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To Nature   15 August [1877]

Summary

CD forwards letter from F. J. Cohn [11093] that provides confirmation of observations by Francis Darwin on the contractile filaments protruded from the glands of Dipsacus.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  15 Aug [1877]
Classmark:  Nature, 23 August 1877, p. 339
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-11108

To Nature   21 November [1877]

Summary

Sends letter from Fritz Müller [11191] containing observations on plants and insects of South Brazil, with prefatory comments.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  21 Nov [1877]
Classmark:  Nature, 29 November 1877, p. 78
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-11245

To Nature   24 February [1877]

Summary

Darwin consents to his correspondence with Pieter Harting being published in Nature.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Nature
Date:  24 Feb [1877]
Classmark:  19th Century Shop (dealers) (July 2004)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-9872F
Document type
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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: 27 hits

  • … , Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and …
  • … from a family that the Darwins had befriended. The year 1877 was more than usually full of honours. …
  • … of a very heavy shower’, William wrote on 24 August 1877 . ‘The leaves were not at all depressed; …
  • … gardeners ( letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 25 August 1877 ). At Down House, Darwin and …
  • … a delicate twig’ ( letter to R. I. Lynch, 14 September 1877 ). Research on movement would continue …
  • … of some Infusoria’ ( letter from F. J. Cohn, 5 August 1877 ). Francis’s paper eventually appeared …
  • … wrote to the editor, George Croom Robertson, on 27 April 1877 , ‘I hope that you will be so good …
  • … had written to the editor Ernst Ludwig Krause on 30 June 1877 , ‘I have been much interested by …
  • … the German debate (letters to W. E. Gladstone, 2 October 1877 and 25 October [1877] ). …
  • … and lively’ ( letter from W. E. Gladstone, 23 October 1877 ). Gifts of German and Dutch …
  • … Darwin and Ernst Haeckel). Writing to Darwin on 11 March 1877 , Krause declared the journal ‘an …
  • … the director, Adriaan Anthoni van Bemmelen, on 12 February 1877 : ‘I suppose that every worker at …
  • … of his 70th year. Darwin was in fact 68 on 12 February 1877. Distinguished guests and …
  • … & smooth as butter’ ( letter to C. E. Norton, 16 March 1877 ). Hooker was asked repeatedly by …
  • … & me to dejeuner!!!’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 June 1877 ). Darwin was staying in …
  • … centuries to come’ ( letter from C. C. Graham, 30 January 1877 ). Graham then gave a lengthy …
  • … man and of societies’ ( letter from Marcellin de Bonnal, [1877] ). A similar complaint came from …
  • … by a duke!’ ( letter to J. M. Rodwell, 3 June 1877 ). Back home, he learned from his brother that …
  • … order of the day’ ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 27 January [1877] ).  Carlyle’s remarks were …
  • … . In a letter from an unknown correspondent on 13 June 1877 , he was criticised for having quoted …
  • … monstrosity ( letter from C. T. E. Siebold, 10 October 1877 ). An American banker, William Burrows …
  • … back our civilization’ ( letter from W. B. Bowles, 17 May 1877 ). Bowles proposed that such …
  • … of humanity beneath’ ( letter from W. B. Bowles, 18 May 1877 ). More transitional human …
  • … inflexible tails ( letter from Arthur Mellersh, 1 January 1877 ). The American physician Jesse …
  • … (Trollope 1867; letter to G. J. Romanes, [1 and 2 December 1877] ). Dispute and …
  • … George and Francis. He wrote to Francis on 24 September 1877 about his forthcoming work, Life …
  • … value’, he confessed in a letter of 25 November 1877 that the book had ‘resolved itself into a …

Photograph album of German and Austrian scientists

Summary

The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade, and contained 165 portraits of German and Austrian scientists. The work was lavishly produced and bound in blue velvet with metal embossing. Its ornate…

Matches: 8 hits

  • … album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade …
  • … have ever received ( Letter to Ernst Haeckel, 16 February 1877 )     …
  • … the start of his 70th year, but Darwin was only 68 in 1877. Despite this oversight, the album …
  • … British press. On reading about the album in the journal Nature , one of Darwin's oldest …
  • … world.— ( Letter from Leonard Blomefield, 12 March 1877 ) Familiar faces Ernst …
  • … with the final album. He wrote to Darwin on 9 February 1877 : ‘what will perhaps astonish you is …
  • … worth to give you ( Letter from J. V. Carus, 22 March 1877 )  The professor of …
  • … scientific work. ( Letter from C. G. Semper, 26 April 1877 ) Carl Kraus, an …

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: 9 hits

  • … project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic …
  • … ). In September, Darwin wrote a long letter to Nature commenting on a seemingly unrelated …
  • … exposed to slightly different conditions of life’ ( To  Nature , 20 September [1873] ). Just as …
  • … by other plants with which they grow mingled in a state of nature’ ( To J. H. Gilbert, 16 February …
  • … of plants.’ ( From Friedrich Hildebrand, 18 January 1877 ). Hermann Müller enthused that Darwin’s …
  • … my book’ ( To  Gardeners’ Chronicle , 19 February [1877] ). In contrast, as Hooker told Darwin, …
  • … have quite eviscerated it’ ( To Asa Gray, 18 February [1877] ). By mid-March 1877, the edition was …
  • … index a little altered’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 11 December [1877] ). These changes were necessitated by …
  • … wheat that he had studied ( From A. W. Rimpau, 10 December 1877 ). By the end of February 1878, …

Suggested reading

Summary

  Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … 1863). Landells, W.,  True manhood: its nature, foundation and development ,  (London, …
  • … ’,  Harper’s New Monthly Magazine  55:327 (August, 1877), pp. 365 - 368. Waddy, F.,  …
  • … , (Yale, 1995). Gianquitto, M., ' Good observers of nature’: American women and the …
  • … B.,  Victorian popularizers of science: Designing nature for new audiences  (Chicago, 2007). …

Language: key letters

Summary

How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … Letter 11074: Sayce, A. H. to Darwin, C. R., 27 July 1877 Darwin’s study of human nature

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: 2 hits

  • … him for his book Experimental researches on the causes and nature of Catarrhus Aestivus (hay-fever …
  • … grains by a dilution method.  In his letter of 9 March 1877 , Darwin wrote: ‘Your calculation of …

German poems presented to Darwin

Summary

Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…

Matches: 9 hits

  • … (see letter from From Emil Rade , [before 16] February 1877). The poems were composed by …
  • … in Rade’s account of the making of the album (Rade 1877, pp. 39–40), but the others were published …
  • … will ich mich nicht bewähren?” To nature. Cast aside your …
  • … you vain dreamers! Looking for peace and quiet in nature? An endless vicious struggle …
  • … on a bigger scale? Cast aside your hypocrite mask, Nature! Stop patching yourself up …
  • … Letter from Emil Rade 1    [before 16] February 1877 2 Münster i./Westf. …
  • … From Emil Rade   [before 16] February 1877 2 Münster i./Westf. February 1877. …
  • … this letter and the letter to Emil Rade, 16 February 1877. 3. The gift was a photograph …
  • … Appendix VI. A number of other poems were included in Rade 1877.   …

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: 4 hits

  • … progressive, as well as racist and sexist theories of human nature would remain one of the most …
  • … special issue on ‘Descent of Darwin: race, sex, and human nature’]. Shanafelt, Robert. 2003. …
  • … Treat, 5 January 1872 Letter to [E. M. Dicey?], [1877] Letter to C. A. Kennard …
  • … Press. Gianquitto, M. 2007. ' Good observers of nature’: American women and the …

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: 8 hits

  • … 1860s. Both books dealt with similar questions about the nature of movement, so much so, that at one …
  • … by a phenomenon seemingly unrelated to movement — the nature and function of bloom, the waxy or …
  • …   ‘Very curious results’ In May 1877, Darwin asked one of his most trusted …
  • … of movement ( letter from R. I. Lynch, [before 28 July 1877] ). ‘ I do not believe I sh d . …
  • … those of Gray, who had written an article on the subject in 1877 (A. Gray 1877e). Gray had reported …
  • … before suggesting ‘The Movements of Plants’ or ‘The Nature of the Movements of Plants’ ( letter to …
  • … embryology, which he read when it was published in  Nature , ( https://www.nature.com/articles …
  • … to Wiesner’s critique in an article published in  Nature  the day after his father’s death (F. …

Darwin in public and private

Summary

Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … Darwin forwards to The Times an article from Nature on the necessity of animal …
  • … Letter 10746 – Darwin to Dicey, E. M., [1877] Darwin gives his opinion on the …
  • … Letter 11267f – Darwin, S. to Darwin, [3 December 1877] Darwin’s daughter-in-law …
  • … but acknowledges the cultural, as opposed to biological, nature of sex differences.  …

Dipsacus and Drosera: Frank’s favourite carnivores

Summary

In Autumn of 1875, Francis Darwin was busy researching aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (F. Darwin 1876). This phenomenon occurs when coloured particles within either protoplasm or the fluid in the cell vacuole (the cell sap) cluster…

Matches: 13 hits

  • … and proofreading Darwin’s second edition of  Orchids  (1877). By January of the following …
  • … ( Dipsacus sylvestris )’ at the Royal Society on 1 March 1877 (F. Darwin 1877a). His address was …
  • … and a plate of sixteen figures, was published in July 1877 in the  Quarterly Journal of …
  • … to allow an excerpt of his letter to be published in  Nature , corroborating some of the ‘ vital …
  • … appeared in the journal by the end of the month ( Nature , 23 August 1877, p. 339). Although, as …
  • … the protoplasmic  Drosera  exudate, he disagreed on the nature and function of aggregation. …
  • … digestive) properties and was therefore not protoplasmic in nature. Darwin was quick to …
  • … believe that the filaments consist of living matter of the nature of protoplasm. ’ He is referring …
  • … , Francis accepted that he and his father had erred on the nature of aggregation in  Drosera : …
  • … to his father’s beloved  Drosera rotundifolia  in June 1877, finding sundews that had been ‘fed’ …
  • … differences in seed production dependent on both amount and nature of introduced animal …
  • … Grant.   References Darwin, C. 1877. The Contractile Filaments of the …
  • … teasel ( Dipsacus sylvestris ). (Abstract.) [Read 1 March 1877.]  Proceedings of the Royal …

1.14 William Richmond, oil

Summary

< Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, celebrated his honorary degree of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma mater for the presentation ceremony…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma …
  • … bibliography ‘University News’, Observer (18 Nov. 1877), p. 6. ‘Mr. Darwin at Cambridge’, …

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: 8 hits

  • … of man  and Huxley’s  Evidence as to man’s place in nature  both had a direct bearing on Darwin’s …
  • … of man  and Huxley’s  Evidence as to man’s place in nature  directly confronted experts and non …
  • … in 1863. From Shropshire, where Darwin first began observing nature, he was invited to become an …
  • … for every plant, and stated that there must then be ‘in nature, a deeper seated and innate principle …
  • … VI). However, when  Evidence as to man’s place in nature  was published in February 1863, Huxley …
  • … IV). Darwin continued to investigate the true nature of sterility, a question he had been …
  • … in other flowers, provided evidence for his assertion that nature ‘abhors perpetual self …
  • … ‘It was indeed one of the strongest feelings in his nature, and was exemplified in matters small and …

Plant or animal? (Or: Don’t try this at home!)

Summary

Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in particular, his real passion was something even more ambitious: to show that there are no hard-and-fast boundaries between animals and plants.   In 1875 Darwin…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Maurice. 1917. News of spring and other nature studies . New York: Dodd, Mead and …
  • … ‘Insectivorous plants’, Scribner’s Monthly, April 1877, 804–15. …

Darwin as mentor

Summary

Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Letter 11096 - Darwin to Romanes, G. J., [9 August 1877] Darwin points out a mistake made …
  • … plants; he has recommended that she send her manuscript to Nature for publication. …

Darwin on human evolution

Summary

'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871,…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … to assess their sensitivity; this work was published in 1877.   It is …

The origin of language

Summary

Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of his wide-ranging speculations about the transmutation of species. In his private notebooks, he reflected on the communicative powers of animals, their…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … was uniquely human, a manifestation of man’s higher nature and an instrument of his reason. Its …
  • … . 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1871. Darwin, Charles, 1877. A biographical sketch of an infant …

Forms of flowers

Summary

Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … of flowers on plants of the same species , published in 1877, investigated the structural …
  • … The first of these, ‘On the character and hybrid-like nature of the offspring from the illegitimate …
  • … Linn.), and P. elatior , Jacq.; and on the hybrid nature of the common oxlip. With supplementary …
  • … his papers on forms of flowers into a book. By January 1877, Darwin informed Hooker, ‘ …I am only …
  • … illegitimate offspring of heterostyled plants. By late March 1877 Darwin told Carus that he was …
  • … . He contacted his publisher John Murray in early April 1877, telling him, ‘ I wish the …

Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots

Summary

Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … Virchow’s attempt to discredit evolutionary theory in 1877, assured him that his views were now …
  • … editor of the journal Kosmos , which had been founded in 1877 by Krause and others as a journal …
  • … and particularly the theory of natural selection in 1877) had previously told Krause, ‘He is a very …
  • … of laws he had received from Cambridge University in 1877. Emma Darwin recorded that Darwin found …
  • … made on scientific grounds. Evidently concerned about the nature of Malcolm Guthrie’s critique of …
  • … letter and the image of the frog be published in Nature ( letter to J. N. Lockyer, 4 and 6 …
  • … attend to they will not undertake anything fresh of such a nature’, Darwin wrote in reply on 3 May …

Species and varieties

Summary

On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … to deny the existence of fixed beings when he wrote, ‘For nature passes from lifeless objects to …
  • … you have, in a nutshell, the two sides of a debate about the nature of living things that continued …
  • … different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (1877) What Darwin discovered was that …
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