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Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 18 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
- … promotion of his theory of natural selection also continued: Darwin’s own works expanded on it, …
- … not think you are conceited, but really I do think you have a good right to be so’ ( letter from J. …
- … such view will ultimately prevail Still taking a keen interest in the progress of his …
- … condition in Primula ’ and Orchids ; it suffered a further setback when illness struck the …
- … of the Scottish press hissed). Huxley, while advocating Darwin’s theory, had again espoused the view …
- … experimental production of new ‘physiological’ species. Darwin attempted to dissuade him from this …
- … Huxley replied ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 January 1862 ): 'I entertain no doubt that …
- … delivered a series of lectures to working men that reviewed Darwin’s theory, and sent copies to …
- … but complained ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1862] ): 'To get the degree of …
- … him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ). Darwin was altogether taken …
- … is no common man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). Two sexual forms: …
- … with his study of Primula and escalated throughout 1862 as he searched for other cases of …
- … son, William, his language was more blunt ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 14 February [1862] ): ‘whether …
- … French Translation will appear very soon’ ( letter to C. E. Brown-Séquard, 2 January [1862] ). …
- … Bronn died suddenly from a heart attack ( see letter from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung …
- … and Emma ‘perplexed to death what to do’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] ). They …
- … work would make his life ‘much happier’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 14 February [1862] ). Darwin …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 14 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second German …
- … in the new edition; in his letter to Bronn of 25 April [1862 ], he mentioned that he was sending …
- … has not been found, although they were returned to Darwin for possible use in a new American edition …
- … (see Freeman 1977, pp. 85–6).) However, we have compiled a list of the changes that are incorporated …
- … should correspond to the additional alterations sent by Darwin to Bronn. Many of these additions and …
- … 4 A well-known French botanist, M. Lecoq, writes in 1854 (‘Etudes sur …
- … passages scattered through M. Lecoq’s large work, make it a little doubtful how far he extends his …
- … Von Baer, towards whom all zoologists feel so profound a respect, expressed about the year 1859 …
- … that forms now perfectly distinct have descended from a single parent-form. Page xix, par. …
- … crossed them, and examined their skeletons, I have come to a similar conclusion, \emm the grounds of …
- … seen by that inimitable observer M. Fabre, fighting for a particular female, who sits by an …
- … by us.’: 16 In a far-fetched sense, however, the conditions of life may …
- … I have myself recently bred a foal from a bay mare (offspring of a Turcoman horse and …
- … Almost every year, as I am informed by Mr. E. V. Harcourt, many European and African birds are …
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…
Matches: 17 hits
- … | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a …
- … Women: Letter 1194 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [12 August 1849] Darwin …
- … peculiarities in inheritance. Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to Darwin, [29 October …
- … garden. Letter 4523 - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, [6 June 1864] Darwin’s …
- … officinalis . Letter 5745 - Barber, M. E. to Darwin, [after February 1867] …
- … home in South Africa. Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May …
- … to Darwin’s queries about Expression during a trip to Egypt. Letter 7223 …
- … January 1868] Darwin asks Thomas Huxley to pass on a questionnaire to his wife, Henrietta. …
- … 6535 - Vaughan Williams , M. S. to Darwin, H. E., [after 14 October 1869] Darwin’s …
- … of wormholes. Letter 8611 - Cupples, A. J. to Darwin, E., [8 November1872] …
- … her niece’s ears. Letter 8701 - Lubbock, E. F . to Darwin, [1873] Ellen …
- … insects. Men: Letter 2221 - Blyth, E. to Darwin, [22 February 1858] …
- … Letter 3634 - Darwin to Gray, A., [1 July 1862] Darwin tells American naturalist Asa …
- … New Zealand. Letter 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S. E., [9 November 1868] …
- … 3681 - Wedgwood, M. S. to Darwin, [before 4 August 1862] Darwin’s niece, Margaret, …
- … lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W. E. , (March, 1862 - DAR 219.1:49) Emma Darwin …
- … - Darwin to Wedgwood, K. E. S, M. S. & L. C., [4 August 1862] Darwin thanks his “angel …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 6 hits
- … Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those …
- … that his views are original and will appeal to the public. Darwin asks Murray to forward the …
- … and criticisms of style. Letter 2461 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., [11 May 1859] …
- … obscure, even after it had been proofread and edited by “a lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W …
- … asks his son, Francis, to check his Latin translation of a passage of Descent . Evidence …
- … , Murray tells Darwin that he believes the work will be a success and will cause a stir among men. …
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: 16 hits
- … | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections …
- … activities for building and maintaining such connections. Darwin's networks extended from his …
- … Bonds of friendship were very important in science in a period when strong institutional structures …
- … controversy, or personal loss. Letter writing was not only a means of sustaining such friendships …
- … section contains two sets of letters. The first is between Darwin and his friend Kew botanist J. D. …
- … about Hooker’s thoughts. Letter 729 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., [11 Jan 1844] …
- … not immutable. He admits to Hooker “it is like confessing a murder”. Letter 736 — …
- … of wide-ranging species to wide-ranging genera. Darwin and Gray Letter 1674 …
- … and questions Gray on the alpine flora of the USA. He sends a list of plants from Gray’s Manual of …
- … C. R. to Gray, Asa, 20 July [1857] Darwin writes a challenging letter to Gray, saying: “But my …
- … why he believes species of the same genus generally have a common or continuous area; they are …
- … He thanks Darwin for saving his correspondence. He sent “a yarn about species” in October mail, and …
- … by discussing their correspondence. He then moves on to a discussion of the great dam across Yangma …
- … Letter 3800 — Scott, John to Darwin, C. R., [11 Nov 1862] Scottish gardener John Scott notes …
- … Letter 3805 — Darwin, C. R. to Scott, John, 12 Nov [1862] Darwin thanks Scott for bringing …
- … . Letter 4260a — Darwin, C. R. to Becker, L. E., 2 Aug [1863] Darwin thanks Lydia …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 21 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with …
- … races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual …
- … in beetles. The unity of human species Darwin believed that the same process of sexual …
- … gradually increase those features over long periods of time. Darwin’s theory was based partly on the …
- … seemed to prevail across the globe. In Descent , Darwin also addressed widely held beliefs …
- … in effect separate species), and the fixity of racial types. A leading factor in disputes about …
- … of ‘species’, ‘varieties’, and ‘races’. Darwin argued forcefully for the unity of the human species, …
- … Gender and civilisation In his early notebooks, Darwin remarked that survival value or …
- … , B74). In his later writings on plants and animals, Darwin remained consistent on this point, and …
- … improvement, or design. However, when it came to humans, Darwin reintroduced the structure of …
- … and present, on the basis of their ‘civilization’. Here Darwin drew on contemporary anthropology, …
- … colonial conquests and expansion abroad. Thus, while Darwin’s views on race differed widely …
- … men, and of non-European peoples becoming ‘civilized’ (i.e. European). Of the three Yahgans who had …
- … ( Beagle diary , p. 143). He was delighted to receive a letter from an African correspondent …
- … Gaika as an authoritative observer in Expression . He had a number of women correspondents who …
- … [1859] Letter to Charles Kingsley, 6 February [1862] Letter from F. W. Farrar, …
- … Press. Desmond, Adrian and James Moore. 2009. Darwin's sacred cause . London: Allen …
- … British Journal of the History of Science 6: 9–23 [in a special issue on ‘Descent of Darwin: race, …
- … . New York: The Free Press. Voss, Julia. 2007, Darwin’s pictures: views of evolutionary …
- … with women Key letters : Letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] …
- … Letter to [E. M. Dicey?], [1877] Letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 …
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: 21 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 …
- … … of having grown older’. This portrait, the first of Darwin with his now famous beard, had been …
- … of dimorphic plants with William’s help; he also ordered a selection of new climbing plants for his …
- … 52 hours without vomiting!! In the same month, Darwin began to consult William Jenner, …
- … physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria. Jenner prescribed a variety of antacids and purgatives, and …
- … the dimorphic aquatic cut-grass Leersia . In May, Darwin finished his paper on Lythrum …
- … thus completing the work he had started on the genus in 1862. His varied botanical observations and …
- … he had set aside the previous summer. In October, Darwin let his friends know that on his …
- … and he received more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the …
- … November and December were also marked by the award to Darwin of the Royal Society’s Copley Medal; …
- … As Darwin explained to his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the …
- … arose over the grounds on which it was conferred, brought a dramatic conclusion to the year. Darwin …
- … his observations indoors ( Correspondence vol. 11). In a letter of [27 January 1864] , Darwin …
- … However, the queries that Darwin, describing himself as ‘a broken-down brother-naturalist’, sent to …
- … Menyanthes ( letter from Emma and Charles Darwin to W. E. Darwin, [20 May 1864] ), or his …
- … act. In his ongoing quest to confirm the statement in his 1862 book on orchids that nature ‘abhors …
- … Scott, a gardener at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in 1862 with a letter regarding the …
- … and Book of Joshua critically examined (Colenso 1862–79). After reading extracts from Colenso’s …
- … Correspondence vol. 10, letter to Asa Gray, 6 November [1862] ). A declaration that Erasmus …
- … circulating with the 1864 subscription fund ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 1 February [1864] ). …
- … … & too light to turn into candlesticks’ ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 1 December 1864 ). …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 12 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
- … Letters Darwin’s Notes On Marriage [April - July 1838] In these notes, …
- … of family, home and sociability. Letter 489 - Darwin to Wedgwood, E., [20 January 1839] …
- … theories, & accumulating facts in silence & solitude”. Darwin also comments that he has …
- … by”. Letter 3715 - Claparède, J. L. R. A. E. to Darwin, [6 September 1862] …
- … Self-taught in “semi-masculine education”, Royer is a “singular individual whose attractions are not …
- … she has read Lamarck’s work under her own steam and is a “first rate critic”. Letter 4377 …
- … of feminine works”. Letter 4441 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, [30 March 1864] …
- … ladies, to study nature. Letter 4940 - Cresy, E. to Darwin, E., [20 November 1865] …
- … pedantic”. Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. B., [8 November 1869] Darwin …
- … the Royal Society library. Kovalevsky would like to read a book by Jacobi on elliptic and theta …
- … to women. Letter 10746 – Darwin to Dicey, E. M., [1877] Darwin gives his …
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: 21 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
- … , anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied …
- … briefly’ ( letter to John Scott, 31 May [1863] ), and in a letter of 23 [June 1863] he wrote …
- … am languid & bedeviled … & hate everybody’. Although Darwin did continue his botanical …
- … letter-writing dwindled considerably. The correspondence and Darwin’s scientific work diminished …
- … the correspondence from the year. These letters illustrate Darwin’s preoccupation with the …
- … Evidence as to man’s place in nature both had a direct bearing on Darwin’s species theory and on …
- … from ‘some Quadrumanum animal’, as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] …
- … detailed anatomical similarities between humans and apes, Darwin was full of praise. He especially …
- … in expressing any judgment on Species or origin of man’. Darwin’s concern about the popular …
- … seen how indignant all Owen’s lies and mean conduct about E. Columbi made me… . The case is come to …
- … with Owen when it became clear that Owen’s November 1862 description of the recently discovered …
- … work on mimicry in butterflies, which had been published in 1862 (see Correspondence vol. 10). …
- … to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in September 1862 ( see letter to Julius von Haast, 22 …
- … Copley Medal had been unsuccessful ( see letter from E. A. Darwin to Emma Darwin, 11 November [1863 …
- … men, given at the Museum of Practical Geology at the end of 1862, and published as a book in early …
- … that had already occupied much of his time in 1861 and 1862. With the publication in 1862 of his …
- … a question he had been struggling with in 1861 and 1862; he wanted to determine experimentally …
- … Edinburgh, had initiated the correspondence in November 1862 with a letter correcting Darwin’s …
- … the bookcase and around the head of the sofa ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [25 July 1863], and …
- … ( see letter to Asa Gray, 23 February [1863] , and Loring 1862). However, his tolerance of Gray’s …
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: 18 hits
- … by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader …
- … especially to the modern reader, for whom race carries a different and highly charged meaning. In …
- … under the lists of books he wanted to read (DAR 119: 2v), Darwin scribbled a reminder to himself in …
- … ancient’. He never got around to reading Aristotle beyond a few extracts, until shortly before his …
- … Aristotle on the parts of animals (Ogle trans. 1882). Darwin would have found that Aristotle …
- … to the characterisation of things, and you have, in a nutshell, the two sides of a debate about the …
- … to most subsequent attempts at systematising organisms until Darwin published his own taxonomic …
- … world according to an artificial system; that is, he chose a specific group of structural features …
- … other criteria. He was challenged by others who searched for a more ‘natural’ taxonomy that would …
- … used to diagnose the place of an individual organism. Darwin himself did not set out to be a …
- … over time. In the four volumes on the sub-class Cirripedia, Darwin maintained the distinction …
- … all the genera have 1/2 a dozen synonyms’ ( letter to H. E. Strickland, [4 February 1849] ). …
- … ‘To define the undefinable’ Darwin developed his theory of evolution by …
- … was firmly held by Thomas Huxley, who argued that until Darwin could demonstrate the possibility of …
- … p. 147). In Origin p. 272, Darwin had argued that the sterility of interspecific hybrids …
- … would have been hard to achieve in practice, given that Darwin’s theory required that small …
- … about whether sterility could be ‘selected’. In 1862, he told Hooker, ‘I am now strongly inclined to …
- … species distinct’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). In 1866, Darwin compared the …
3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…
Matches: 17 hits
- … in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time …
- … this second photograph is not precisely dated. An entry in Darwin’s account book for February 1858 …
- … be dated to a few years later. It may be the photograph that Darwin was promising to order and post …
- … had given him such an ‘atrociously wicked’ expression. Darwin also wrote to Asa Gray in April 1861: …
- … commercially produced, not the one taken by his son William Darwin at that time, which he mentions …
- … than Maull and Polyblank are known to have been employed by Darwin before the second half of the …
- … view. It must have been available before April or May 1862, when Darwin’s brother Erasmus solicited …
- … hand, that of ‘J.D.’), ‘Photograph of Charles Darwin taken about the time of the publication of the …
- … of Origin in late November 1859. In his letter of spring 1862, Darwin’s brother Erasmus sought …
- … and Polyblank, rather than just a supply of prints to the Darwin family for presentation to selected …
- … to volume 1 of The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887), edited by Francis Darwin (with a …
- … in Annals of Botany in 1899, to illustrate an article on Darwin’s botanical work by Francis …
- … of 1903. It was also, alas, one of the portrayals of Darwin ‘Exhibited by William E. and Leonard …
- … Letter from Erasmus Alvey Darwin to Darwin, [April-May? 1862], DCP-LETT-3745. Letter from Ernst …
- … English ed. of Origin , transl. H.G. Bronn (Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung, …
- … (1899), frontispiece and note on p. xix. Francis Darwin and A.C. Seward (eds), More Letters of …
- … Darwin. ‘List of Exhibits . . . Exhibited by William E. and Leonard Darwin’, First International …
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: 16 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now …
- … all but the concluding chapter of the work was submitted by Darwin to his publisher in December. …
- … hypothesis of hereditary transmission. Debate about Darwin’s theory of transmutation …
- … of special creation on the basis of alleged evidence of a global ice age, while Asa Gray pressed …
- … for the Advancement of Science. Fuller consideration of Darwin’s work was given by Hooker in an …
- … the details of Hooker’s proposed talk formed the basis of a lengthy and lively exchange of letters …
- … responded philosophically to these deaths, regarding both as a merciful release from painful illness …
- … after the startling apparition of your face at R.S. Soirèe—which I dreamed of 2 nights running. …
- … on those terms so you are in for it’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [ c . 10 May 1866] ). …
- … Georg Bronn, had been published in 1860 and 1863 by the firm E. Schweizerbart’sche …
- … by debates about a suitable translator, Bronn having died in 1862. Finally, Julius Victor Carus, a …
- … on dimorphism and dichogamy. As he had done since 1862, Darwin relied on assistance from his …
- … was ‘merely ordinaryly diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, [7 May – 11 June 1866] ). On …
- … a case of dimorphic becoming diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, 20 June [1866] ). Darwin …
- … I am well accustomed to such explosions’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 22 June [1866] ). He urged …
- … indeed at poor Susan’s loneliness’ ( letter from E. C. Langton to Emma and Charles Darwin, [6 and 7 …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 21 hits
- … 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence …
- … Russel Wallace. This letter led to the first announcement of Darwin’s and Wallace’s respective …
- … the composition and publication, in November 1859, of Darwin’s major treatise On the origin of …
- … exceeded my wildest hopes By the end of 1859, Darwin’s work was being discussed in …
- … and ‘bitter opponents’; compiling corrections for a second and then a third edition of his book; and …
- … that my book w d be successful; but I never even built a castle-in-the air of such success as it …
- … Charles Lyell, 25 [November 1859] ). This transformation in Darwin’s personal world and the …
- … The 'big book' The year 1858 opened with Darwin hard at work preparing his ‘big …
- … his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to prepare the …
- … appropriate. The correspondence shows that at any one time Darwin was engaged in a number of …
- … the problem of bees The chapter on instinct posed a number of problems for Darwin. ‘I find my …
- … ). In addition to behaviour such as nest-building in birds, Darwin intended to discuss many other …
- … Among these, the cell-making instincts of hive-bees posed a particular challenge to his overall …
- … constructed by hive-bees had long been celebrated as a classic example of divine design in nature. …
- … of construction as it took place in the hive. As with Darwin’s study of poultry and pigeons, …
- … works. The question was, Do the species of large genera have a higher proportion of distinct …
- … for on this view wherever many closely related species, (i.e. species of the same genus) have been …
- … in larger genera, but they were not certain. This was a question new to the experts. Darwin was …
- … . condemn all—my life’s work—& that I confess made me a little low—but I c d . have borne it, …
- … breeds of animals have been developed. To this end, in a final experiment with fowls, he attempted …
- … much more larky since we run two horses’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 6 October [1858] ). Visitors to …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 13 hits
- … Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography , ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I …
- … crossing were wide-ranging, one group would captivate Darwin like no other. In June 1855, Darwin …
- … when plant has been covered by Bell glass. ’ So began Darwin’s interest in the floral morphology of …
- … paper has yet to be found, but it was published as part of a joint paper by Wallace and Darwin, and …
- … interruptions)’. ‘Many interruptions’ turned out to be a considerable understatement, since not one …
- … published in 1868. The first of the ‘interruptions’ was a small book with the rather long title On …
- … good effects of intercrossing . The ‘Orchid book’, as Darwin usually referred to it, appeared in …
- … in Woodpecker. ’ But at least one orchid was problematic. Darwin continued, ‘I have written & …
- … what you think of the case.’ Indeed, Darwin had just sent a long letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle …
- … Darwin added, ‘ I shall be most grateful for the E. palustris and it will be all the better for me …
- … than almost anything in my life. ’ By February 1862, Darwin was able to send the manuscript …
- … details of structure. ’ Orchids was published in May 1862. ‘A new and unexpected track’ …
- … that he presented himself to the Linnean Society on 3 April 1862, ‘On the three remarkable sexual …
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Matches: 19 hits
- … The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the …
- … in relation to Sex’. Always precise in his accounting, Darwin reckoned that he had started writing …
- … gathered on each of these topics was far more extensive than Darwin had anticipated. As a result, …
- … and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated debates sparked by Darwin’s proposed election to the French …
- … Lyell, ‘thank all the powers above & below, I shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding …
- … Finishing Descent; postponing Expression Darwin began receiving proofs of some of the …
- … ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working hard on parts of the …
- … style, the more grateful I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had …
- … , the latter when she was just eighteen years of age. Darwin clearly expected her to make a …
- … He worried that parts of the book were ‘too like a Sermon: who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn …
- … so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February 1870] ). …
- … philanthropist Frances Power Cobbe. At Cobbe’s suggestion, Darwin read some of Immanuel Kant’s …
- … looking exclusively into his own mind’, and himself, ‘a degraded wretch looking from the outside …
- … ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] ). Cobbe accused Darwin of smiling in his beard with …
- … side of human descent. On 7 March 1870, Darwin made a note on the shape of human ears: ‘W. has seen …
- … made drawings of ears of monkeys & shortly afterwards he saw a man with tip & instantly …
- … statue of Puck, the mischievous fairy in Shakespeare’s A midsummer night’s dream. Darwin …
- … sketch in Descent , and discussed the ‘tip’ as a rudimentary organ, describing its frequency and …
- … attending college lectures for the time being ( letter to [E.W. Blore], [October 1870 or later] ). …
Darwin in letters, 1861: Gaining allies
Summary
The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. He had weathered the storm that followed the publication of Origin, and felt cautiously optimistic about the ultimate acceptance of his ideas. The letters from this year provide an…
Matches: 19 hits
- … The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. By then, he had …
- … propagation, hybridism, and other phenomena that, as Darwin said in his Autobiography , he had …
- … provide an unusually detailed and intimate understanding of Darwin’s problem-solving method of work …
- … learned from his publisher John Murray in November 1860 that a new edition of Origin was called …
- … made by reviewers. He also inserted for his British audience a preface, previously published in the …
- … of natural selection. With this work behind him, Darwin took steps to convince those who …
- … ( letter to Asa Gray, 26–7 Februrary [1861] ). Darwin drew up a carefully thought-out list of …
- … began to decline later in the year, scientific interest in Darwin’s views continued unabated and …
- … the theory of natural selection for their particular fields. Darwin relished these explorations, …
- … the Zoologist by George Maw, for example, singled out Darwin’s explanation of the numerous …
- … remained notable instances of design in nature. Although Darwin, in his subsequent correspondence …
- … only gained credence by its ability to explain and harmonise a number of otherwise disparate and …
- … his argument; he was gratified, however, when Herschel, in a newly published text, Physical …
- … Darwin was willing to admit. With the growing confidence of a committed crusader, Darwin wrote to …
- … ally in John Stuart Mill. Through Henry Fawcett, a young Cambridge political economist and convert …
- … to the fifth edition of his System of logic (Mill 1862, p. 18 n.). Later in the summer Fawcett …
- … final manuscript, and Orchids was published in May of 1862. The time spent on his …
- … would so ‘be at once an almost rich man’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [26 May 1861] ). The …
- … respectable persons on your own account’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 17 [October 1861] ). He also …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 15 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, …
- … to correct proofs, and just when completion seemed imminent, a further couple of months were needed …
- … selection in forming human races, and there was also to be a chapter on the meaning and cause of the …
- … ), published in 1871, and the chapter on expression into a book, The expression of the emotions in …
- … who might best answer the questions, with the result that Darwin began to receive replies from …
- … Variation would be based on proof-sheets received as Darwin corrected them. Closer to home, two …
- … orchids are fertilised by insects ( Orchids ). While Darwin privately gave detailed opinions of …
- … capable hands of Alfred Russel Wallace. At the same time, Darwin was persuaded by some German …
- … were becoming counterproductive. Throughout the year, Darwin continued to discuss now …
- … self-sterility, pollination, and seed dispersal with a growing network of correspondents who worked …
- … in Germany, and Federico Delpino in Italy, who provided Darwin with the collegial support and …
- … chapter and remained doubtful whether or not to include a chapter ‘on Man’. After a few days, he …
- … would confirm points that Darwin had only conjectured in his 1862 study, On the various contrivances …
- … her, & as it seems very unjustly’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 27 [March 1867] ). Unfortunately, …
- … are excellent, excellent, excellent’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 26 July [1867] ). The year ended as …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 19 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not find …
- … merely by birds accidentally dropping them. The case is a sore puzzle to me.— Charles …
- … or regurgitated by birds with non-muscular gizzards (e.g. toucans) would have lower germination …
- … One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the …
- … work in ecology. Despite the difference in language between Darwin’s letter and the modern …
- … in seeds that have no nutritive value. Other subjects that Darwin worked on at Down also have …
- … from the ones we tend to take for granted today. Ecology as a discipline did not then exist: even …
- … was becoming well enough established in universities that Darwin’s ‘held together with a piece of …
- … explained’ (quoted in Chadarevian 1996, pp. 17–18). As a gentleman amateur, observing his …
- … between organisms over time – were highly innovative. Darwin’s own experiments challenged the old, …
- … and at the same time also challenged the notion that only a laboratory could serve as the place in …
- … tradition in the field. Modern ecology A great deal is wrapped up in our modern idea …
- … which draws on the other three strands just mentioned, is a broadly based political movement which …
- … it is an idea – or set of ideas – with many roots, and a correspondingly complex history. …
- … clearly did not mark an epoch in the history of science; Darwin and some of his correspondents …
- … The word first appeared in English in E. Ray Lankester’s translation of Haeckel’s History of …
- … insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing (Orchids: 1862), which was the next major work he …
- … for life . London: John Murray. Darwin, Charles. 1862. On the various contrivances by …
- … Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte . Translation revised by E. Ray Lankester. 2 vols. London: Henry S. …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 14 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
- … appeared at the end of 1866 and had told his cousin William Darwin Fox, ‘My work will have to stop a …
- … views on all points will have to be modified.— Well it is a beginning, & that is something’ ( …
- … material on emotional expression. Yet the scope of Darwin’s interests remained extremely broad, and …
- … plants, and earthworms, subjects that had exercised Darwin for decades, and that would continue to …
- … Carl von Nägeli and perfectibility Darwin’s most substantial addition to Origin was a …
- … principal engine of change in the development of species. Darwin correctly assessed Nägeli’s theory …
- … in most morphological features (Nägeli 1865, p. 29). Darwin sent a manuscript of his response (now …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). Hooker went straight to a crucial point: ‘I do not quite like …
- … ‘purely morphological’. The modern reader may well share Darwin’s uncertainty, but Nägeli evidently …
- … pp. 28–9). In further letters, Hooker tried to provide Darwin with botanical examples he could use …
- … problems of heredity Another important criticism that Darwin sought to address in the fifth …
- … however favourable, would not be preserved within a breeding population. Such variations, according …
- … subject that he had been acquiring since its publication in 1862. Darwin asked his son William to …
