To T. H. Huxley 7 January [1867]
Summary
Gives up plan to have Haeckel’s Generelle morphologie translated.
His big book [Variation] has gone to printer. Thinks of adding a chapter on man.
Will order Duke of Argyll’s book [Reign of law (1867)].
"Nature never made species mutually sterile [by selection]; nor will man.–"
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 7 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 233) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5348 |
To Ernst Haeckel 8 January 1867
Summary
Comments on EH’s "great work" [Generelle Morphologie].
An English translation "hopeless".
Asks about EH’s expedition.
MS of Variation sent to printers.
Fritz Müller working on plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Date: | 8 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1-52/12) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5349 |
To John Murray 8 January [1867]
Summary
CD annoyed at large size of Variation. Suggests printing detailed parts in small type. JM can, of course, decline to publish altogether.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 ff. 155–157) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5350 |
To J. D. Hooker 9 January [1867]
Summary
Criticisms and comments on JDH’s "Insular floras" in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1867): 6].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 9 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 3–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5353 |
From John Murray 9 January [1867]
Summary
CD should not be discouraged by the bulk of Variation. CD’s suggestion to print technical details in small type is good.
Murray has sent MS to a "man of letters and good information" as an experiment to test its effect. Has no intention of throwing up publication.
| Author: | John Murray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 343 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5354 |
From James Philip Mansel Weale 9 January 1867
Summary
Sends paper on new species of Bonatea, to which he has given the name Darwinii.
Has now an extensive collection of insects.
Has discovered moths whose larva cases resemble perfectly the thorns of the Acacia horrida.
Has asked for the head of a Bushman murderer. Difficult to convince authorities of interest of science.
| Author: | James Philip Mansel Weale |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 82: A113–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5355 |
To John Murray 10 January [1867]
Summary
Relieved by JM’s note and by his agreement on type size. Is alarmed by what the verdict [on Variation] of JM’s friend will be. He is not a man of science. An unscientific reader would have condemned the Origin. An eminent semi-scientific man thought the Journal of researches not worth publishing.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 10 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 f. 166) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5356 |
From Bartholomew James Sulivan 11 January 1867
Summary
Has given CD’s queries about expression to W. H. Stirling. Thomas Bridges, the catechist, had previously answered some questions incompletely [see 2643]; BJS forwards them [see Expression].
BJS answers CD’s query about when some calves show their adult colour.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 288 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5357 |
From J. D. Hooker [12 January 1867]
Summary
Responds to CD’s criticisms. JDH is sometimes confused as to what he has borrowed from CD.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [12 Jan 1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 131–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5358 |
From Thomas Belt 12 January 1867
Summary
MS essay "On esculent fruits" [apparently enclosed in a missing letter].
| Author: | Thomas Belt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 181–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5359 |
From Robert Monsey Rolfe 14 January 1867
Summary
Will introduce Charles Kingsley to CD.
| Author: | Robert Monsey Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth of Cranworth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 235 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5360 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 January [1867]
Summary
More comments on "Insular floras": community of peculiar genera in the Atlantic islands descended from European plants now extinct.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 5–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5361 |
To William Turner 15 January [1867]
Summary
Requests information about rudimentary muscles and organs in man. Asks about marrow of os coccyx, and about testes and ovaria in early embryos of both sexes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Dc.2.96/5 folio 2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5362 |
To John Murray 15 January [1867]
Summary
Approves of type [for Variation]. Pleased to hear from Hooker that he is not surprised that MS is big.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 f. 161) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5363 |
To Thomas Belt 15 January [1867]
Summary
Comments on MS on seed distribution sent by TB.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Belt |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 76 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5364 |
To B. J. Sulivan 15 January [1867]
Summary
Thanks BJS for W. H. Stirling’s answers [to queries about expression]
and for information on cattle and breeding of dogs.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | Sulivan family (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5365 |
From John Lubbock 16 January 1867
Summary
JL’s brother-in-law [Robert Birkbeck] would like a note of introduction to John Murray.
| Author: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 170: 54 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5366 |
To John Lubbock 17 January [1867]
Summary
Encloses note of introduction to Murray.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 64 (EH 88206508) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5367 |
From E. A. Darwin 17 [July 1867]
Summary
Wynne [gardener] suggests he should be paid from the money from the sale of the Mount, but EAD suggests an annual subscription instead.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 [July 1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B55 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5369 |
From Julius Victor Carus 18 January 1867
Summary
Asks CD questions relating to the revised translation of Origin.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 56 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5370 |
| letter | (450) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (195) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (27) |
| Murray, John (b) | (11) |
| Carus, J. V. | (10) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (8) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (236) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (24) |
| Murray, John (b) | (19) |
| Carus, J. V. | (11) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (9) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (431) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (51) |
| Murray, John (b) | (30) |
| Carus, J. V. | (21) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (17) |
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: 30 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The …
- … publisher in the final week of 1866. It would take all of 1867 to correct proofs, and just when …
- … becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in 1867, as he continued to circulate a list of …
- … transmutation theory. Three important new correspondents in 1867 were Hermann Müller and Anton Dohrn …
- … the New Year’s greeting, ‘may you be eupeptic through 1867 & your friends & the world in …
- … publisher, John Murray, he wrote to Murray on 3 January 1867 , ‘I cannot tell you how sorry I am …
- … for selling a Book’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 January [1867] ). A week later, Darwin had …
- … the additional chapter. In a letter written on 8 February [1867] to his close friend, Joseph …
- … Darwin’s time. The first proof-sheets arrived on 1 March 1867 and the tedious work of correction …
- … . In a letter to his son William dated 27 [March 1867] , he admitted, ‘I fear the book is by no …
- … papers with his first letter to Darwin of 15 March 1867 , although he described some of Alexander …
- … told his publisher, John Murray, in a letter of 4 April [1867] , not to send stereotypes of the …
- … had received other offers, notably one from Vogt in April 1867, to translate the new work. Carus had …
- … will be published’ ( letter from J. V. Carus, 5 April 1867 ). This hint of uncertainty caused …
- … to give up the task’ ( letter to Carl Vogt, 12 April [1867] ). Darwin need not have worried …
- … to the German public ( letter from J. V. Carus, 15 April 1867 ). Darwin may not have fully …
- … in preference to you’ ( letter to J. V. Carus, 18 April [1867] ). Darwin was not disappointed in …
- … the ‘wonderful discovery’ to Darwin on 14 March 1867 . Then, in April, Robert Trail wrote from …
- … in a mottled hybrid ( letter from Robert Trail, 5 April 1867 ). Darwin told his American friend …
- … physiological fact’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). Although he did not succeed in …
- … step in Biology’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 22 August [1867] ). Darwin’s insecurity persisted, …
- … ferocity’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 November [1867] ). Even when the corrections were …
- … to be introduced’ ( letter to W. S. Dallas, 8 November [1867] ). Dallas resisted the temptation to …
- … as I could wish’ (letter from W. S. Dallas, 20 November 1867). Dallas, like Carus, alerted Darwin to …
- … for information on Fuegian expressions. On 11 January 1867, Sulivan replied , enclosing belated …
- … 27 years old In a letter of 22 February [1867] to Fritz Müller in Brazil, in which …
- … Russel Wallace, who suggested in his response of 11 March [1867] that Darwin send his queries to …
- … ( letter to A. R. Wallace, [12–17] March [1867] ). Darwin’s doggedness in pursuing answers to his …
- … so do not want any more’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). Nevertheless, at some point …
- … in Notes and Queries on China and Japan , 31 August 1867. Another version, possibly derived from …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 27 hits
- … expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to …
- … Barber, Mary E. [after Feb 1867] [Grahamstown, Cape …
- … Bowker, J.H. [10 Dec 1867] [Cape of Good Hope (South …
- … Bowman, William 5 Aug 1867 5 Clifford St, London, …
- … Darwin, Francis 20 June 1867 Unknown? …
- … Erskine, H. N. B. 1 Nov 1867 [Ahmednuggur, Bombay, …
- … Gaika, Christian 7 July 1867 Bedford [Cape of Good …
- … Geach, F.F. June 1867 Johore, Malaysia …
- … Gibbs, George 31 March 1867 Smithsonian Institution, …
- … Gray, Asa 26 March 1867 Cambridge, Massachusetts, …
- … Haast, J.F.J. von 12 May - 2 June 1867 Christchurch, …
- … Haast, J.F.J. von 4 Dec 1867 Christchurch, New …
- … Hagenauer, F.A. [12 Sept 1867] Lake Wellington, …
- … Huxley, H.A. 22 Mar [1867] Abbey Place, London, …
- … Kempson, L.F. 20 June 1867 Penmaenmawr, Conway, …
- … Lubbock, E.F. [1867-8?] Lombard Street, London? …
- … Muller, Fritz 22 Feb [1867] Down, Kent, England …
- … Paget, James 9 July 1867 1 Harewood Place, Hanover …
- … Rothrock, J.T. 31 March 1867 McVeytown [Pennsylvania …
- … Stack, James West 4 Dec 1867 Christchurch, New …
- … Sulivan, B.J. 11 Jan 1867 Bournemouth, England …
- … Sutton, Seth 8 Aug 1867 Zoological Gardens, Regents …
- … Swinhoe, Robert 5 Aug 1867 Amoy, China …
- … Wallace, A. R. 2 March [1867] 9 St. Mark’s Crescent, …
- … Wallace, A. R. 11 March [1867] 9 St. Mark’s Crescent …
- … Weale, J.P.M. 7 July 1867 Bedford, Cape of Good Hope …
- … Weale, J.P.M. [10 Dec 1867] Bedford, Cape of Good …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 6 hits
- … a series of experiments, reporting back to Bornet in August 1867 that all but one of the varieties …
- … ( To Fritz Müller, [late December 1866 and] 1 January 1867 ). The following year, his experiments …
- … to the conditions that might affect his results. In March 1867, he told his close friend Joseph …
- … two distinct plants’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1867] ). He noted another factor in a letter to …
- … & so have been rarely crossed’ ( To Asa Gray, 15 April [1867] ). One of these ‘exotics’ was …
- … for part of the year ( To J. T. Moggridge, 1 October [1867] ). Darwin was beginning to suspect …
A fly on the flower: From Hermann Müller, 23 October 1867
Summary
In March 1867, Hermann Müller, a young teacher of natural sciences at a provincial Realschule (a type of secondary school that emphasised the natural sciences) in Lippstadt in the Prussian province of Westphalia, sent Darwin two papers on the mosses of…
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
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
- … Letter 5745 - Barber, M. E. to Darwin, [after February 1867] Mary Barber responds to …
- … Letter 7223 - Darwin to Wedgwood, L. C., [8 June 1867 - 72] Darwin asks his niece, …
- … Letter 5602 - Sutton, S. to Darwin, [8 August 1867] Sutton, the keeper of the …
- … 5705 - Haast, J. F. J. von to Darwin, [4 December 1867] Explorer and geologist Haast …
- … Letter 5585 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E., [26 July 1867] Darwin praises Henrietta’s …
- … Letter 5403 - Darwin to Carus, J. V. [17 February 1867] Darwin thanks Carus for his …
- … 5410 - Darwin to Muller, J. F. T., [22 February 1867] Darwin thanks Muller for …
Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 5605: Darwin, C. R. to Müller, J. F. T., 15 Aug [1867] Darwin asks Fritz Müller, a …
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: 1 hits
- … 1865 Letter to J. P. M. Weale, 27 August [1867] Letter from J P. M. Weale, [10 …
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
A tale of two bees
Summary
Darwinian evolution theory fundamentally changed the way we understand the environment and even led to the coining of the word 'ecology'. Darwin was fascinated by bees: he devised experiments to study the comb-building technique of honey bees and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … much ahead of his time when, in a letter to Darwin in 1867 , he commented on Edward Wilson’s plan …
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…
Sexual selection
Summary
Although natural selection could explain the differences between species, Darwin realised that (other than in the reproductive organs themselves) it could not explain the often marked differences between the males and females of the same species. So what…
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: 6 hits
- … Letter 5457 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 23 Mar 1867 Müller explains how Origin …
- … 5471 — Darwin, C. R. to Müller, H. L. H., 29 Mar [1867] Darwin learns that German botanist …
- … Letter 5481 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 1 Apr [1867] Müller thanks Darwin for the …
- … Letter 5657 — Müller, H. L. H. to Darwin, C. R., 23 Oct 1867 Müller thanks Darwin for the …
- … Letter 5585 — Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, H. E., 26 July [1867] Darwin writes to his daughter …
- … Letter 5745 — Barber, M. E. to Darwin, C. R., [after Feb 1867] In this letter, naturalist, …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 3 hits
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Controversy
Summary
The best-known controversies over Darwinian theory took place in public or in printed reviews. Many of these were highly polemical, presenting an over-simplified picture of the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely…
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 3 hits
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … A GRAY 15 AUGUST 1868 177 TO A GRAY 15 APRIL 1867 178 C DARWIN TO JD …
