To H. E. Dresser [10 September 1875]
Summary
Hopes to meet Dresser and his guest, N. A. Severtsov, on returning to Down.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Eeles Dresser |
| Date: | [10 Sept 1875] |
| Classmark: | The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13836F |
From J. D. Hooker [24 February 1875]
Summary
On Lyell’s death; JDH has arranged for burial in Westminster Abbey. His thoughts on a testimonial.
More trouble with Lord Henry Lennox.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [24 Feb 1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 16–19 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9869 |
From J. D. Hooker 2 December 1875
Summary
E. R. Lankester is in danger of being black-balled for admission to the Linnean Society; Thiselton-Dyer is in the midst of the fight.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Dec 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 45–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10286 |
To J. D. Hooker 10 February [1875]
Summary
Is provoked by trouble he is having writing Insectivorous plants.
Curious case of an unknown form of Glaucium in earth covered with slag for 1400 years.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Feb [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 374–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9850 |
From J. S. Burdon Sanderson [8 May 1875]
Summary
Further discussion of the introduction of a bill by Lyon Playfair on animal experimentation.
| Author: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [8 May 1875] |
| Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-37) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9974A |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 6 May [1875] , and by Lyon Playfair’s request to present the vivisection bill to Parliament on 10 May 1875 (see n. 2, below). In 1875, 8 May was a Saturday. , On Monday 10 May 1875, Lyon Playfair requested leave to present a bill to the House of Commons for the regulation of vivisection ( The Times , 11 …
To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 3 October [1875]
Summary
Suggests WTT-D read account of Bignonia capreolata in forthcoming Climbing plants.
Plans experiments [on Melastomataceae]. Describes similar experiment performed on Monochaetum. Interested in meaning of differently coloured stamens.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | 3 Oct [1875] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W.T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 29–30) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10180 |
To John Lubbock 3 May [1875]
Summary
Arrangements to meet a Duke [unidentified] at High Elms [Lubbock residence].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 3 May [1875] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 49644: 79–80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9968 |
From Arthur Nicols 10 November 1875
Summary
Apologises for troubling CD to look for his lost MS.
| Author: | Robert Arthur (Arthur) Nicols |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Nov 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 63 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10255 |
To J. H. Gilbert 11 August 1875
Summary
Apologises for keeping the tables so long [see 10090]. The results seem extremely curious.
Comments on paper by JHG and J. B. Lawes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Henry Gilbert |
| Date: | 11 Aug 1875 |
| Classmark: | Rothamsted Research (GIL13) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10115 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 11 Dear Sir I thank you for your note of July 4 th and I apologise for having kept the valuable tables so long, but I was very busy on another subject till lately. I remember the first paper which you & M r Lawes were so kind as to send me, but I never saw the second one. The results seem to me extremely curious, and I am astonished at the immense amount of conscientious work which they must have cost you. I have registered the letter …
From Francis Darwin [1875?]
Summary
Had two mornings working on Drosera but it was sluggish. Frog preparations are pretty good.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1875?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9791F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter. Francis was writing an article on aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (common or round-leaved sundew) for the July 1876 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science ( F. Darwin 1876b ). Francis was working on frogs for his article in the October issue of Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ( F. Darwin 1875a ). In 1875, CD and Emma were away from Down from 31 March to 12 April, 3 June to 6 July, 28 August to 11 …
From G. H. Darwin 12 October 1875
Summary
Sends an article for CD’s opinion.
Has finished an account of the globes for the Philosophical Magazine ["On maps of the world", 50 (1875): 431–44].
His poor health has interfered with his pitch experiments.
| Author: | George Howard Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Oct 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 48 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10191 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from William Stanley Jevons has not been found. George had written in support of Jevons’s Theory of political economy ( Jevons 1871 ) in the Fortnightly Review in February 1875 ( G. H. Darwin 1875d ). Jevons suffered from chronic health problems but managed to continue to produce work in economics and logic ( ODNB ). George also suffered from periodic bouts of illness; see n. 11, …
To J. D. Hooker 18 August [1875]
Summary
Shares Hooker’s feelings about Douglas Galton and Lord Henry Lennox.
Bored with preparing new editions.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 18 Aug [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 390–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10124 |
Matches: 1 hit
From Lawson Tait 11 October 1875
Summary
Wishes CD to present RLT’s paper on insectivorous plants to the Royal Society.
| Author: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Oct 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 19 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10190 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 11 1875 My Dear Sir, I have a short paper in hand on “The glandular structure and its function in pitcher plants” Would you favour me by presenting it to the Royal Society for me? I would ask D r . Hooker, but I do not know him. I am going over the question of the digestion principle but am far from being settled about it. Its presence is essential, but the presence of the acid is far more important. Yours faithfully, | Lawson Tait Top of letter : ‘( …
From Lawson Tait 5 June [1875]
Summary
May publish a lecture on insectivorous plants and would like to dedicate it to CD.
Wishes to become an F.R.S.
| Author: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 June [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10011 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to Lawson Tait, 4 June [1875] and n. 4. Francis Darwin was CD’s secretary. Sybil Anne Tait . Tait’s paper on the anatomy of the umbilical cord was received on 28 April 1875 and presented at the meeting of the Royal Society of London on 17 June 1875 ( Tait 1875b ); the paper was published in full in 1876 ( Tait 1876 ). Tait did not become a fellow of the Royal Society of London . CD’s annotations are notes for his reply to Tait of 11 …
To J. J. Weir 5 July 1875
Summary
Discusses case of Cytisus graft described by JJW.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
| Date: | 5 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 334 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10043 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. J. Weir, 27 June 1870 ). In Variation 1: 390 n. 94, CD had described a hybrid ‘ C. alpino-laburnum ’ with characteristics exactly intermediate between the parent forms. Cytisus adami is a graft hybrid of the common yellow laburnum, C. laburnum (now Laburnum anagyroides ), and C. purpureus ; C. adami is now known as +Laburnocytisus adamii ( Bean 1970–88 , 2: 510–11). …
From T. M. Coan 24 April 1875
Summary
Transcribes extracts from Sir James Mackintosh and J. S. Polack on infanticide.
| Author: | Titus Munson Coan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Apr 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 184 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9949 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letters from T. M. Coan, 14 February 1874 and 22 June 1874 . CD used Coan’s information on infanticide in Hawaii in Descent 2d ed. , p. 187. The quotation is from Memoirs of the life of Sir James Mackintosh ( Mackintosh 1835 , 2: 86–7). Gujarat is a state on the north-west coast of India. Monier Williams was surveyor general of Bombay, and his observations of female infanticide in the Jarejars were recounted in Asiatic Quarterly Review 3d ser. 11 ( …
From J. V. Carus 21 December 1875
Summary
Sends list of misprints in first edition of Insectivorous plants for the German collected works.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Dec 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 86: B6–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10315 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. V. Carus, 28 June 1875 ). Carus refers to errors in the English edition of Insectivorous plants , which had been published on 2 July 1875 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). His corrections were not incorporated into the text until the second edition of Insectivorous plants was published in 1888, but several of them were listed on an errata slip that was attached to the remaining unsold copies of the third thousand and to all copies of the fourth thousand (see nn. 3– 11, …
| letter | (77) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (37) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (5) |
| Tait, Lawson | (5) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Darwin, Francis | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (37) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (4) |
| John Murray | (4) |
| Lubbock, John | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (74) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Tait, Lawson | (7) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (6) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (5) |
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
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: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
Darwin's 1874 letters go online
Summary
The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1874 through his letters and see a full list of the letters. The 1874 letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 …
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: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letters | Selected Readings Darwin's first reflections on human progress were …
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: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
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: 1 hits
- … I cannot bear to think of the future The year 1876 started out sedately enough with …
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: 1 hits
- … no little discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the …
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: 1 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I think we have proved that the sleep of plants is to lessen injury to leaves from radiation …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
