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Francis Galton

Summary

Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…

Matches: 11 hits

  • Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a
  • cousin of Darwins, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, …
  • completing a natural historical narrative of the journey (Galton 1853). Darwin enjoyed and admired
  • animals in Africa. On receiving a copy of Origin , Galton remarked that reading the book was like
  • hypothesis of pangenesis in Variation (1868), Galton began a series of experiments on rabbits to
  • he wrote on 26 April 1870 . In the following year, Galton delivered a paper to the Royal Society
  • hereditary material to be transmitted through the blood. Galton resumed his experiments with
  • together to facilitate cross-circulation ( 13 September 1871 ). His views on inheritance continued
  • organs, isolated from the effects of environment or habit. Galton shared his views in several
  • sought help from his mathematician son George, who shared Galtons more statistical approach to
  • in human achievement. In response to a questionnaire that Galton prepared for his book English men

Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest

Summary

The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…

Matches: 29 hits

  • … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the …
  • … promotes the sale’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 ). The profits for Darwin were …
  • … first two printings, Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand trade to be a …
  • … in memory of the book’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871 ). Reaction …
  • … to read it ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 19 February 1871 ). The African explorer and …
  • … pleasant or not’ (letter from W. W. Reade, 21 February 1871). The geologist William Boyd Dawkins …
  • … to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). Thomas Henry Huxley marvelled that …
  • … tide-marks!’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 February 1871 ). Asa Gray remarked, somewhat …
  • … and pointed ears”  (letter from Asa Gray, 14 April 1871) Like his previous book,  …
  • … arms and legs ( letter from C. L. Bernays, 25 February 1871 ). Samples of hair arrived from …
  • … his head ( letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [before 25 April 1871] )). Hinrich Nitsche, ‘the lucky …
  • … orang-utan foetus ( letter from Hinrich Nitsche, 18 April 1871 ). Darwin thought he might use the …
  • … poor return’ ( letter to Hinrich Nitsche, 25 April [1871] ). Animal anecdotes appeared in …
  • … space each morning ( letter from Arthur Nicols, 7 March 1871 ; letter from B. J. Sulivan, 11 …
  • … of beauty ( letter from E. J. Pfeiffer, [before 26 April 1871] ). Roland Trimen, a long-time …
  • … in the past ( letter from Roland Trimen, 17 and 18 April 1871 ). Candid disagreement …
  • … were raised to a high pitch, as Innes wrote on 26 May 1871 about the darker races arising …
  • … as far as this goes’ ( letter to J. B. Innes, 29 May [1871] ). On religion and morality …
  • … Creator made it’ ( letter from George Morrish, 18 March 1871 ). Darwin received an anonymous …
  • … Descent  ( letter from a child of God, [after 24 February 1871] ). Yet some continued to …
  • … religious feeling’ ( letter from F. E. Abbot, 20 August 1871 ). The Anglican clergyman and …
  • … brethren’ ( letter from George Henslow, 5 December 1871 ). Ernst Haeckel boasted of his month …
  • … monkey !’ ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 21 December 1871 ). Descent  was extensively …
  • … independent of all times and all circumstances’ (8 April 1871, p. 5). Darwin condemned the author of …
  • … & classics’ ( letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871] ). But a similar point was made by …
  • … the killing of some members of a hive a duty (Cobbe 1871, pp. 174, 188–9). Darwin was particularly …
  • … by culture, not biology ( letter from John Morley, 30 March 1871 ). Reaction at home …
  • … eye specialists Frans Cornelis Donders, William Bowman, and Erasmus Wilson, to investigate the …
  • … had been receiving regular reports from his cousin Francis Galton on the progress of experiments …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?

Summary

'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . .  What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … of man and selection in relation to sex , published in 1871, these books brought a strong if …
  • … 16 July [1872] ). By December, Darwin and his brother Erasmus were conferring over their wills, and …

Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?

Summary

Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…

Matches: 5 hits

  • animals. The subject was brought closer to home by Francis Galtons work on inherited talent, which
  • created” ( letter to E. A. Darwin, 20 September 1873 ). Erasmus, who had studied medicine but
  • and inheritance when he was asked by his cousin Francis Galton to participate in a study of English
  • to encourage interbreeding among thenaturally gifted” (Galton 1873a). Darwin was sympathetic to
  • vicar, George Sketchley Ffinden, who had been appointed in 1871. Darwin had usually been on good

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: 1 hits

  • … of achievement from Darwin’s paternal grandfather, Erasmus, to two of Darwin’s sons (George and …

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: 3 hits

  • … essays (later revised as  Genesis of species (Mivart 1871)), Mivart tried to carve out a position …
  • … Bruce, about the possibility of inserting a question in the 1871 census about cousin marriage. …
  • … usual, staying on three occasions in London with his brother Erasmus, a week in Surrey and at Ightam …

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: 6 hits

  • … burial in St Mary’s churchyard in Down, where his brother Erasmus had been interred in 1881. But …
  • … but his biggest news was the birth of his first child (Erasmus Darwin) on 7 December 1881. Finally, …
  • … steps’ ( letter to Alexander Agassiz, 28 August [1871] ; see also Correspondence vol. 19, …
  • … names to appear’ ( letter to Louisa Stevenson, 8 April 1871 ). It was Darwin’s name that was …
  • … who had undertaken observations years earlier. In 1871, he had asked Henry Johnson to observe the …
  • … vol. 19, letter to Henry Johnson, 23 December 1871 , and Earthworms , pp. 221–8). Darwin …