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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: 27 hits

  • …   On 6 March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If …
  • … The quantity of his correspondence increased dramatically in 1868; the increase was due largely to …
  • … and his immediate circle of friends and relations. In July 1868 Darwin was still anticipating that …
  • … and not too much’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 15 May [1868] ). My book is horribly …
  • … as early as 1865, the two-volume work appeared in January 1868. A final delay caused by the indexing …
  • … look rather blank’ ( letter from W. S. Dallas, 8 January 1868 ). Darwin sympathised, replying on …
  • … fairly nauseated’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 February [1868] ). But such worries were laid to …
  • … was clearly impressed by Lewes’s reviews. On 7 August 1868 , he wrote him a lengthy letter from …
  • … not behind my back’ ( letter to John Murray, 25 February [1868] ). Wallace commiserated: ‘I am …
  • … to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was in fact by John …
  • … a veritable ass’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 1 September [1868] ). I am bothered with …
  • … Yorkshire, wrote of the colour of duck claws on 17 April 1868 . The letter was addressed to ‘the …
  • … Commons than any assembly in the world’ (from ?, 6 April 1868). On 21 May , Darwin complained to …
  • … breeder, who apologised in a letter of 11–13 May 1868 for his ‘voluminuous zeal’, and offered …
  • … changes in the canary (letters from J. J. Weir, [26] March 1868 and 3 June 1868 ). ‘It was …
  • … clear that I have none’ ( letter to J. J. Weir, 30 May [1868] ). Sexual selection …
  • … ratios was scanty, and he spent much of the first half of 1868 collecting facts on this question, …
  • … may be gained’ ( letter to H. T. Stainton, 21 February [1868] ). From the beginning, Darwin had …
  • … males getting wives’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 25 February [1868] ). Yet a number of Darwin’s …
  • … the American entomologist Benjamin Dann Walsh on 25 March 1868 . Wallace maintained that males …
  • … entomologists ( letter from Roland Trimen, 20 February 1868 , and letter from Robert MacLachlan, …
  • … in attracting females. J. J. Weir reported on 14 April 1868 that a bullfinch had piped a German …
  • … odour sexual!’ ( letter to A . R. Wallace, 16 September [1868] ). Francis sought additional advice …
  • … to his mother Emma in a letter dated [after 16 October 1868] : ‘I had a long work with Crotch to …
  • … in the dyed hen ( letter from Harrison Weir, 28 March 1868 ). Writing on the same day, Edward …
  • … of Species”’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 4 October 1868 ). Heaven protect my stomach …
  • … Support for Darwin in Germany was equally enthusiastic. Friedrich Hildebrand sent his praise for  …

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: 10 hits

  • … to produce capsules’ ( To Fritz Müller, 30 January [1868] ). Müller, in turn, sent seeds from his …
  • … produced by the former ( From Robert Caspary, 18 February 1868 ). Darwin eagerly requested seed …
  • … their power of growth’ ( To Robert Caspary, 25 February [1868] ).  By this time he had already …
  • … (Variation 2: 128-9), which was published on 30 January 1868. In April 1868, Darwin informed …
  • … quite intelligible to me’ ( To George Bentham, 22 April 1868 ). A month later, he had another set …
  • … taken from the same plant!’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 21 May [1868] ) Pollen tubes, or rapidly elongating …
  • … he told Müller ( To Fritz Müller, 28 November 1868 ). In March 1869, Müller reported results of …
  • … copies were mostly positive in their reaction to the book. Hildebrand wrote that ‘a peep into it has …
  • … that it is again of very great value for science’ ( From Friedrich Hildebrand, 6 December 1876 ). …
  • … the adaptation for wide dissemination of plants.’ ( From Friedrich Hildebrand, 18 January 1877 ). …

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: 7 hits

  • articles Darwin had published on the topic between 1861 and 1868. Two related questions inform all
  • He also wrote to encourage the German botanist Friedrich Hildebrand who was working on Linum
  • … ’. In March 1867, Darwin received a small book from Hildebrand on plant sexuality. Hildebrand
  • of plants ’, Darwin told Ernst Haeckel in February 1868. The first of these, ‘On the character and
  • read on 19 March. Both papers were published in the June 1868 issue of the  Journal of the Linnean
  • offspring appeared in Botanische Zeitung , and told Hildebrand, the author of the review, ‘ The
  • pointed out fifteen years earlier. Darwin had also adopted Hildebrands term heterostyly in

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: 10 hits

  • … Letter 5817 - Darwin to Huxley, T. H., [30 January 1868] Darwin asks Thomas Huxley to …
  • … 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S. E., [9 November 1868] Darwin’s nephew, Edmund, …
  • … - Langton, E. & C. to Wedgwood S. E., [after 9 November 1868] Darwin’s nephews, Edmund …
  • … Letter 6139  - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [22 April 1868] Doubleday responds to Darwin’s …
  • … Letter 6046  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments …
  • … Letter 6083  - Casparay, J. X. R. to Darwin, [2 April 1868] Casparay details his …
  • … Letter 6139  - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [22 April 1868] Naturalist Henry Doubleday …
  • … Letter 6046  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments …
  • … Letter 6066  - Weir, H. W. to Darwin, [28 March 1868] Harrison Weir passes on …
  • … Letter 6081  - Darwin to Bowman, W., [2 April 1868] Darwin requests surgeon and …

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: 7 hits

  • … Lyell, 17 March [1863] ). In January 1863, the geologist Friedrich Rolle, who had recently …
  • … of reactions to his theory in Germany ( see letter from Friedrich Rolle, 26 January 1863 ). Darwin …
  • … ). He reminded Huxley again of the German botanist Karl Friedrich von Gärtner’s experiments, which …
  • … Primula  crosses, the results of which were published in 1868 ( see letter to John Scott, 25 and …
  • … on orchids written by a German correspondent, the botanist Friedrich Hildebrand, to be published in …
  • …  experiments with the same results ( see letter from Friedrich Hildebrand, 16 July 1863 ). …
  • … months. However, the two-volume work was not published until 1868. Roping in the family …

Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life

Summary

1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time.  And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth.  All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…

Matches: 4 hits

  • expressed in the pangenesis hypothesis, first published in 1868 ( Variation 2: 357404). Others
  • from Hermann Muller, 6 December 1876 and 28 December 1876). Friedrich Hildebrand recognised its
  • the origin of species and varieties’ ( letter from Friedrich Hildebrand, 6 December 1876 , and
  • stigma’, he told Gray on 4 December. Darwin also adopted Friedrich Hildebrands termheterostyle’ …

Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours

Summary

Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … and trimorphism that he had written between 1861 and 1868 and presented to the Linnean Society of …
  • … renewing contact with correspondents such as Daniel Oliver, Friedrich Hildebrand, Fritz Müller, and …
  • … in the album, and a series of poems by the Austrian writer Friedrich Adler (see Appendix VI). One …
  • … Charles Norton, had stayed at Keston Rectory near Down in 1868 and had visited Down House. Darwin …

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: 3 hits

  • … oxlip ( P. elatior ), and published his results in an 1868 article (‘Illegitimate offspring of …
  • … with Gray, Philip Henry Gosse, George Chichester Oxenden, Friedrich Hildebrand, and others mentioned …
  • … at the new botanic garden in Castleton, Jamaica. Darwin and Friedrich Hildebrand in Germany compared …

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: 3 hits

  • … derived from Asa Gray’s printed queries, was published in 1868 in the  Annual Report of the Board …
  • … with those of trusted correspondents like Müller and Friedrich Hildebrand. Supporters and …
  • … work itself.’  Variation  was published on 30 January 1868. …