To J. S. Henslow 14 May [1860]
Summary
Thanks JSH for his defence [see 2794].
He is not hurt for long by what his attackers say. His conclusions were arrived at after long study. He has certainly erred, but not so much as "Sedgwick and Co." think.
Asks JSH to send names of plants that vary greatly in length of pistil.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 14 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A70–1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2801 |
To J. S. Henslow 8 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on Richard Owen’s review of the Origin [in Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532]. Considers Owen unfair to CD and most ungenerous toward Hooker.
Expects Sedgwick to be fierce against him. Sedgwick also misrepresented CD in his Spectator review [24 Mar and 7 Apr 1860].
Compares natural selection to the undulatory theory of light as a hypothesis explaining a large number of facts.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 8 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A67–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2791 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 [May 1860]
Summary
Lyell, de facto, first to stress importance of geological changes for geographical distribution.
Asa Gray has given CD too much credit for theories of geographical distribution.
Reaction to hostile criticism
and debt to Lyell, Huxley, JDH, and W. B. Carpenter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 [May 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 56 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2802 |
To Charles Lyell 18 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on enclosed letters from Asa Gray and Wallace [missing].
Discusses hybrid fertility in rabbits and hares, and pheasants and fowls.
Asks about paper by Hermann Schaaffhausen ["Über Beständigkeit u. Umwandlung der Arten", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. Preuss. Rheinlande 10 (1853): 420–51].
Mentions criticism by Sedgwick and William Clark at Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Notes importance of CL and Hooker in defending Origin.
Comments on papers by D. A. Godron ["Considérations sur les migrations des végétaux", Acad. Stanislas Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy (1853): 329–67].
Mentions receiving anonymous verses.
A Manchester newspaper lampoon shows CD has proved "might makes right" to be a universal law.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 18 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.212) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2806 |
To J. S. Henslow 17 May [1860]
Summary
Sends characters by which he can divide all primroses and cowslips into what he suspects will be male and female plants. Believes these forms are first step in formation of a dioecious plant.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 17 May [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A72–3, A116 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2805 |
From J. S. Henslow 5 May 1860
Summary
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 186: 47 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2783 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Adam Sedgwick read a paper criticising Origin at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 7 May 1860. In November 1859, Owen had written that he was ‘disposed to believe’ in some form of transmutation (see Correspondence vol. 7, letter from Richard Owen, 12 November 1859 ). However, his review of Origin ([R. Owen] 1860a) was highly critical (see letters to T. H. Huxley, 9 April [1860] , and to Charles Lyell , 10 …
letter | (6) |
Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
Henslow, J. S. | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Lyell, Charles | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (6) |
Henslow, J. S. | (4) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Lyell, Charles | (1) |