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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: 22 hits
- … kingdom , published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide …
- … to the American botanist Asa Gray, ‘I have just begun a large course of experiments on the …
- … ( To Édouard Bornet, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin began a series of experiments, reporting back to …
- … ( To Edouard Bornet, 20 August [1867] ). It was only after a new season of experiments that Darwin …
- … unnoticed, had it existed in all individuals of such a common garden plant. Perhaps in the case of …
- … of these seeds to Müller, hoping that he would ‘raise a plant, cover it with a net, & observe …
- … generations. In June 1869, Müller remarked, on receiving a new batch of seeds from Darwin, ‘that it …
- … plants’ ( To Fritz Müller, 12 May 1870 ). From a fairly early stage in his experimental …
- … & about which I dont know whether you w d care, is that a great excess of, or very little …
- … weight, or period of germination in the seeds of Ipomœa. I remember saying the contrary to you & …
- … indisputably germinate quicker than seeds produced by a cross between two distinct plants’ ( To …
- … in sweet peas simply did not exist in Britain. During a visit to Darwin in May 1866, Robert …
- … Julius Carus, who wrote in early May, Darwin stated, ‘M r Murray announced my next book without …
- … the set of all my works, I would suggest 1,500’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 ). In the …
- … of plants.’ ( From Friedrich Hildebrand, 18 January 1877 ). Hermann Müller enthused that Darwin’s …
- … 16 December 1876 ). One critical review came from Alfred Wallace, who complained, ‘I am afraid this …
- … of hybrids, has not yet been produced’ ( From A. R. Wallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this …
- … my book’ ( To Gardeners’ Chronicle , 19 February [1877] ). In contrast, as Hooker told Darwin, …
- … gloats over it' ( From J. D. Hooker, 27 January 1877 ). Darwin was especially pleased with …
- … 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, …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but …
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: 23 hits
- … famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist …
- … especially to the modern reader, for whom race carries a different and highly charged meaning. In …
- … used the term here, he simply meant ‘variety’, as in ‘a fast-growing race of wheat’. The question, …
- … of books he wanted to read (DAR 119: 2v), Darwin scribbled a reminder to himself in 1838 to ‘read …
- … ancient’. He never got around to reading Aristotle beyond a few extracts, until shortly before his …
- … to the characterisation of things, and you have, in a nutshell, the two sides of a debate about the …
- … world according to an artificial system; that is, he chose a specific group of structural features …
- … other criteria. He was challenged by others who searched for a more ‘natural’ taxonomy that would …
- … organism. Darwin himself did not set out to be a taxonomist, but in trying to understand some …
- … observation just how much variability often existed within a species. The features he focused on …
- … by the idea that the relations in features reflected a real genealogical relationship over time. In …
- … to describe it scientifically, & yet all the genera have 1/2 a dozen synonyms’ ( letter to H. E …
- … by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be in essence a species.’ He continued, regarding …
- … of evolution by natural selection over many years and gave a lot of thought to definitions of …
- … some sterility an unfailing test, with others not worth a farthing. It all comes, I believe, from …
- … Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test of species was firmly held by …
- … argued that the sterility of interspecific hybrids was not a special endowment but was gradually …
- … to effect change. Darwin began to look at sterility from a different perspective. In May 1860, he …
- … different forms and published five articles and eventually a book, The different forms of flowers …
- … crossed with the same form. Sometimes all different forms of a species were self-sterile, sometimes …
- … now strongly inclined to believe that sterility is at first a selected quality to keep incipient …
- … at this time was his discussion of the issue with Alfred Wallace in the spring of 1868. Wallace had …
- … might be produced by natural selection ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 1 March 1868 ). Darwin turned …
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: 23 hits
- … 2 – Charles Darwin Actor 3 – In the dress of a modern day archivist, this actor uses the …
- … the environment in which the play unfolds and acting as a go-between between Gray and Darwin, and …
- … indicate an edit in the original text not, necessarily, a pause in the delivery of the line. A …
- … Jane the final days of Professor Asa Gray, Harvard Botanist. A series of strokes affect adversely …
- … dinner, though there had seemed some threatening of a cold, but he pronounced himself… GRAY …
- … quick breathing and some listlessness, so that he was nursed a little on Friday… That evening …
- … him on the success of the treatment. There seemed a weakness of the right hand, which, however, …
- … that they may be held theistically… Indeed, I expect that a coming generation will give me the …
- … bright and well, but on going down to breakfast there came a slight shock in the right arm, …
- … the address so that it could be read. Gray takes up a copy of his paper on Darwin. …
- … perambulations along the ‘Sand Walk’ at Down. He is a man of enormous enthusiasm and good humour, …
- … to Messrs Lyell and Hooker in 1844, being a part of [an unpublished] manuscript. …
- … his Christian belief and Darwin discovers that Alfred Wallace has developed his own strikingly …
- … of the package (an essay from New Guinea from Alfred Russel Wallace) throws Darwin into a fluster. …
- … of last year… / Why I ask this is as follows: Mr Wallace who is now exploring New Guinea, has …
- … will be smashed. … 49 [Yet] there is nothing in Wallace’s sketch which is not written out …
- … that I can do so honourably, 50 knowing that Wallace is in the field…. / It seems hard on …
- … Dr Gray… I shall be glad of your opinion of Darwin and Wallace’s paper. GRAY: 58 …
- … on all hands. DARWIN: 65 My dear [Mr Wallace], I have told [my publisher] Murray …
- … paragraph, in which I quote and differ from you[r] 178 doctrine that each variation has been …
- … TO JD HOOKER 12 OCTOBER 1849 6 C DARWIN TO R FITZROY, 1 OCTOBER 1846 7 …
- … TO A GRAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1859 65 C DARWIN TO A WALLACE, 13 NOVEMBER 1859 66 …
- … 1868 or 1869 190 C DARWIN TO A GRAY 8 MARCH 1877 191 A GRAY TO RW CHURCH, …
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: 19 hits
- … research while he was away from home. Although Darwin lacked a state of the art research institute …
- … general law or system’ In the early 1860s, at a time when his health was especially bad, …
- … of climbing in all its forms. It was quickly reproduced as a small book, giving it a much wider …
- … the topic within an evolutionary framework. He received a wealth of information from correspondents …
- … at one point Darwin had considered combining the works in a single volume ( letter to J. V. Carus, …
- … was the plant equivalent of digestion or reflex action at a physiological level? Was there a …
- … in the diversified movements of plants was stimulated by a phenomenon seemingly unrelated to …
- … He suspected that drops of water standing on the surface of a leaf might act like a lens focusing …
- … water they appear as if encased in thin glass. It is really a pretty sight to put a pod of a common …
- … We find watering most prejudicial in the hot sun. It is a splendid subject for experiments ’. …
- … he asked his son George to calculate ‘ what inclination a polished or waxy leaf ought to hold to …
- … on Balfour’s now missing reply, and mused, ‘ As such a multitude of plants get their leaves wetted, …
- … ‘Very curious results’ In May 1877, Darwin asked one of his most trusted …
- … that exhibited all three types of movement ( letter from R. I. Lynch, [before 28 July 1877] ). ‘ …
- … those of Gray, who had written an article on the subject in 1877 (A. Gray 1877e). Gray had reported …
- … the curious mode of germination ’ and concluded, ‘ M r Rattan seems to be a real good observer, …
- … or ‘The Nature of the Movements of Plants’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 23 April [1880] ). Cooke …
- … was willing to publish on the usual terms ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 15 July 1880 ). This was also …
- … of the book, especially to non-botanists. He told Alfred Wallace, ‘ In 2 or 3 weeks you will …
How old is the earth?
Summary
One of Darwin’s chief difficulties in making converts to his views, was convincing a sceptical public, and some equally sceptical physicists, that there had been enough time since the advent of life on earth for the slow process of natural selection to…
Matches: 11 hits
- … difficulties in making converts to his views, was convincing a sceptical public, and some equally …
- … saw around them. Darwin thought of himself as more of a geologist than a zoologist or …
- … This was based on the assumed rate at which the Weald, a large area of southern England near his own …
- … the top of which has been worn away. In the face of a critical review of Origin ( …
- … He included ' Weald Denudation made milder ' in a list summarising changes to the second …
- … stated that we cannot know at what rate the sea wears away a line of cliff: I assumed the one inch …
- … estimate came under attack as collateral damage in a much wider dispute about the age of the earth …
- … to Sir W. Thompson, for I require for my theoretical views a very long period before the Cambrian …
- … fact that natural selection could only have produced such a wide variety of Cambrian life over a …
- … in the meantime, had mentioned the problem to George Darwin, a newly elected fellow of Trinity …
- … about Croll & Thompson & be hanged to them ’. By 1877, George Darwin was working on …
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: 26 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 …
- … of dimorphic plants with William’s help; he also ordered a selection of new climbing plants for his …
- … physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria. Jenner prescribed a variety of antacids and purgatives, and …
- … of the five physicians Darwin had consulted in 1863. In a letter of 26[–7] March [1864] , Darwin …
- … continued throughout the summer. When he finished a preliminary draft of his paper on climbing …
- … and he received more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the …
- … As Darwin explained to his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the …
- … arose over the grounds on which it was conferred, brought a dramatic conclusion to the year. Darwin …
- … his observations indoors ( Correspondence vol. 11). In a letter of [27 January 1864] , Darwin …
- … However, the queries that Darwin, describing himself as ‘a broken-down brother-naturalist’, sent to …
- … for another specimen: ‘I want it fearfully for it is a leaf climber & therefore sacred’ ( …
- … transitional forms. Darwin came to think, for example, that a leaf, while still serving the …
- … eventually aborting to form true tendrils. After observing a variety of climbing plants, he argued …
- … we may conclude that L. nissolia is the result of a long series of changes . . .’ When he told …
- … of the paper, he noted: ‘I have been pleased to find what a capital guide for observation, a full …
- … of dimorphic and trimorphic plants’), and later in his 1877 book, The different forms of flowers on …
- … in the second edition of Orchids , published in 1877. These publications were partly inspired by …
- … 5 September 1864 ). Fritz Müeller sent his book, Für Darwin , and Darwin had it translated by a …
- … the slavery practised in North America. Alfred Russel Wallace Unlike in the preceding …
- … with very little commentary. However, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a copy of his recently …
- … Some other readers were also aware of the significance of Wallace’s paper as the first published …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 22 [May 1864] ). He added that he wished Wallace had written Lyell’s section on …
- … the question of human origins ( Correspondence vol. 11). Wallace, however, traced a possible path …
- … by natural selection in humans, was new to Darwin. Wallace’s paper dealt not only with human …
- … that Darwin, who later endorsed monogenism, supported Wallace’s attempt to mediate in the …
- … on intellectual & moral qualities’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 [May 1864] ). …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 21 hits
- … critiques of his views. ‘One cannot expect fairness in a Reviewer’, Darwin commented to Hooker after …
- … began to fly’. His ‘dearly beloved’ theory suffered a series of attacks, the most vicious of which …
- … smashed’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 3 July [1860] ). (A chronological list of all the reviews …
- … list. Adam Sedgwick, not surprisingly, attacked the book on a number of fronts. But it was his …
- … Above all else Darwin prided himself on having developed a theory that explained several classes of …
- … statement in his March review that natural selection was a hypothesis, not a theory, therefore also …
- … ‘It seems to me that an hypothesis is developed into a theory solely by explaining an ample lot …
- … ). To those who objected that his theory could not be a vera causa, he similarly stated that ‘it …
- … readily admitted that his failure to discuss this point was a ‘most serious omission’ in his book …
- … about global change. Darwin also knew that Lyell was a powerful potential ally. Indeed, the letters …
- … selection. Even Huxley, an avowed supporter, proved a formidable critic. Huxley extolled the …
- … whereas sterility had long been recognised by naturalists as a criterion of specific difference. He …
- … lecture irritating and ultimately considered it more a failure than a success ( see letter to J. D. …
- … inhabitants. Darwin agreed, for example, with Alfred Russel Wallace’s assessment that the …
- … science.’ As for why this should be so, he confided to Wallace: ‘I think geologists are more …
- … by his theory—and once staggered, he believed, it was only a matter of time before a person would …
- … supported his theory. Even Carpenter, whom he included as a proponent in this group, offered only …
- … selection of chance variations being able to produce such a marvellously perfected structure as the …
- … for highly adapted organs had sometimes given even him a ‘cold shudder’. Yet it was more trifling …
- … chapter on pigeons (interrupted in 1858 by the receipt of Wallace’s manuscript and the subsequent …
- … different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (1877). Plants that behave like …
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: 16 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine …
- … Letters Letter 109 - Wedgwood, J. to Darwin, R. W., [31 August 1831] Darwin …
- … on his return. Letter 158 - Darwin to Darwin, R. W., [8 & 26 February & 1 March …
- … first part of his Beagle voyage. Darwin explains that, as a Naturalist, his time is dedicated to …
- … are as alike “as two peas” and his work fits neatly into a broader domestic routine made up of meals …
- … published his findings both in Expression and in an 1877 article titled, ‘ A Biographical …
- … had gathered and brought into the house immediately after a rain storm. Here, Darwin’s scientific …
- … family life. Letter 4377 - Haeckel, E. P. A. to Darwin, [2 January 1864] …
- … March 1864] Darwin thanks Hooker for posting to him a number of plants to aid his work on …
- … work, engage in the “struggle for life” and become “a useful self-supporting” member of the public …
- … believes that Scott ought to engage in drudgery “like a man” and “occupy the rest of his time with …
- … to be able to do pure science on half his income but he has a duty to the public to contribute more …
- … his son, George. While scientific work might possibly help a young barrister, being a fellow of …
- … describes experiments he is undertaking in his home to test Wallace’s theory that birds reject …
- … to Emma Darwin’s sister, Sarah, with observations on a Sphinx moth. The moth examined the “mahogany …
- … Letter 10821 - Graham C. C. to Darwin, [30 January 1877] Psychologist Christopher Graham …
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: 17 hits
- … considerably improved. His increased vigour was apparent in a busy year that included two trips to …
- … of special creation on the basis of alleged evidence of a global ice age, while Asa Gray pressed …
- … the details of Hooker’s proposed talk formed the basis of a lengthy and lively exchange of letters …
- … responded philosophically to these deaths, regarding both as a merciful release from painful illness …
- … yet much taste for common meat,’ he continued, ‘but eat a little game or fowl twice a day & eggs …
- … approval to increase his intake of coffee to two cups a day, since coffee, with the ‘10 drops of …
- … of flatulence. Jones replied in encouraging terms, enclosing a revised diet, which unfortunately …
- … Darwin began riding the cob, Tommy, on 4 June 1866, and in a letter to his cousin William Darwin …
- … plants and animals in order to write the first of a projected three volumes detailing the evidence …
- … was getting on with his ‘everlasting volume’, and began a series of detailed queries and …
- … research on crustacean embryology, and Alfred Russel Wallace’s conclusions on varieties and species …
- … you go on, after the startling apparition of your face at R.S. Soirèe—which I dreamed of 2 nights …
- … and June on the subject of Rhamnus catharticus (now R. cathartica ). Darwin had become …
- … of separate sexes. William gathered numerous specimens of R. catharticus , the only species of …
- … Orchids and papers on botanical dimorphism, Bates’s and Wallace’s work on mimetic butterflies, and …
- … selection, and with special creation ( letter from W. R. Grove, 31 August 1866 ). Hooker later …
- … of transmutation theory during the year with Alfred Russel Wallace. They corresponded in February on …
Darwin in letters, 1880: Sensitivity and worms
Summary
‘My heart & soul care for worms & nothing else in this world,’ Darwin wrote to his old Shrewsbury friend Henry Johnson on 14 November 1880. Darwin became fully devoted to earthworms in the spring of the year, just after finishing the manuscript of…
Matches: 21 hits
- … and observations. Financial support for science was a recurring issue, as Darwin tried to secure a …
- … life and other bits of family history. On 1 January , a distant cousin, Charles Harrison Tindal, …
- … about the eagerness of the two learned divines to see a pig’s body opened is very amusing’, Darwin …
- … to C. H. Tindal, 5 January 1880 ). Darwin had employed a genealogist, Joseph Lemuel Chester, to …
- … away in archives and registry offices, and produced a twenty-page history of the Darwin family …
- … obliged to meet some of the distant relations and conciliate a few whose ancestors had not featured …
- … in to the thick of all these cousins & think I must pay a round of visits.’ One cousin, Reginald …
- … revised the essay for the book, partly in order to address a publication by Samuel Butler, …
- … by anticipation the position I have taken as regards D r Erasmus Darwin in my book Evolution old …
- … of the viper in the tone of the letter, I fancy he wants a grievance to hang an article upon’ ( …
- … natural selection and the apparent lack of purpose that such a theory implied. He found inspiration …
- … 1880 ). He stated his case in the Athen æum , a leading literary weekly. He accused Darwin of …
- … and uncertain about what to do. He drafted two versions of a letter to the Athen æum , sending …
- … to the end’, added her husband Richard ( letter from R. B. Litchfield, 1 February 1880 ). Even the …
- … the genus given by Gray in an article and textbook (A. Gray 1877 and A. Gray 1879, pp. 20–1). ‘I …
- … shake their heads in the same dismal manner as you & M r . Murray did, when I told them my …
- … for the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. In the previous year, he had …
- … Civil List pension, but Hooker was against it, fearing that Wallace’s spiritualism and an ill-judged …
- … from J. D. Hooker, 18 December 1879 ). For some years, Wallace’s main source of income had been …
- … without success. On 20 March , Darwin heard more about Wallace’s plight from the geologist Alfred …
- … with John Lubbock and Huxley and was encouraged about Wallace’s prospects for a government pension. …
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: 17 hits
- … by Cambridge University Press . Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth …
- … Darwin’s preoccupation with his own roots ran alongside a botanical interest in roots, as he and his …
- … to Francis Galton, 15 [June 1879] ). Even the prospect of a holiday in the Lake District in August …
- … Darwin, despite his many blessings, was finding old age ‘a dismal time’ ( letter to Henry Johnson, …
- … old age, which creeps slily upon one, like moss upon a tree, and wrinkles one all over like a baked …
- … way round?’ At least the last letter of 1879 contained a warmer note and the promise of future …
- … old Darwin’s seventieth birthday on 12 February was a cause for international celebration. A …
- … but it was in Germany that Darwin was most fêted. A German bookkeeper and his wife sent birthday …
- … Virchow’s attempt to discredit evolutionary theory in 1877, assured him that his views were now …
- … of corrupting his students by reading them an extract from a materialist work by Carus Sterne …
- … editor of the journal Kosmos , which had been founded in 1877 by Krause and others as a journal …
- … on Erasmus Darwin grabbed Darwin’s attention and provided a welcome break from his work on movement …
- … of the Admiralty described the unknown young man as ‘A M r Darwin grandson of the well known …
- … and particularly the theory of natural selection in 1877) had previously told Krause, ‘He is a very …
- … which is his profession tho’ not a profitable one; also D r C[lark]’s opinion that he was so …
- … greatly amused Darwin, who felt it was ‘very acute of M r Ruskin to know that I feel a deep & …
- … of laws he had received from Cambridge University in 1877. Emma Darwin recorded that Darwin found …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 19 hits
- … travel and science. He was the grandson of John Macmurray, a Scot who had arrived in London, altered …
- … Darwin Archive at Cambridge University Library a similar number of letters from John Murray …
- … had been unsatisfactory. When they came to discuss a second edition, probably at the end of 1845, …
- … whose Principles of geology (1830-3) had proved to be a scientific best-seller for the second …
- … parts (July to September 1845) before being reissued in a single volume. Returning to Murray the …
- … three years later was not so successful. Darwin contributed a section on using a microscope and a …
- … mistake: if this had happened, he wanted to ‘write to M r Clowes & make the poor workman …
- … by specialist societies and would not have interested a commercial publisher. In 1854 Darwin had …
- … his ‘big species book’; on 18 June 1858, he received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace with the …
- … Lyell and Joseph Hooker hastily arranged for a joint paper by Darwin and Wallace to be read at the …
- … ). Darwin was not convinced that Origin would be a success: shortly before publication he wrote …
- … (15 October [1859] Letter 2506 ). Murray decided on a retail price of 14 s ., selling to the …
- … sale – Mudie’s lending library took 500 copies – and a second edition was immediately called for ( …
- … profits of nearly £3000. The third John Murray made a successful business decision when he …
- … to publish Charles Lyell’s books he was not himself a convert to new scientific ideas such as …
- … ‘Verifier’ an essay entitled Scepticism in Geology (1877), an argument against Lyell’s view of a …
- … half profits for this title ( Letter 3261 ); it was never a best-seller, but it received some …
- … to print 1500 copies: the first issue sold out within a few days ( Letter 5844 ). Darwin’s …
- … more than a few hundred copies w d . be sold’ (11 April 1877 Letter 10926 ). Murray …
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: 18 hits
- … , anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied …
- … when he and his family departed on 2 September for more than a month at a hydropathic establishment …
- … Evidence as to man’s place in nature both had a direct bearing on Darwin’s species theory and on …
- … from ‘some Quadrumanum animal’, as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] …
- … theory led him, after some consideration, to briefly play a public role in the controversies that …
- … had been rapidly accumulating. Lyell’s argument for a greater human antiquity than was commonly …
- … from an ape-like animal, while dating human origins to a time far earlier than that decreed by …
- … ). Although English experts subsequently decided the jaw was a forgery, publications in learned …
- … letters to Lyell discussing Antiquity , Darwin made a list of criticisms, including the objection …
- … sentence suggesting that human intelligence appeared in a sudden leap from that of inferior animals …
- … reading the book he wished his one-time mentor had not said a word ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] …
- … agreed that Lyell’s approach would sway many towards a new way of thinking, while Huxley’s book …
- … alone in feeling disaffected towards Lyell and his book. In a February letter to the Athenæum , a …
- … charged Lyell with failing to put across Owen’s position, a failure which he attributed to Lyell’s …
- … [23 February 1863] ). Hugh Falconer was also preparing a denunciation of Lyell’s book on the …
- … [23 February 1863] ). Falconer published his criticisms in a letter in the Athenæum , on 4 April …
- … commenting: ‘It is wretched to see men fighting so for a little fame’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 …
- … about E. Columbi made me… . The case is come to such a pass, that I think every man of science is …
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: 20 hits
- … Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of experiments to trace these subtle …
- … the mental faculties of the two-year-old with those of a monkey. Another diversion from botanical …
- … up the cause of an Irish businessman who hoped to produce a disease-resistant variety that would rid …
- … agent of progress. The year closed with remarkable news of a large legacy bequeathed to Darwin by a …
- … to botanical observation and experiment. He had begun a systematic study of plant movement in 1877, …
- … position assumed by leaves at night (nyctitropism) was a protection against heat loss. ‘I think we …
- … me much & has cost us great labour, as it has been a problem since the time of Linnaus. But we …
- … the first shoots and leaves of young plants. ‘I shall die a miserable, disgraced man if I do not …
- … structure at the base of the leaf-stalk: the pulvinus, a cellular mass present in some plants that …
- … in the petioles of the Cotyledons of oxalis, I conclude that a pulvinus must be developed from …
- … the seed. He found that it tended downwards (geotropism) in a spiral unless it met with strong …
- … and bent away from obstacles. ‘I cannot resist telling you a little about the radicles’, he wrote to …
- … is sensitive, & instead of turning to touching object like a tendril, it turns from it. The apex …
- … in damp air) bends always from the card side.— The apex of a radicle growing in earth tries to …
- … of least resistance in the ground.’ Darwin would devote a whole chapter to the sensitivity of the …
- … you have, for I have read the other two Parts.— It is a magnificent piece of work. He will swear …
- … Record”’ ( letter from Edmund Mojsisovics von Mojsvár, 28 April 1878 ). ‘What a wonderful change …
- … the German Association of Naturalists in September 1877, Darwin’s outspoken supporter Ernst Haeckel …
- … that I shd die outright’, he remarked to Alfred Russel Wallace on 16 September , ‘if I had …
- … to natural science & aids me in my work; a 4th son is in the R. Engineers & is getting on …
