To Asa Gray 24 August [1855]
Summary
"Close" species in large and small genera.
Alphonse de Candolle on geographical distribution [Géographie botanique raisonnée (1855)].
Species variability.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 24 Aug [1855] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (10) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1749 |
From Francis Galton to Charles John Andersson [after 22 February 1855]
Summary
Sends on CD’s list of enquiries about native breeds of animals in South Africa.
Author: | Francis Galton |
Addressee: | Charles John (Carl Johann) Andersson |
Date: | [after 22 Feb 1855] |
Classmark: | National Library of South Africa, Cape Town |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1554G |
To Francis Galton 22 February [1855]
Summary
Thanks for FG’s note and trouble in searching out pigeons.
Is obliged to FG for obtaining C. J. Andersson’s offer of information about breeds of cattle in South Africa.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Galton |
Date: | 22 Feb [1855] |
Classmark: | National Library of South Africa, Cape Town |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1554F |
From John Davy 30 January 1855
Summary
Responds to CD’s letter. The ova of Salmonidae exposed to air, if kept moist, will stay alive up to 72 hours.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Jan 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 227 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1634 |
From Edward Blyth [22 September 1855]
Summary
Gives extract from a letter from Capt. R. Tickell: rabbits are not bred by the Burmese; common European and Chinese geese are bred but have probably only recently been introduced.
EB gives references to works illustrating the dog-like instinct of N. American wolves.
Discusses reason and instinct; ascribes both to man and animals. Comments on various instincts, e. g. homing, migratory, parental, constructive, and defensive. Reasoning in animals; cattle learning to overcome fear of passing trains.
Hybrid sterility as an indication of distinct species. Interbreeding as an indication of common parentage.
Enlarges upon details given by J. C. Prichard [in The natural history of man (1843)].
Adaptation of the two-humped camel to cold climates. Camel hybrids.
Doubts that domestic fowl or fancy pigeons have ever reverted to the wild.
Feral horses and cattle of S. America.
Believes the "creole pullets" to be a case of inaccurate description.
Variations in skulls between species of wild boar.
Pigs are so prolific that the species might be expected to cross.
Milk production of cows and goats.
Sheep and goats of lower Bengal.
Indian breeds of horses.
Variation in Asiatic elephants.
Spread of American tropical and subtropical plants in the East.
EB distinguishes between races and artificially-produced breeds.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [22 Sept 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A85–A92 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1755 |
To J. S. Henslow 2 July [1855]
Summary
Sends a list of plants with stamps to pay the Hitcham girls who will collect seeds for him.
Describes his work with seeds in salt water.
For his experiments he would like seeds collected from plants that grow both near Hitcham and in the Azores.
Explains again what JSH should do in marking "close species".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 2 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A31–A35 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1708 |
From H. C. Watson 23 August 1855
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Aug 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 29 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1747 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter from H. C. Watson, 17 August 1855 . CD had evidently told Watson of his interest in Elias Magnus Fries’s remarks on close species in Fries 1850 , …
- … 1850 (DAR 73: 118), CD wrote after this quotation: ‘This very important, it shows that extinction has not [ interl ] been at work in the large genera. — But some of the small growing [ interl ] genera ought to have close species. —’ See Natural selection , p. 147, for CD’s discussion of Watson’s diagram illustrating this point. This may refer to CD’s notion that individuals of one or more species in a genus may vary in some of the characters by which the genus is defined. See letter …
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 M. J. Berkeley 7 April [1855]
Summary
Asks for a pea variety for an experiment.
Discusses C. F. v. Gärtner’s results [in Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849)]. Criticises Gärtner’s belief that hybrids are always less fertile than their parents.
Asks about MJB’s experiments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 7 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/41) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1662 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1850–1 (see n. 6, below). These peas were a different colour from the normal peas of the mother plant, an effect that Berkeley ascribed to the direct action of the pollen of the other parent on the outer coating of the ovule. However, CD had been misled by inaccurate labelling at Kew (see letter …
- … letter, Gärtner only rarely gave a ‘k’ rating to hybrids. It was ‘extraordinary’ to CD because he believed that papilionaceous plants such as peas, beans, and clover were difficult to cross. See Questions & experiments notebook, pp. 7, 15 ( Notebooks ), in which he expressed his idea that the structure of the flower impeded cross-fertilisation. CD described his opinion in Natural selection , pp. 68, 71. Gärtner had died in 1850. …
From [J. B. Innes] [after 8 February – August 1855]
Summary
Provides another case of apparently pure bred pointers producing litter with one setter puppy. Correspondent was told that this occurred in several litters; gives names of owners and others who can corroborate the information.
Author: | John Brodie Innes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [after 8 Feb – Aug 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 163: 5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13870 |
To T. H. Huxley 18 April [1855]
Summary
Thomas Bell thinks John Lindley superior for Royal Society Medal. CD agrees, but demurs at Medal going to same branch of science two years in succession.
Perplexed about Albany Hancock’s qualifications compared with J. O. Westwood’s.
Death of H. De la Beche.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 18 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 31) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1668 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to T. H. Huxley, 31 March [1855] . Originally the two Royal Medals were awarded to the authors of the two best papers published in the Philosophical Transactions with a triennial cycle of subjects: either astronomy and physiology; physics and geology or mineralogy; or mathematics and chemistry. In 1850, …
From Arthur Edward Knox [c. March 1855–7?]
Summary
CD has suggested an explanation of how pike were introduced to a remote lake in Ireland by cormorants [carrying pike spawn on their feet or in their gullets].
Author: | Arthur Edward Knox |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | Mar 1855-7 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 243 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1624 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to the return of migratory birds indicates that the month was probably March. Knox was a knowledgeable bird-watcher and author of ornithological books. CD read his Ornithological rambles ( Knox 1849 ) in July 1852 ( Correspondence vol 4, Appendix IV, 128: 2). CD also had a proof copy from a later edition (2d ed. 1850; …
To J. D. Hooker 15 [May 1855]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 [May 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 147 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1681 |
To J. S. Henslow 21 July [1855]
Summary
Thanks JSH for all he has done. His botanical little girls are marvellous. His marking of the list of dubious species is what CD wanted. Explains that he wanted to ascertain whether closely allied forms belong to large or small genera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 21 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A98–A100 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1726 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1850. Excerpts from Henslow’s invitations and regulations for some of the expeditions are printed in Russell-Gebbett 1977 , pp. 84–7. Henslow contributed fourteen ‘Practical lessons in botany for beginners of all classes’ to the Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette in 1856. His projected book, however, was left unfinished at his death (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 391). See letter …
To Gardeners’ Chronicle 21 May [1855]
Summary
Reports on his experiments on action of sea-water on seeds and the bearing of his investigations on the theory of centres of creation and Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions to account for distribution of organic forms. CD’s experiments confirm germination powers were retained after 42 days’ immersion by seven out of eight kinds of seeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | 21 May [1855] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 21, 26 May 1855, pp. 356–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1684 |
From Asa Gray 30 June 1855
Summary
Sends a list of "close" species from his Manual of botany.
Hopes Hooker or CD will write an essay on species. Discusses some of the difficulties of defining botanical species.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 June 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 92a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1707 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1850). CD’s copy of the seventh edition (W. J. Hooker and Arnott 1855) is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Koch 1843–4 . Grenier and Godron 1848–55. At the time, both Joseph Dalton Hooker and Louis Agassiz regarded species to be fixed, but Hooker thought all species originated from a single parent or pair whereas Agassiz believed in multiple creation. Gray reprinted CD’s letter …
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 August [1855] . The list is annotated by CD and is in DAR 165: 92/3. Gray’s Manual ( A. Gray 1848 ) treated the botany of the northern United States. Torrey and Gray 1841 –3 dealt with the entire area of North America. William Jackson Hooker’s British flora , first published in one volume in 1830, ran to many editions. Gray probably refers to the expanded edition of 1850, …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter. W. Allen and Thomson 1848 . Blyth’s following references are to the volume and page numbers of this work. Louis Fraser had accompanied the 1841 expedition to the Niger. On his return he became curator of the Zoological Society museum and then conservator of Lord Derby’s menagerie at Knowsley. For CD’s earlier correspondence with Fraser, see Correspondence vol. 3. In November 1850, …
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: 1 hit
- … letter from William Yarrell , [ c . 17 December 1838]). For CD’s later use of this case and also the occurrence of supernumary fingers or toes in particular families, see Variation 2: 4, 12–17. A tribe from the Nile basin known to the ancients as the ‘tallest and finest of men’ ( EB ). R. Knox 1850 . …
letter | (18) |
Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Andersson, C. J. | (1) |
Berkeley, M. J. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (17) |
Blyth, Edward | (3) |
Galton, Francis | (2) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
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Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
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What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand …
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 …
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 …
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Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
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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 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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
![](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
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Darwin and barnacles …
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Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph
Summary
< Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged to a series of about sixty lithographic portraits of naturalists and other scientists drawn by Thomas Herbert Maguire. They were successively commissioned over a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged …
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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 …
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Bartholomew James Sulivan
Summary
On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to …
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Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
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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
- … This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the …
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What did Darwin believe?
Summary
What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory …