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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: 11 hits

  • … started in January 1860, and advertised in the press since 1865 with the unwieldy title, …
  • … of the size of the two-volume work from his publisher, John Murray, he wrote to Murray on 3 …
  • … a chapter ‘on Man’. After a few days, he wrote back to Murray proposing that some of the more …
  • … is as good as praise for selling a Book’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 January [1867] ). A …
  • … and the tedious work of correction began. Darwin wrote to Murray on 18 March to say that he …
  • … to translate  Variation . Indeed, he told his publisher, John Murray, in a letter of 4 April …
  • … apparently discussing it or showing it to anyone until 1865, when he sent a version of it to Huxley, …
  • … time it took William Sweetland Dallas to prepare the index. John Murray had engaged Dallas and …
  • … was sure that the colours were protective and suggested that John Jenner Weir might conduct …
  • … a book based on a series of articles that had appeared in 1865. In it he challenged aspects of …
  • …  vol. 13, letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] and n. 4). Darwin’s wife and children also …

Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year

Summary

The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…

Matches: 23 hits

  • had been in two volumes and had cost twenty-four shillings.) Murrays partner, Robert Francis Cooke, …
  • Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It
  • of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwins publisher. So
  • wording of both the letter to the editor and the letter to Murray to accompany it. The depth of
  • a new publisherand advised that Darwin should not push Murray to the point of cutting off
  • … [6 or 7 August 1874] ). When the letter was finally sent to Murray, Darwin referred only to their
  • … ‘asking a favour ‘. He explained why he had written to Murray and not the editor of the  Quarterly
  • to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was
  • St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). To Darwins relief, Murray replied immediately: ‘I have lost
  • number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George
  • anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and
  • asthe natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • in almost total failure of observations in New Zealand (see G. B. Airy ed. 1881). Darwins
  • in prettiness & snugness’ ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ).   …
  • position of vicar of Deptford ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ), but
  • to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of
  • the sale was agreed in April for £300 ( letter from John Lubbock, 2 April 1874 ), a high price
  • for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results
  • of other insect-eating plants. The surgeon and botanist John Ralfs sent  Utricularia  from
  • in order to work on its difficult structures ( letter to John Ralfs, 13 July [1874] ). The
  • children shedding tears as tiny babies ( letter from F. S. B. François de Chaumont, 29 April 1874
  • a printed appeal for funds, raising £860 ( Circular to John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, …
  • from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] ). He tried to persuade John Murray to publish a second edition

Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex

Summary

The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…

Matches: 14 hits

  • … March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any man wants to …
  • … domestication . Having been advertised by the publisher John Murray as early as 1865, the two …
  • … increased the amount of work substantially. Darwin asked Murray to intervene, complaining on 9 …
  • … a great loss to the Book’. But Darwin’s angry letter to Murray crossed one from Dallas to himself, …
  • … a cheque to Dallas for £55  s ., and recommended to Murray that Dallas receive additional payment. …
  • … of the book were sold within a month of its release, and Murray made immediate arrangements for a …
  • … profound contempt of me. I feel convinced it is by Owen’. John Edward Gray, a colleague of Richard …
  • … me in the face, but not behind my back’ ( letter to John Murray, 25 February [1868] ). Wallace …
  • … R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was in fact by John Robertson, a Scottish journalist …
  • … a letter of thanks to the naturalist and customs offcial John Jenner Weir for a paper on apterous …
  • … depends on the actions of the female’, and of rats, John Bush observed on 30 March that two …
  • … the whole System is sustained.’ The former Down clergyman, John Brodie Innes, passed easily over …
  • … and joy. Satisfaction in one’s children, Darwin wrote to John Price on 26 November , was ‘the …
  • … poets, and men of science, including Adam Sedgwick, John Stevens Henslow, and William Jackson Hooker …

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: 13 hits

  • … of scientific admirers at Down, among them Robert Caspary, John Traherne Moggridge, and Ernst …
  • … regime led to Darwin’s being teased by his neighbour, John Lubbock, about the prospect of riding to …
  • … with our beagles before the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 ). More …
  • … a preliminary sketch of pangenesis to Thomas Henry Huxley in 1865 (see Correspondence vol. 13), and …
  • … On 21 February Darwin received notification from John Murray that stocks of the third edition of  …
  • … Agassiz undertook an ambitious expedition to Brazil in 1865 and 1866, partly with a view to finding …
  • … George Henslow, the son of his Cambridge mentor, John Stevens Henslow, stayed for two days in April …
  • … In June, Darwin was visited by the orchid specialist John Traherne Moggridge, whose work on the self …
  • … copies of his earlier botanical publications at the end of 1865, Darwin wrote in January 1866, …
  • … out, ‘business would be totally paralysed’. Similarly, John Murray gave as a reason for his decision …
  • … ‘gaieties travelling & War Bulletins’ ( letter from John Murray, 18 July 1866 ). I …
  • … of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865. Despite concerns about the ongoing …
  • … support the Jamaica Committee, which had formed in December 1865 to lobby for the criminal …

Forms of flowers

Summary

Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … results of similar work carried out by correspondents like John Scott . Scott had been studying …
  • … varieties from Scott, Darwin repeated the experiments in 1865, but with ‘ widely different results …
  • … lungwort also known as blue cowslip. He told Gray in October 1865 that with respect to its own …
  • … to write Forms of flowers . He contacted his publisher John Murray in early April 1877, …

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: 7 hits

  • … Nägeli, a Swiss botanist and professor at Munich (Nägeli 1865). Darwin had considered Nägeli’s paper …
  • … account for changes in most morphological features (Nägeli 1865, p. 29). Darwin sent a manuscript of …
  • … only be altered by his perfectibility principle (Nägeli 1865, pp. 28–9). In further letters, Hooker …
  • … and amphibians, while Roland Trimen in South Africa and John Jenner Weir in London sent more …
  • … and broadening the forums in which Darwinism was discussed. John Murray brought out the first issue …
  • … that to me would have been a pleasing sight’ ( letter to John Murray, [after 18 September 1869] ). …
  • … been since his last period of prolonged illness in 1864 and 1865, although a particularly low spell …

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: 14 hits

  • … which Darwin submitted to the Linnean Society in January 1865. Climbers and twiners …
  • … of a paper by another of his orchid correspondents, John Traherne Moggridge, who in June sent him …
  • … of insect pollinators in 1864 and following years. John Scott again Much of Darwin’s …
  • … plight of another of Darwin’s fellow orchid-experimenters, John Scott. Their correspondence had been …
  • … five years. Scott felt that his superiors, James McNab and John Hutton Balfour, no longer treated …
  • … indomitable perseverance, and his knowledge’ ( letter to John Scott, 10 June 1864 ). Hooker met …
  • … support ‘on the grounds of science’ ( letter to John Scott, 9 April 1864 ), but Scott declined …
  • … 1864 ). A notably rambling and long letter arrived from John Beck, a Shrewsbury schoolfellow of …
  • … by a merciful deity for the use of humankind ( letter from John Beck, 6 October 1864 ). …
  • … his brother Erasmus told him of a subscription fund for John William Colenso, bishop of Natal, South …
  • … says when I read his discussion in the Elements [C. Lyell 1865] I shall recant for fifth time’ ( …
  • … that a Neanderthal race once extended across Europe. John Lubbock mentioned his forthcoming volume …
  • … of the Royal Society, Edward Sabine, to the geologist John Phillips revealed Sabine’s fears that in …
  • … ever so little degree the Council’s award’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 21 December [1864] ). In …

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: 2 hits

  • … he organised a reunion at Down with Arthur Mellersh and John Clements Wickham which Darwin …
  • … supporter of the Patagonian Mission Society (known from 1865 as the South American Mission Society), …

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: 7 hits

  • … to Darwin, [1873] Ellen Lubbock, wife of naturalist John Lubbock, responds to Darwin’s …
  • … 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s queries …
  • … Letter 4823  - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, H. E., [May 1865] Darwin’s niece, Lucy, …
  • … Letter 4928  - Henslow, G. to Darwin, [11 November 1865] J. S. Henslow’s son, George, …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …
  • … editorial criticism of a paper written by English naturalist John Lubbock. In addition to offering …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …

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: 24 hits

  • the transcript) and the non-scientific on the right (labelledb’). He continued this separation of
  • Archipelago [Crawfurd 1820] Raffeles d[itt]o [T. S. B. Raffles 1817] Buffon Suites
  • 183941]— in Geograph Soc Siebolds Japan [P. F. B. von Siebold 183350]— d[itt]o Kalm
  • Domestic Improvement ] Loudons. Journal of Nat Hist Z & B [ Magazine of Natural History
  • Nemesis to China [Bernard 1844]. The Emigrant, Head [F. B. Head 1846] St. Johns
  • of Birds from distant countries Birds of Japan [P. F. B. von Siebold 183350] Zoolog. Soc
  • 1766] Count Dandalo on silk worm Eng. Translat 1825Murray [Dandolo 1825] /good/ M rs
  • B.M. 6. 6. Black Edin. Longman [Ramsay 1848] St. Johns Nat. Hist. of Sutherlanshire, Murray
  • Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China during the War and Peace
  • 1801]. well Skimmed B. Edwards Hist. of W. Indies [B. Edwards 17931801]. d[itt]o. …
  • 1766]. good Bas. Montagus Select from old Divines [B. Montagu 1805] [DAR 119: 10a] …
  • … ] to end of Vol: XVIII & Part I. of V. 19 (1843) 25. Murray Domestic Poultry.— Domestic
  • th  Kings & Lays Missionary Voyage [King and Lay 1839] —— B. Halls Schloss Hainfell
  • d . Series. vol 3. p. 1 to 312 30 th  Colquhoun (John) The Moor & the Loch [Colquhoun
  • 18349] Dec 12 th  The Emigrant by Sir F. B. Head [F. B. Head 1846] —— 16 th
  • Buffon [Milne-Edwards 183440]. March 5 th  St. Johns Highlands [Saint John 1846] 8
  • Tone Autobiography [Tone 1826] very amusing March 10 John Galt Autobiography [Galt 1833] poor
  • 1848] Madam Malguet [Torrens] 1848] —— Lives of John & Alex. Belthune [?Bethune 1840 and
  • Ireland [Thompson 184956]. Vol. I. II & 3 May. St. Johns Tour in Sutherlandshire [Saint
  • many vols. I have read.— [DAR *128: 149] Murray Geograph. Distrib. Price William
  • up the River   Amazon, including a residence at Pará . (Murrays Home and Colonial Library.) …
  • Translated from the German and French by Lady Duff Gordon. (Murrays Home and Colonial Library.) …
  • in DAR 71: 18091.]  *119: 22v.; 119: 22a Murray, Andrew. 1866The geographical
  • …  London. [Darwin Library.]  128: 18 ——. 1865Coleoptera Atlantidum; being an

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: 5 hits

  • … the mother and foetus during pregnancy. As a case in point, John Jenner Weir described the offspring …
  • … also discussed recent experiments by Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall that provided evidence for the …
  • … a memorandum. He asked his neighbour, the naturalist John Lubbock, who was now MP for Maidstone, to …
  • … reference to mankind of much importance ’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 17 July 1870 ). The motion to …
  • … good. He did consult Henry Bence Jones, his physician since 1865, regarding ‘pins & needles’. …