. …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/Barnacles_4.jpg?itok=95kPSfM9)
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
- … Letter 1140 —Darwin to J. C. Ross, 31 Dec 1847 Darwin writes to James Clark Ross, officer …
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…
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …
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
- … Letter 1140 — Darwin, C. R. to Ross, J. C., 31 Dec 1847 Darwin asks Ross to collect …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/Nomenclature%20of%20the%20valves.jpg?itok=YfRaIZud)
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: 3 hits
- … shell of Concholepas , a Chilean abalone. By February, 1847, Darwin had expanded his study and …
- … work of comparative anatomy, but it was only at the end of 1847 that Darwin decided to undertake a …
- … Bowerbank, who had founded the Palaeontographical Society in 1847. ‘With respect to publication of …
4.4 Thomas Huxley, caricature sketch
Summary
< Back to Introduction This amusing sketch signed by Thomas Huxley is in a letter that he wrote to Darwin on 20 July 1868. By the late 1860s, Origin of Species had given rise to extreme adulation of Darwin on the part of some of the younger German…
People featured in the German and Austrian photograph album
Summary
Biographical details of people from the Habsburg Empire that appeared in the album of German and Austrian scientists sent to Darwin on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Johannes Mattes for providing these details and for permission to make his…
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/DARWIN-B-01-01217.jpg?itok=QPe5LfXr)
Elizabeth Darwin born
Summary
Daughter Elizabeth (Bessie) born
Matches: 1 hits
- … Daughter Elizabeth (Bessie) born …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/HOOKER-J-D-02-02357.jpg?itok=TFiILmlV)
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,…
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
- … state of disarray in the taxonomy of the group. Late in 1847, John Edward Gray, keeper of the …
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/MS-DAR-00210-00011-000-00001.jpg?itok=iQQS3xqx)
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…
![](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_teaser/public/george_peacock.jpg?itok=MZo_5QGC)
George Peacock
Summary
George Peacock was born 9 April 1791 in Denton near Darlington in Yorkshire. He was the son of a clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Peacock, curate of Denton for 50 years and school master. George was educated at Sedbergh School, Cumbria and Richmond School in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and the treasures that might be brought home. In 1847, at the age of 56, he married Frances …
'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: 1 hits
- … 1980, pp. 60–2, 124–128, Worster 1985, pp. 179–80, 184–7). An appeal It is a …