From James Tenant 31 March 1857
Author: | James Tenant |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 Mar 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 257 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2069 |
From Hensleigh Wedgwood [before 29 September 1857]
Summary
Suggests CD use the common origin of the French "chef" and the English "head" or "évêque" and "bishop" to illustrate the parallels between extinction and transitional forms in language and palaeontology [see Natural selection, p. 384].
Author: | Hensleigh Wedgwood |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 29 Sept 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 48: A80–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2070 |
From Edwards Crisp 4 April 1857
Author: | Edwards Crisp |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Apr 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 221 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2071 |
To J. D. Dana 5 April [1857]
Summary
Asks whether Crustacea from temperate parts of the Southern Hemisphere are more strongly analogous to those in same latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere than are Arctic to Antarctic Crustacea.
Discusses astonishing finds of mammalian and reptilian remains in Purbeck beds; notes reactions of Lyell.
Has doubts about Richard Owen’s recent classification of mammals [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 2 (1858): 1–37].
Works away [on Natural selection].
Asa Gray has given valuable assistance.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
Date: | 5 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2072 |
To J. D. Hooker 8 April [1857]
Summary
Independence of variation from climate shown by several plant genera; CD asks for confirmation.
Progressing with book [Natural selection].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 8 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 191 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2073 |
To William Sharpey 9 April [1857]
Summary
Recommendations of books of general interest [for the Royal Society library]. These include [Louis] Agassiz’s works, [William] McGillivray’s [History of] British birds, and David Low’s [On the domesticated animals of the British Islands].
Comments on current candidates for the Royal Society.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Sharpey |
Date: | 9 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 249: 128 (photocopy) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2073F |
From J. D. Hooker [11 April 1857]
Summary
JDH cites W. H. Harvey’s observations on Fucus and David Don’s on Juncus as examples of variations that are independent of climate. There are many such cases. Gives his working scheme for categorising variation.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [11 Apr 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 198–201 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2074 |
To J. D. Hooker 12 April [1857]
Summary
Thanks JDH for response on variation. Studying variations that seem correlated with environment, e.g., north vs south, ascending mountains.
CD’s weed garden: observations on slugs killing seedlings.
Seed-salting. One-seventh of the plants of any country could be transported 924 miles by sea and would germinate.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 12 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 192 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2075 |
From T. V. Wollaston [12 April 1857]
Summary
Lists groups of insects absent from the Madeiran fauna.
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [12 Apr 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 139 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2076 |
To Charles Lyell 13 April [1857]
Summary
CD returns a letter from Wollaston.
Although opposed to the Forbesian doctrine [of continental extension] as a general rule, CD would have no objection to its being proved in some cases. Does not think Wollaston has proved it; nor can anyone until more is known about the means of distribution of insects – but the identity of the two faunas is certainly interesting.
His health is very poor and his "everlasting species-Book" quite overwhelms him with work. It is beyond his powers, but he hopes to live to finish it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 13 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Gen.109/702) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2077 |
From George Robert Waterhouse 14 April 1857
Summary
Has found no reference to construction of bees’ cells in works referred to by CD. Describes cell of Osmia atricapilla. Hive-bees’ cell was described at Entomological Society.
Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Apr 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 21 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2078 |
To Laurence Edmondston 19 April [1857]
Summary
Thanks for pigeon.
Are there Shetland birds chequered with black marks, as Carl Julian Graba states are in Faeroes [Reise nach Färö (1830)] and Col. King in the Hebrides?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Laurence Edmondston |
Date: | 19 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | L. D. Edmondston (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2079 |
From James Tenant 23 April 1857
Author: | James Tenant |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Apr 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 258 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2081 |
To P. H. Gosse 27 April [1857]
Summary
Asks PHG to conduct an experiment to see if young littoral molluscs will cling to a duck’s foot – CD seeks to explain distribution of molluscs without adopting E. Forbes’s [continental extension] theory.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Philip Henry Gosse |
Date: | 27 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | Leeds University Library Special Collections (Brotherton Collection: Gosse Correspondence) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2082 |
From J. D. Dana 27 April 1857
Summary
In reply to CD’s query [see 2072], JDD describes what little is known about the crustacea of the Antarctic and southern lands.
Knows of no species of the cold temperate south identical with those of the cold temperate north.
Author: | James Dwight Dana |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Apr 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 162: 39 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2083 |
To J. D. Hooker [29 April 1857]
Summary
Curative power of hydropathy.
General hairiness of alpine plants questioned: direct environmental effect.
CD has long felt JDH is too hard on bad observers.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [29 Apr 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 194 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2084 |
To W. D. Fox [30 April 1857]
Summary
His impressions of the hydropathic establishment and E. W. Lane. Is convinced the only thing for "chronic cases" is the water-cure.
Asks if WDF knows of any breed of pig that originated or was modified by a cross with a Chinese or Neapolitan pig, and whether the crossbreed bred true.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | [30 Apr 1857] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 103) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2085 |
To Alfred Russel Wallace 1 May 1857
Summary
Reports long preparation of work on how species and varieties differ. Agreement with Wallace’s conclusions as reported in Annals and Magazine of Natural History and in his letter to CD of 10 0ct [1856]. On distinction between domestic varieties and those in "a state of nature".
On mating of jaguars and leopards, the breeding of poultry, pigeons, etc.
Requests help for his experimenting on means of distribution of organic beings on oceanic islands.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Date: | 1 May 1857 |
Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2086 |
To J. D. Hooker [2 May 1857]
Summary
JDH has shaved the hair off the alpine plant.
CD apologises for his criticism.
Apparent but false relations of plant structure to climate: heath-like foliage of all Cape of Good Hope plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [2 May 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 195 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2087 |
To J. D. Hooker [3 May 1857]
Summary
JDH’s last letter demolishes woolly alpine plant theory.
Correlation of apetalous flowers and cold climate.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [3 May 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 196 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2088 |
letter | (179) |
Darwin, C. R. | (47) |
Hooker, J. D. | (31) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (12) |
Huxley, T. H. | (10) |
Darwin, W. E. | (8) |