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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 …
  • … over an anonymous review that attacked the work of Darwin’s son George dominated the second half of …
  • … been the naturalist and traveller Alexander von Humboldt’s 105th birthday, Darwin obliged with a …
  • … 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 …
  • … rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] ). …
  • letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January 1874 , letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 January 1874 , and …
  • … for misinterpreting Darwin on this point ( letter from J. D. Dana, 21 July 1874 ); however, he did …
  • … Mivart (see  Correspondence  vol. 20, letter to St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). To Darwin …
  • … a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results of his …
  • … He also did experiments with pepsin ( letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 25 April 1874) , and …
  • … with his lecture at the Royal Institution ( letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 21 March 1874 ). …

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: 18 hits

  • … in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the …
  • … experiments on live animals in Britain. In December 1874, Darwin was asked to sign a memorial …
  • … was sympathetic to the cause, but found some of Cobbe’s rhetoric inflammatory, and he strongly …
  • … me) attack on Virchow for experimenting on the Trichinae’ (letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January …
  • … progress of physiology. He reiterated these concerns in a letter to Thomas Henry Huxley ten days …
  • … research on insectivorous plants. Indeed, some of Darwin’s plant experiments, such as applying toxic …
  • … Such work had drawn him into close contact with England’s leading physiologists, John Scott Burdon
  • … because it failed to mention anaesthetics. Darwin’s indebtedness and allegiance to …
  • … affection for animals and antipathy to cruelty. Darwin’s fondness for animals, especially dogs, is …
  • … I love with all my heart’ ( Correspondence vol. 19, letter to ?, 19 May [1871] ). As a …
  • … farmers and their staff (see Correspondence vol. 14, letter to a local landowner, [1866?] ). …
  • … by the prospect of animals suffering for science. In a letter to E. Ray Lankester, he wrote: ‘You …
  • … the bill on vivisection, he consulted with Huxley and Burdon Sanderson, with legal experts Godfrey …
  • … of Derby. The resulting document went through many stages. Burdon Sanderson first drew up a …
  • … [4 April 1875] ). This was evidently passed back to Burdon Sanderson, who drafted a memorial, …
  • … already been prepared for the House of Lords (see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April 1875 …
  • … as president of the Royal Society of London (letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 April [1875] ). The next …
  • … (letter from T. H. Huxley, 19 May 1875 , letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 23 May [1875] ). …

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: 17 hits

  • … Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical …
  • … worm on a hook (‘Recollections’, pp. 358, 388). Darwin’s concern for animals aligned with that of …
  • … by the prospect of animals suffering for science. In a letter to E. Ray Lankester, he wrote: ‘You …
  • … another word about it, else I shall not sleep to-night’ ( letter to E. R. Lankester, 22 March [1871 …
  • … hour of his life’ ( Descent 1: 40). Darwin’s closest encounter with vivisection came in …
  • … pangenesis. Darwin was taken aback, and swiftly replied in a letter to Nature , insisting that he …
  • … theory to apply to plants. He added, however that Galton’s experiments were ‘extremely curious’, and …
  • … for further cross-circulation and ‘Siamesing’ ( letter from Francis Galton, 13 September 1871 ). …
  • … Some of the results were promising, but inconclusive (see letter from G. J. Romanes, 14 July 1875 …
  • … results will be necessary to convince physiologists’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 18 July 1875 ). …
  • … for your work; & I suppose birds can be chloroformed (letter to G. J. Romanes, 27 December …
  • … to those performed on dogs and other animals. Darwin’s work on insectivorous plants drew him into …
  • … branded physiologists as ‘demons let loose from hell’ ( letter to F. B. Cobbe, [14 January 1875] ) …
  • … detail here . He stated his position most frankly in a letter to Henrietta, 4 January [1875] . …
  • … to outside surveillance and interference. Vivisection’s critics included a number of eminent …
  • … point of view I have rejoiced at the present agitation. ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January …
  • … position of a persecuted religious sect’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 4 June [1876] ). Experimenters …

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: 20 hits

  • … Plants always held an important place in Darwin’s theorising about species, and botanical research …
  • … the controversy involved a slanderous attack upon Darwin’s son George, in an anonymous review in …
  • … On 8 January , he told Hooker: ‘I will write a savage letter & that will do me some good, if I …
  • … of London, and a secretary of the Linnean Society, Darwin’s friends had to find ways of coming to …
  • … the publisher of the Quarterly Review , in which Mivart’s anonymous essay had appeared. ‘I told …
  • … to the Editor … Poor Murray shuddered again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January …
  • … feel now like a pure forgiving Christian!’ Darwin’s ire was not fully spent, however, for he …
  • … laid to rest, another controversy was brewing. In December 1874, Darwin had been asked to sign a …
  • … The vivisection issue was a delicate one within Darwin’s family, and he tried to balance his concern …
  • … of supporting her, he worked closely with Huxley and John Burdon Sanderson to draft an alternative …
  • … Emanuel Klein, a German histologist who worked with John Burdon Sanderson at the Brown Animal …
  • … 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 …
  • … had learned of Lyell’s failing health from Hooker in 1874 and January 1875. On 22 February, he was …

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: 24 hits

  • … Down House measured by the ongoing tally of his and Emma’s backgammon games. ‘I have won, hurrah, …
  • … ‘my wife … poor creature, has won only 2490 games’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876 ). …
  • … Lodge with his wife, Amy, had settled in as his father’s botanical assistant, and their close …
  • … concussion from a riding accident, and George Darwin’s ill-health grew worse, echoing Darwin’s own …
  • … of the next generation of the family, with Francis and Amy’s child expected in September. Their joy …
  • … to William on 11 September just hours after Amy’s death. For once, the labour of checking proofs …
  • … dimorphic and trimorphic plants in new ways. New Year's resolutions Darwin began …
  • … 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 …
  • … not even to look at a single proof ’. Perhaps Carus’s meticulous correction of errors in the German …
  • … & 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 …
  • … founded in March 1876 by the London physiologist John Scott Burdon Sanderson to discuss how best to …
  • … her questions were ‘too silly to deserve an answer’ ( letter from S. B. Herrick, 12 February 1876 …
  • … results in this year’s experiments’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [ c . 19 March 1876] ). A less …
  • … by the mutual pressure of very young buds’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 June [1876] ). Darwin …
  • … paper was ‘not worthy of being read ever’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 28 January 1876 ). Darwin …
  • … Hildebrand, 6 December 1876 , and letter from F. J. Cohn, 31 December 1876 ). To Darwin’s …