Sorry, no results... Try modifying your search: |
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…
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 24 hits
- … (1) Abney, W. de W. (3) Accademia dei Lincei …
- … (1) Ainslie, O. A. (3) Airy, Hubert …
- … (4) Alberts, Maurice (3) Albrecht, R. F. …
- … (1) Ambrose, J. L. (3) American Academy of …
- … (1) Anderson, James (c) (3) Anderson-Henry, …
- … (1) Badger, E. W. (3) Baer, K. E. von …
- … (1) Balch, C. L. (3) Baldwin, J. D. …
- … (5) Ball, Robert (3) Ball, Valentine …
- … (1) Beal, W. J. (3) Beale, L. S. (2) …
- … (1) Beddoe, John (3) Beger, Karl (2) …
- … (66) Bergson, Edouard (3) Bergstedt, C. F. …
- … (4) Blake, C. C. (3) Blanche (2) …
- … (1) Blewitt, Octavian (3) Blomefield, Leonard …
- … (5) Boole, M. E. (3) Boott, Francis …
- … (1) Bornet, Édouard (3) Bosquet, J. A. H. de …
- … (1) Bouton, Louis (3) Bowerbank, J. S. …
- … (1) Bridgman, W. K. (3) Brigg, John …
- … (1) Brown-Séquard, C. É. (3) Browne, H. G. C. …
- … (2) Burgess, Thomas (3) Burn, Robert …
- … (1) Bush, John (3) Busk, George (18) …
- … (2) Butler, Mary (3) Butler, Samuel (b) …
- … (1) Campbell, G. D. (3) Canby, W. M. …
- … (9) Cattell, John (3) Cecil, Henry …
- … (7) Chance, Frank (3) Chancellor of the …
Darwin and vivisection
Summary
Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The revised sketch and final bill are in DAR 139.17: 22–3. They are not reproduced here as the main …
Moral Nature
Summary
In Descent of Man, Darwin argued that human morality had evolved from the social instincts of animals, especially the bonds of sympathy and love. Darwin gathered observations over many decades on animal behavior: the heroic sacrifices of social insects,…
Animals, ethics, and the progress of science
Summary
Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In Descent, he argued that some animals exhibited moral behaviour and had evolved mental powers analogous to conscience. He gave examples of cooperation, even…
Matches: 1 hits
- … represent?’ ( Illustrations of Vivisection , 1887, p. 3). These were not exceptional experiments …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 5 hits
- … to the subject of cross and self-fertilisation. On 3 October , he wrote with fresh enthusiasm to …
- … other interested parties. Darwin was summoned to testify on 3 November. It caused him much anxiety, …
- … for printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). In the event, the …
- … weekly publications of Natural History’, he explained on 3 June , ‘are not sufficiently …
- … time I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). Finally it was arranged for …
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: 5 hits
- … duck most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ). I consider that you …
- … because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] ). Darwin's …
- … , and he complained to the German zoologist Anton Dohrn on 3 February that Mivart’s book had ' …
- … Nature in Wallace’s defence ( letter to Nature , 3 August [1872] ). Although the two …
- … more ‘ she observed ( letter from S. H. Haliburton, 3 November [1872] ). They reminisced about …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…