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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: 15 hits

  • … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the …
  • … be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August …
  • … pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such …
  • … And … one looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • … was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • … inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October …
  • … in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • … that Mr Williams was ‘a cheat and an imposter’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 ). …
  • letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January 1874 , letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 January 1874 , and …
  • …  was published in November 1874 ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 ). Though containing …
  • … print runs would be very good ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 ). Darwin's …
  • … Mivart (see  Correspondence  vol. 20, letter to St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). To Darwin …
  • … whether he was the author of the review ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December 1874 ). Huxley …
  • … other end of the spectrum, the Dublin accounts clerk Thomas Cooke Copland sent Darwin details of an …
  • … American Academy of Arts and Sciences ( see letter to J. P. Cooke, 20 February 1874 ), and …

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: 21 hits

  • What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to ARWallace,  27 July
  • best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from RFCooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to JJMoulinié, 23 September
  • translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-FReinwald, 23 November
  • to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St GJMivart,  11 January
  • comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from ARWallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • by Darwin himself (see  Correspondence  vol19, pxxiv). By the beginning of the year both men
  • a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St GJMivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St GJMivart, 6 January
  • was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St GJMivart, 8 January [1872
  • hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St GJMivart,  10 January
  • have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letterHe promised to send a copy of the
  • selection is somewhat under a cloud’, he wrote to JETaylor on 13 January , and he complained
  • rather than offended by `that clever book’ ( letter to JMHerbert, 21 November 1872 ) and
  • was Darwins wholeheartedly partisan reply ( letter to JDHooker, 14 May 1872 ). On 13 June, a
  • and with John Murrays assistant, the excitable Robert CookeDarwin, as with  Origin , was
  • to pay something for the privilege   . . . ?’ queried Cooke despairingly, `or have you agreed to
  • numbers required led to increasingly frantic letters from Cooke: 'We are in a precious quondary
  • Mary Lloyd, were vying to read it first ( letter from FPCobbe, [26 November 1872] ). …
  • Ruck, the sister of an old schoolfriend; he married Amy in 1874Francis, still a medical student

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: 23 hits

  • … ‘my wife … poor creature, has won only 2490 games’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876 ). …
  • … quantity of work’ left in him for ‘new matter’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). The …
  • … to a reprint of the second edition of Climbing plants ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 23 February …
  • … & I for blundering’, he cheerfully observed to Carus. ( Letter to J. V. Carus, 24 April 1876. …
  • … provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). Revising …
  • … year to write about his life ( Correspondence vol. 23, letter from Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, 20 …
  • … nowadays is evolution and it is the correct one’ ( letter from Nemo, [1876?] ). …
  • … him ‘basely’ and who had succeeded in giving him pain ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876 ). …
  • … Mivart made a slanderous attack on George Darwin in late 1874 in an anonymous article, which …
  • … disgrace’ of blackballing so distinguished a zoologist ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 January 1876 ) …
  • … must have been cast by the ‘poorest curs in London’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [4 February …
  • … her questions were ‘too silly to deserve an answer’ ( letter from S. B. Herrick, 12 February 1876 …
  • … on Dionaea ‘to test the insect eating theory’ ( letter from Peter Henderson, 15 November 1876 …
  • … sending Darwin small amendments to his results ( letter from Moritz Schiff, 8 May 1876 ). …
  • … to get positive results in this year’s experiments’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [ c . 19 March …
  • … in the Encyclopaedia Britannica the previous year ( letter to G. H. Darwin, [after 4 September …
  • … and to promote work he admired. He was so interested in a letter from Fritz Müller in Brazil …
  • … with the ants that inhabited the trunk that he sent the letter to Nature for publication. ‘It …
  • … communicated this information in an article in Nature ( letter from Johann von Fischer, [before …
  • … phyllotaxis by the mutual pressure of very young buds’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 June [1876] ). …
  • … paper was ‘not worthy of being read ever’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 28 January 1876 ). Darwin …
  • … value’, was ‘extremely dry’, he informed Robert Cooke on 16 September . Darwin was apologetic …
  • … Hildebrand, 6 December 1876 , and letter from F. J. Cohn, 31 December 1876 ). To Darwin’s …

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: 20 hits

  • she abhors perpetual self-fertilisation’ ( Orchids , p359). In his book, On the various
  • produced by a cross between two distinct plants’ ( To JDHooker, 17 March [1867] ). He noted
  • of France where Moggridge lived for part of the year ( To JTMoggridge, 1 October [1867] ). …
  • to impotence when taken from the same plant!’ ( To JDHooker, 21 May [1868] ) Pollen tubes, or
  • lessened the fertility of the offspring (F. Müller 1868b, p. 629). Darwin urged further
  • the season it becomes capable of self-fertilisation’ ( To JDHooker, 23 July [1871] ). Darwin
  • with choosing which taxonomic system to follow ( To JDHooker, 17 February 1873 ). Despite also
  • … & I have no idea when it will be published’ ( To JVCarus, 8 May [1873] ). Hermann Müller
  • and not onthe evil effects of Interbreeding’ ( To JVCarus, 2 August [1873] ). In
  • … ( To Fritz Müller, 25 September 1873 ). But by March 1874, some doubts seemed to have arisen when
  • … & Trimorphic plants with new & related matter. ( To JVCarus, 19 March [1874] ). A year
  • … ‘I have to add new researches on this subject. ( To JVCarus   7 February 1875 ). In fact, …
  • planned to publish his earlier papers in the same book ( To JVCarus, 25 December 1875 ). …
  • with which they grow mingled in a state of nature’ ( To J. H. Gilbert, 16 February 1876 ). Darwin
  • with a recipe for treating soil to remove nutrients ( From JHGilbert, 4 March 1876 ). In June
  • set of all my works, I would suggest 1,500’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 ). In the meantime
  • page, & which will be published early in November’ ( To JVCarus, 27 September 1876 ). The
  • ARWallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this letter has been found, but Darwin had long
  • to review it forNature”— he gloats over it' ( From JDHooker, 27 January 1877 ). Darwin
  • 1877, the edition wasnearly exhausted’ ( From R. F. Cooke, 16 March 1877 ). In November 1877, …

Movement in Plants

Summary

The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…

Matches: 27 hits

  • had considered combining the works in a single volume ( letter to J. V. Carus, 7 February 1875 ). …
  • agency— ’. Movement in plants , p. 370. Given that the function of bloom
  • between 45 o  & 90 o  to the horizon ’. By May 1874, Thiselton-Dyer had observed some
  • his share ’.  Movement in plants , p. 300. Darwin now began to study so
  • … , a plant that exhibited all three types of movement ( letter from RILynch, [before 28 July
  • to various stimuli. Movement in plants , p. 179. In May 1878, Darwin had
  • Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . 1881. Vol. XVIII, p450.   ‘On
  • was due to growth. Movement in plants , p. 113. Unlike Sachs, who viewed
  • the woodblock using photography for scientific accuracy ( letter from JDCooper13 December
  • lost colour, withered, and died within a couple of days ( letter from A. F. Batalin28 February
  • how their observations could have been so much at odds ( letter to Hugo de Vries 13 February 1879
  • the botanist Gaetano Durando, to find plants and seeds ( letter to Francis Darwin, [4 February8
  • only the regulator & not cause of movement ’. In the same letter, Darwin discussed terminology, …
  • to replace FranksTransversal-Heliotropismus’ ( letter from WEDarwin10 February [1880] ). …
  • by the root. Movement in plants , p. 531. Francis was undeterred by Sachs
  • experiments and devised a new test, which he described in a letter to his mother, ‘ I did some
  • and it appeared in 1880 (F. Darwin 1880b). In the same letter, Francis revealed the frustration of
  • on holiday in the Lake District, Darwin received a long letter from De Vries detailing his latest
  • … ). Hooker offered to write to Egypt for the seeds (From JDHooker   29 November 1879; DCP-LETT
  • ofCircumnutating Movements of Plants’, he told Robert Cooke of John Murray publishers, before
  • Nature of the Movements of Plants’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke23 April [1880] ). Cooke replied, ‘ …
  • the length of the book was projected at 600 pages, which, Cooke pointed out wasa good deal more’ …
  • willing to publish on the usual terms ( letter from R. F. Cooke15 July 1880 ). This was also
  • who care for physiological Botany in this country ’. Cookes reply was not encouraging; taking into
  • more copies or raising the price ( letter from R. F. Cooke20 July 1880 ). Darwin demurred, …
  • Eduard Koch had already agreed to publish it ( letter from JVCarus18 September 1880 ). The
  • and asked about the cost of these ( letter to R. F. Cooke16 October 1880 ). Cooke replied that

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: 19 hits

  • … attack upon Darwin’s son George, in an anonymous review in 1874 (see Correspondence vol. 22, …
  • … On 8 January , he told Hooker: ‘I will write a savage letter & that will do me some good, if I …
  • … to the Editor … Poor Murray shuddered again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January …
  • … laid to rest, another controversy was brewing. In December 1874, Darwin had been asked to sign a …
  • … botanical research and had visited Down House in April 1874 (see Correspondence vol. 22, letters …
  • … offered to pay the costs for printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). …
  • … & bless the day That ever you were born (letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 2 …
  • … A scientific friendship had developed between the men in 1874, and this was enhanced by Romanes’s …
  • … that the originally red half has become wholly white’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [before 4 …
  • … pp. 188–90). He drew attention to this discussion in a letter to George Rolleston, remarking on 2 …
  • … Darwin wrote, ‘I beg ten thousand pardon & more’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [ c . February …
  • … signed himself, ‘Your affect son … the proofmaniac’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875 …
  • … both critical and reverential. On 16 July he received a letter from an advocate of women’s …
  • … her presentation copy of Insectivorous plants ( letter to D. F. Nevill, 15 July [1875] ). Such …
  • … of my house within the short time I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). …
  • … and had agreed to see him at Down with Thiselton-Dyer ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 7 July 1875 …
  • … had learned of Lyell’s failing health from Hooker in 1874 and January 1875. On 22 February, he was …
  • … lay of hair in eyelashes and on arms, a typically lengthy letter full of personal observations, …
  • … examination it was pronounced to be of a ‘high type’ ( letter from Woodward Emery, 17 September …

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: 12 hits

  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824 …
  • … 1834–40]: In Portfolio of “abstracts” 34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … Belon Hist de la nature des Oiseaux 1555 [Belon 1555] p 264 Quails at sea with seeds.— See for …
  • … an Eastern King [Knighton] 1855] read The Hon ble  Cooke Journey to Oregon Bon. Price [Coke …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … ( Notebooks , pp. 319–28). 55  The letter was addressed to Nicholas Aylward Vigors …
  • … to William Jackson Hooker. See  Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, [5 or 12 November …
  • … design . (Bridgewater Treatise no. 4.) London. [9th ed. (1874) in Darwin Library.]  119: 5a …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …