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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: 22 hits

  • … 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 ). …
  • … his, ‘& that he was thus free to perform his antics’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 29 January [1874 …
  • … Darwin had allowed ‘a spirit séance’ at his home ( letter from T. G. Appleton, 2 April 1874 ). …
  • … first edition, published in 1842 ( Correspondence  vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 17 …
  • … bother of correction’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 21 [March 1874] ). The book came out in June …
  • … Darwin on this point ( letter from J. D. Dana, 21 July 1874 ); however, he did not retract his …
  • … Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It …
  • … of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwin’s publisher. So …
  • … to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was …
  • … number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George …
  • … anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and …
  • … as ‘the natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • … to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of …
  • … the sale was agreed in April for £300 ( letter from John Lubbock, 2 April 1874 ), a high price …
  • … for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results …
  • … in Belfast, several papers featured Darwin’s work. John Tyndall asked Darwin to glance over his …

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: 19 hits

  • … Hooker, ‘or as far as I know any scientific man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December [1878] ). …
  • … or arched.… Almost all seedlings come up arched’ ( letter to Sophy Wedgwood, 24 March [1878–80] ). …
  • … in plants , pp. 112–13). He explained to Francis on 2 July : ‘I go on maundering about the …
  • … when he finds out that he missed sensitiveness of apex’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [11 May 1878] …
  • … substances, Darwin next considered sound. He explained to John Tyndall on 4 December: ‘The day …
  • … Darwin complained. ‘I am ashamed at my blunder’ ( letter to John Tyndall, 22 December [1878] ). …
  • … tomorrow to Wurzburg,’ Darwin wrote to Thiselton-Dyer on 2 June , ‘& work by myself will be …
  • … accursed German language: Sachs is very kind to him’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 18 June …
  • … have nobody to talk to, about my work, I scribble to you ( letter to Francis Darwin, 7 [July 1878] …
  • … but it is horrid not having you to discuss it with’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 20 [July 1878] ). …
  • … determine whether they had chlorophyll, Francis reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 …
  • … ‘There is one machine we must have’, Francis wrote ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 17 July …
  • … ‘He seems to me to jump to conclusions rather’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 3 August 1878] …
  • … the pot-plant every day & never the bedded out one’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 July …
  • … & read him,’ he reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [22 June 1878] ). ‘Sachs doesn’t …
  • … the cure for all evils’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [24 and 25 July 1878] ). Babies and …
  • … no”’. Darwin shared some of his observations with George John Romanes, who was engaged in his own …
  • … the title seems to me quite ridiculous’ ( letter to John Price, 2 April [1878] ). When a wealthy …
  • … of the sermon from his old friend, the former vicar of Down, John Brodie Innes. Darwin and Innes had …

Interview with John Hedley Brooke

Summary

John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…

Matches: 8 hits

  • John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as …
  • … religion. My name is Paul White and with me here today is John Hedley Brooke, who has written a very …
  • … religion at Oxford? and it’s very nice to have you here, John. Thank you for coming. Prof. …
  • … how individuals react. In Belfast, for example, in 1874, John Tyndall , [a] well-known physicist, …
  • … to the fear displayed by monkeys. He writes about this in a letter in 1881 to William Graham : …
  • … press one’s heterodoxy onto others. And you refer to a letter from Joseph Hooker to Darwin in 1865 …
  • … natural philosophers like Robert Boyle, for example ? even John Locke ? could not be demonstrative …
  • … Well, that’s a very nice way to end. Thanks so much, John. Prof. Brooke: Well, it’s been …

St George Jackson Mivart

Summary

In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…

Matches: 12 hits

  • … July 1874, Mivart published an anonymous review of works by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor in …
  • … also wondering whether he should break off relations with John Murray, his own publisher and also …
  • … it for publication in the next issue of the Quarterly ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 29 July 1874 …
  • … kind of thing Murray would be likely to wish to circulate ( letter to G. H. Darwin, 1 August [1874] …
  • … them explicitly, he might be thought to endorse them ( letter from G. H. Darwin, 5 August 1874 ). …
  • … of encouraging licentiousness. A postscript to Darwin’s letter, which may belong to another letter, …
  • … on board Darwin’s comments and sent a fair copy of his letter with his letter of 6 [August] 1874 …
  • … having been used in a Pickwickian sense’ ( letter to John Murray, 18 October 1874 ). In other …
  • … friend of mine.’ ( Enclosure to letter from J. D. Hooker, 21 December 1874 .) A reply soon came …
  • … the instincts of a gentleman’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 23 December 1874 ). However, Huxley …
  • … mistake “excusable” though not “justifiable” (2) The second matter I regret is having …
  • … the president, George Allman: he had already spoken to John Tyndall ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 …

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: 20 hits

  • … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
  • … sites in both France and Germany (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 336). In April 1860, Lubbock travelled …
  • … species such as the mammoth ( Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Charles Lyell, 4 May [1860] and n. …
  • … also added the following note on page 11: *Mr. John Lubbock published, after these sheets …
  • … Galton.   In February 1863, Lubbock received a letter from Lyell, evidently in response …
  • … of errata’ that he may have seen, and then mentioned: 2 have struck out Galton …
  • … about Lyell’s failure to support him. In April 1863, in a letter to the Athenæum , he discussed a …
  • … transmutation; he also wrote to Lyell telling him about the letter to the Athenæum . 9 …
  • … and went on to say that he intended to make a copy of his letter to show to friends. 18 In …
  • … wrote to Henrietta Emma Darwin, ‘whereas after talking to John, he thought him not wrong, after …
  • … he reiterated his admiration for Lubbock’s book ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [4 June 1865] ). A week …
  • … avoiding any mention of the note in the preface (letter to John Lubbock, 11 June [1865] ). No …
  • … July 1865 ), Darwin wrote back ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [29 July 1865] ): Lyells …
  • … had seen Huxley’s letter to Hooker about the affair, 24 he does not seem to have mentioned …
  • … on page 11, C. Lyell 1863c (original version) *Mr. John Lubbock published, after these sheets …
  • … on page 11, C. Lyell 1863c (revised version) *Mr. John Lubbock published, in the October …
  • … Van Riper 1993. 2. Letter from Charles Lyell to John Lubbock, 20 February 1863 (British …
  • … 1863b, p. 214). 12. Letter from Hugh Falconer to John Lubbock, 24 May [1864], in (British …
  • … written for me by a mutual friend of ours’ (letter from John Lubbock to J. D. Hooker, 23 June 1865, …
  • … Huxley, ‘I should be quite satisfied with anything you & Tyndall & Busk settle’ (letter from …

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: 24 hits

  • … but really I do think you have a good right to be so’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 and] 20 …
  • … species. Darwin attempted to dissuade him from this view ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 14 [January 1862 …
  • … partially sterile together. He failed. Huxley replied ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 January 1862 …
  • … and pronounced them ‘simply perfect’, but continued ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 18 December [1862] ) …
  • … resigned to their difference of opinion, but complained ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1862 …
  • … of sterility between varieties of  Verbascum . When John Scott, foreman of the propagating …
  • … letters, Darwin, impressed, gave him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] …
  • … Towards the end of the year, he wrote to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ): …
  • … condition in  Primula ’, p. 92 ( Collected papers  2: 59)). Darwin later recalled: ‘no little …
  • … and added, ‘new cases are tumbling in almost daily’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). In …
  • … hopeful, became increasingly frustrated, telling Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1862] ) …
  • … labour is great’, he told Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 10–20 June [1862] ), ‘I have lately counted …
  • … ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; see ML 2: 292–3). Other species proved more …
  • … or five sets of experiments’ ( letter to M. T. Masters, 24 July [1862] ). The materials that …
  • … to publish on  Linum  ‘at once’ ( letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ), writing up his …
  • … wonderfully complex case—’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 29 [July 1862] ). The three forms had …
  • … buy it. When he submitted the manuscript to his publisher, John Murray, he boasted: ‘I can say with …
  • … in the least , whether the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] ). To his …
  • … paper for the  Natural History Review  ( see letter to John Lubbock, 16 [December 1862] ). Aware …
  • … of the old  Beagle  crew, Bartholomew James Sulivan, John Clements Wickham, and Arthur Mellersh, …
  • … of this, he prescribed strict conditions for a meeting with John Lubbock: ‘if you could … let me go …
  • … at 9 o clock I do not think it would hurt me’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 23 October [1862] ). …
  • … on botany. Even at the start of their correspondence he told John Scott: ‘Botany is a new subject to …
  • … 14 October [1862] ). Moreover, when the physicist John Tyndall, fresh from a summer in the Alps …

Natural Science and Femininity

Summary

Discussion Questions|Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine thoughts, habits and feelings, male naturalists like Darwin inhabited an uncertain gendered identity. Working from the private domestic comfort of their homes and exercising…

Matches: 18 hits

  • … 1. Where did natural science tend to be conducted? 2. Did Victorians consider Natural …
  • … Britain? Letters Letter 109 - Wedgwood, J. to Darwin, …
  • … pursuit of real, professional work on his return. Letter 158 - Darwin to Darwin, R. W., …
  • … colour and “beauty” of tropical vegetation. Letter 542 - Darwin to Wedgwood, C. S., [27 …
  • … meals, family time and walks into town with Emma. Letter 555 - Darwin to FitzRoy, R., …
  • … ‘ A Biographical Sketch of an Infant ’. Letter 2781 - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [3 May …
  • … them in the north-facing borders of his garden. Letter 2864 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., …
  • … and “never saw anything so beautiful”. Letter 4230 - Darwin to Gardeners’ Chronicle, [2
  • … linked with his domestic family life. Letter 4377 - Haeckel, E. P. A. to Darwin, [2
  • … at least provide Darwin with aesthetic pleasure. Letter 4436 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., …
  • … he has moved one or two of them into his bedroom. Letter 4469 - Hooker, J. D. to Darwin …
  • … before expecting to dedicate his life to science. Letter 4472 - Hooker, J. D. to Darwin …
  • … discusses the scientific career of botanist and gardener John Scott . Differentiating between …
  • … duty to the public to contribute more than this. Letter 6044 - Darwin to Darwin, G. H., …
  • … and influence to help shape his sons’ fortunes. Letter 6046 - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, …
  • … from the comfort of his “ pretty garden ”. Letter 6139 - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [22 …
  • … moths all of which were conducted in his home. Letter 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S …
  • … attracted to dark spots on the bedroom wallpaper. Letter 10821 - Graham C. C. to Darwin …

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: 23 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 A. R. Wallace,  27 July …
  • … to spread my views’, he wrote to his publisher, John Murray, on 30 January , shortly after …
  • … best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • … condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September …
  • … translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November …
  • … to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart,  11 January …
  • … comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • … a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • … Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January …
  • … was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872 …
  • … it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was far from idle …
  • … by `that clever book’ ( letter to J. M. Herbert, 21 November 1872 ) and invited Butler to dinner …
  • … I am half-killed myself’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 25 July 1872 ). A battle for the …
  • … Hooker’s cause was taken up by his friends, in particular John Lubbock and John Tyndall, as one …
  • … to Gladstone a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 …
  • … which are daily turning up’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 August [1872] ).  Other …
  • … of Wallace’s position ( letter from Anton Dohrn,  21 August 1872 ).  Dohrn requested for the new …
  • … photographic plates with his overseas publishers, and with John Murray’s assistant, the excitable …
  • … of the booksellers, encouraged an originally cautious John Murray to gamble on the book’s success: & …
  • … attractive dishes in his `Literary Banquet’ (letters from John Murray, 6 November [1872] and 9 …
  • … to supply comparative observations, and Darwin’s protégé John Scott, now employed as a curator in …
  • … a copy of  Expression  to another old Cambridge friend, John Maurice Herbert, who when they were …

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: 18 hits

  • … Stoke’s Library 1 Cambridge. Library 2 Royal Coll of Surgeons [DAR *119 …
  • … de l’Homme,” by Dr. Pierquin, published in Paris (in 2 vols.), so long ago as 1839 4   …
  • … [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 …
  • … The Emigrant, Head [F. B. Head 1846] St. John’s Highlands [C. W. G. Saint John 1846] …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … B.M. 6. 6. Black Edin. Longman [Ramsay 1848] St. John’s Nat. Hist. of Sutherlanshire, Murray …
  • … Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China during the War and Peace …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … d . Series. vol 3. p. 1 to 312 30 th  Colquhoun (John) The Moor & the Loch [Colquhoun …
  • … Buffon [Milne-Edwards 1834–40]. March 5 th  St. John’s Highlands [Saint John 1846] 8 …
  • … Tone Autobiography [Tone 1826] very amusing March 10 John Galt Autobiography [Galt 1833] poor …
  • … 1848] Madam Malguet [Torrens] 1848] —— Lives of John & Alex. Belthune [?Bethune 1840 and …
  • … [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 …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …

Scientific Networks

Summary

Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…

Matches: 19 hits

  • … and colonial authorities. In the nineteenth-century, letter writing was one of the most important …
  • … in times of uncertainty, controversy, or personal loss. Letter writing was not only a means of …
  • … botanist Asa Gray. Darwin and Hooker Letter 714 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D. …
  • … and he is curious about Hooker’s thoughts. Letter 729 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., …
  • … to Hooker “it is like confessing a murder”. Letter 736 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D. …
  • … wide-ranging genera. Darwin and Gray Letter 1674 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, …
  • … and asks him to append the ranges of the species. Letter 1685 — Gray, Asa to Darwin, C. …
  • … and relationships of alpine flora in the USA. Letter 2125 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, …
  • … Mentors Darwin's close relationship with John Stevens Henslow, the professor of botany …
  • Letter 196 — Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, C. R., 15 & 21 Jan [1833] Henslow acknowledges …
  • … home a copy of his notes on the specimens. Letter 249 — Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, C. R. …
  • … news of Cambridge and mutual friends. Letter 251 — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, J. S., 24 …
  • … he mentored. The first is between Darwin and his neighbour, John Lubbock and the second is between …
  • Letter 1585 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, [Sept 1854] Darwin sends Lubbock a beetle he …
  • Letter 1720 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, 19 [July 1855] Darwin congratulates Lubbock on …
  • Letter 1979 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, 27 Oct [1856] Darwin provides detailed …
  • … expert William Bernard Tegetmeier and the Scottish gardener John Scott, illustrate how the rigid …
  • … him to publish in his journal. The debate about John Scott Letter 3800 — …
  • Letter 3805 — Darwin, C. R. to Scott, John, 12 Nov [1862] Darwin thanks Scott for bringing …

Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest

Summary

The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of  Origin. Darwin got the fourth…

Matches: 18 hits

  • … of scientific admirers at Down, among them Robert Caspary, John Traherne Moggridge, and Ernst …
  • … Pound foolish, Penurious, Pragmatical Prigs’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1866] ). But …
  • … able to write easy work for about 1½ hours every day’ ( letter to H. B. Jones, 3 January [1866] ). …
  • … once daily to make the chemistry go on better’ ( letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866] ). …
  • … regime led to Darwin’s being teased by his neighbour, John Lubbock, about the prospect of riding to …
  • … work doing me any harm—any how I can’t be idle’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 August [1866] ). …
  • … production of which Tegetmeier had agreed to supervise ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January …
  • … of “Domestic Animals & Cult. Plants” to Printers’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1866] …
  • … good deal I think, & have come to more definite views’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 December …
  • … ‘I quite follow you in thinking Agassiz glacier-mad’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 8[–9] September …
  • … belief of a dozen physicists’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [28 February 1866] ). Darwin also ventured …
  • … Wales was there & Gen. Sabine presented your father who made 2 of the best bows he cd muster. …
  • … apparition of your face at R.S. Soirèe—which I dreamed of 2 nights running. Tyndall came up to me in …
  • … ¾ to Zoolog. Garden!!!!!!!!!’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [28 April 1866] ). Celebrity …
  • … George Henslow, the son of his Cambridge mentor, John Stevens Henslow, stayed for two days in April …
  • … In June, Darwin was visited by the orchid specialist John Traherne Moggridge, whose work on the self …
  • … out, ‘business would be totally paralysed’. Similarly, John Murray gave as a reason for his decision …
  • … ‘gaieties travelling & War Bulletins’ ( letter from John Murray, 18 July 1866 ). I …

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: 22 hits

  • … I omitted to observe, which I ought to have observed” ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 January [1873] …
  • … work your wicked will on it—root leaf & branch!” ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 12 January 1873 ) …
  • … Thomas Lauder Brunton, a specialist in pharmacology, and John Scott Burdon Sanderson, a professor at …
  • … parts of the flower would become modified & correlated” ( letter to T. H. Farrer, 14 August …
  • … it again, “for Heaven knows when it will be ready” ( letter to John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). …
  • … we take notes and take tracings of their burrows” ( letter from Francis Darwin, 14 August [1873] ) …
  • … in importance; and if so more places will be created” ( letter to E. A. Darwin, 20 September 1873 …
  • … our unfortunate family being fit for continuous work” ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 25 September …
  • … on any point; for I knew my own ignorance before hand” ( letter to George Cupples, 28 April [1873] …
  • … “he would fly at the Empr’s throat like a bulldog” ( letter from L. M. Forster to H. E. Litchfield, …
  • … force & truth of the great principle of inheritance!” ( letter to F. S. B. F. de Chaumont, 3 …
  • … & decay with the reverse—” ( letter from William Main, 2 April 1873 ). The zoologist Henry …
  • … to have a second dose” ( letter from Robert Swinhoe, 26 March 1873 ). One of the leading …
  • … with leading physiologists such as David Ferrier and John Hughlings Jackson. Darwin declined to …
  • … Instinct  In February, Darwin received a letter from John Traherne Moggridge on the nature of …
  • … of a fellow species” ( letter to  Nature , [before 24 July 1873] ). Character and genius …
  • … investing money very well” ( letter to Francis Galton, 28 May 1873 ). Among character traits, he …
  • … A group of Huxley’s close friends, including Hooker, John Lubbock, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, …
  • … your own power & usefulness”, citing the examples of John Stuart Mill and Charles Lyell, who …
  • … from Ernst Meitzen, 17 January 1873 ). A poor-law officer, John Farr, wrote: “Faith like Species, …
  • … more permanent than species are permanent” ( letter from John Farr, 7 July 1873 ). Further …
  • … closer to home, when he was graced by an invitation from John Jenner Weir to act as a patron of the …

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'

Summary

In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…

Matches: 17 hits

  • an illustration of how selection might work in nature ( letter from Charles Lyell, 12 May 1856, n. …
  • the real structure of varieties’, he remarked to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 September [1856
  • … ‘& I mean to make my Book as perfect as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] …
  • plants, he asked Asa Gray, vary in the United States ( letter to Asa Gray, 2 May 1856 )? What
  • plants pretty effectuallycomplained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May 1857] ). …
  • acknowledged when told by his neighbour and young protégé John Lubbock that his method of
  • … ‘Darwin, an absolute & eternal hermaphrodite’ ( letter to to T. H. Huxley, 1 July [1856] ), …
  • which the bird had naturally eaten have grown well.’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 December [1856] …
  • he wrote to Syms Covington in New South Wales ( letter to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ). …
  • Athenæum Club. Several letters touch on the publication of John Tyndalls theory concerning the
  • phenomenon of cleavage, still unresolved in 1856, with John Phillips and entered into a useful
  • his work on species and the preparation of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) …
  • a preliminary sketch was apparently first made in a letter written by Lyell from London on 12 May
  • and went up to London to see Lyell to discuss it further ( letter to Charles Lyell, 3 May [1856] ) …
  • Hearing about the party afterwards, Lyell reported in a letter to his brother-in-law that, ‘When
  • so far, and not embrace the whole Lamarckian doctrine.’ ( letter from Charles Lyell, 12 May 1856, …
  • in his views to explain them in explicit detail in a long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, …

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: 24 hits

  • … shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December …
  • … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
  • … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
  • … who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). …
  • … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
  • … thro’ apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] …
  • … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
  • … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
  • … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
  • … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
  • … to their belief that all demons and spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 …
  • … . . Could you make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] …
  • … direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). Despite their …
  • … though in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). Darwin alluded here to …
  • … them? No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). Darwin very rarely used the …
  • … I  never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). St George Jackson …
  • … once began to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ). In his letters to …
  • … labours on the Primates’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 23 April [1870] ). He also tried to recruit …
  • … from a lump of granite’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 22 April 1870 ). Mivart hinted that …
  • … have been his “origin” ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 25 April 1870 ). In his critical essays …
  • … the mother and foetus during pregnancy. As a case in point, John Jenner Weir described the offspring …
  • … also discussed recent experiments by Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall that provided evidence for the …
  • … a memorandum. He asked his neighbour, the naturalist John Lubbock, who was now MP for Maidstone, to …
  • … reference to mankind of much importance ’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 17 July 1870 ). The motion to …

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: 19 hits

  • … as Daniel Oliver, Friedrich Hildebrand, Fritz Müller, and John Scott who had provided initial …
  • … of respect and affection’. He hinted as much in his letter of 4 June : ‘you will see I have done …
  • … his son to continue the observations. ‘I got out within 2 minutes of a very heavy shower’, William …
  • … have shared Hooker’s suspicion of ambitious gardeners ( letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 25 August …
  • … … tap one of the young leaves with a delicate twig’ ( letter to R. I. Lynch, 14 September 1877 ). …
  • … & make him think better of his work’. Hooker replied on 2 March , ‘I cannot tell you with …
  • … the full paper. A disgruntled Darwin reported to George John Romanes on 23 May , ‘the Council …
  • … , or to the vibratory flagella of some Infusoria’ ( letter from F. J. Cohn, 5 August 1877 ). …
  • … in July 1877 (F. Darwin 1877b), and Darwin sent Cohn’s letter vindicating his son’s research to …
  • … covering the German debate (letters to W. E. Gladstone, 2 October 1877 and 25 October [1877] …
  • … his sense of form and of motion was exact and lively’ ( letter from W. E. Gladstone, 23 October …
  • … the Westphalian Provincial Society for Science and Art. In a letter to Darwin written before 16 …
  • … the only one full-page in size. Haeckel sent a personal letter of congratulation on 9 February , …
  • … (see Appendix V). The album arrived with a long letter from the director and secretary of the …
  • … reported, ‘but found him as soft & smooth as butter’ ( letter to C. E. Norton, 16 March 1877 ) …
  • … write to Owen & offer himself you & me to dejeuner!!!’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 June …
  • … where I hope it may remain for centuries to come’ ( letter from C. C. Graham, 30 January 1877 ). …
  • … and ignorance in the name of science: ‘I am not John the baptist from the wilderness of locusts and …
  • … me in a considerate and friendly manner.’ He wrote to John Brodie Innes, the former vicar of Down, …