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List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 0 hits
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 8 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
- … found acceptance at the time Origin was published. In 1836, Jacques Boucher de Perthes had found …
- … been supposed, but his views were generally derided. 1 In 1859, Lyell visited several …
- … that these were indeed implements of early humans (C. Lyell 1859). In September 1860 he visited …
- … ( Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Charles Lyell, 4 May [1860] and n. 3; Hutchinson 1914, 1: 51). …
- … evidence to establish the age of the human race. In 1861, Lubbock joined Thomas Henry Huxley …
- … geologico-archaeological researches in Denmark’ (Lubbock 1861) for the October 1861 issue. The …
- … and customs of modern savages. London and Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate. Lyell, Charles …
Climbing plants
Summary
Darwin’s book Climbing plants was published in 1865, but its gestation began much earlier. The start of Darwin’s work on the topic lay in his need, owing to severe bouts of illness in himself and his family, for diversions away from his much harder book on…
Matches: 4 hits
- … Darwin’s book Climbing plants was published in 1865, but its gestation began much earlier. The …
- … and told his best friend Joseph Dalton Hooker in January 1863, ‘ I have been trying for health …
- … but now it has become ludicrous. I talked lately for 1 1/2 hours (broken by tea by myself) with my …
- … by Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green and by Williams and Norgate. ‘Like a …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 12 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …
- … notebooks, under the lists of books he wanted to read (DAR 119: 2v), Darwin scribbled a reminder to …
- … Aristotle on the parts of animals (Ogle trans. 1882). Darwin would have found that Aristotle …
- … groups owing to their close proximity’ ( ibid. , p. 104). Contrast this with Aristotelian …
- … until Darwin published his own taxonomic works between 1851 and 1854. Linnaeus ordered the world …
- … to describe it scientifically, & yet all the genera have 1/2 a dozen synonyms’ ( letter to H. E …
- … undefinable’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test …
- … the reach of all possible assault’ (T. H. Huxley 1863a, p. 147). In Origin p. 272, Darwin …
- … to look at sterility from a different perspective. In May 1860, he noticed differences in the …
- … different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (1877) What Darwin discovered was that …
- … even in members of the same species. Throughout the 1860s, Darwin vacillated about whether …
- … incipient species distinct’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). In 1866, Darwin …
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: 10 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
- … A previous transcript of the reading notebooks (Vorzimmer 1977) included only the ‘Books Read’ …
- … by the manuscript number being preceded by an asterisk (*119 and *128). For clarity, the …
- … in an alphabetical listing of books read. This notebook (DAR 120) is a catalogue, arranged …
- … 149] Murray Geograph. Distrib. Price William & Norgate 2” 12” 6 [A. Murray 1866] …
- … Philosophie Positive G Lewes [Lewes 1853] (curious) Williams Missionary in T. del Fuego …
- … vols. Oxford. [Other eds.] 119: 17b Gunnison, John Williams. 1852. The Mormons, or …
- … 13a Hamilton, James. 1854. A memoir of Richard Williams . Edinburgh. 128: 9 …
- … de Humboldt, and translated into English by Helen Maria Williams . 7 vols. London. [Darwin …
- … resistance by the Turkish garrison, under General Williams, to the Russian army: together with a …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 9 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
- … from that of the five physicians Darwin had consulted in 1863. In a letter of 26[–7] March [1864] …
- … thus completing the work he had started on the genus in 1862. His varied botanical observations and …
- … more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the surgeon and …
- … his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the Copley being open to all …
- … five years earlier. His primary botanical preoccupation in 1864 was climbing plants. He had become …
- … leaf, and aerial roots. When his health deteriorated in 1863, he found that he could still continue …
- … produce tendrils’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [8 February 1864] ). Darwin’s excitement about his …
- … & therefore sacred’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 June [1864] ). When Darwin asked Oliver …
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: 9 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now …
- … Prigs’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1866] ). But the crowning achievement of the year …
- … ( Variation ). Although it was not published until 1868, all but the concluding chapter of the …
- … & what is delightful, I am able to write easy work for about 1½ hours every day’ ( letter to H. …
- … of coffee to two cups a day, since coffee, with the ‘10 drops of Muriatic acid twice a day (with …
- … the chemistry go on better’ ( letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866] ). Darwin began …
- … the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 ). More predictably, however, Darwin …
- … how I can’t be idle’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 August [1866] ). Towards Variation …
- … had agreed to supervise ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] ). Darwin found the …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 12 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
- … of man and his history' The first five months of 1863 contain the bulk of the …
- … put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] . When Huxley’s book described the …
- … anything grander’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 26 [February 1863] ). In the same letter, he gave his …
- … (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Charles Lyell, 10 January [1860] ). In the same letter …
- … (p. 488). Since the publication of Origin in 1859, new evidence that early humans had coexisted …
- … origins was further increased by the discovery in March 1863 of the Moulin-Quignon jaw, the first …
- … bear ( see letter from Jacques Boucher de Perthes, 23 June 1863 ). Although English experts …
- … in learned journals and the press during the first half of 1863 focused attention even more closely …
- … made him ‘groan’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] ). Darwin reiterated in a later letter …
- … were not separately created’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 17 March [1863] ). Public perceptions of …
- … said a word ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). Darwin did not relish …
