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Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 25 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, …
- … restrict himself to ‘more confined & easy subjects’. A month earlier, on 23 February , he had …
- … of his book on earthworms, published in October, was a boost. His 5-year-old grandson Bernard, who …
- … on 8 December. Krause countered Butler’s accusations in a review of Unconscious memory in …
- … Kosmos article should be translated and also appear in a British journal. Darwin could see that …
- … January also brought the good news that Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, …
- … . Buckley had suggested petitioning for a pension for Wallace, but it was Darwin’s efforts that …
- … 28, Appendix VI). When Huxley heard on 8 January that Wallace would receive £200 a year, he …
- … your undertaking—for yours it is totally & entirely’. Wallace also received the news on 8 …
- … ‘I have always felt that your generous friendship for Mr. Wallace, & the almost overdue credit …
- … was another source of pleasure in the early months of 1881. This book had been a major undertaking …
- … making 2000’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January 1881 ). Unlike Darwin’s other books, …
- … case is to me’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, 31 January [1881] and 19 February [1881] ). On 7 …
- … individual experience ( letter from G. J. Romanes, 7 March 1881 ). The difficulty with earthworms …
- … were trustworthy ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 March [1881] ). Although results from earlier …
- … the sale of books being ‘a game of chance’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 12 April 1881 ). On 18 May …
- … annuals ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 21 March [1881] ). Darwin thought flowers of the semi- …
- … have everything to make me happy & contented,’ he told Wallace on 12 July , ‘but life has …
- … he would feel ‘less sulky in a day or two’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 July 1881 ). The degree of …
- … falls at this late period of the season’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 30 July 1881 ). Darwin gave in …
- … 19 July 1881 ). He continued his friendly disagreement with Wallace about plant dispersal across …
- … recommended that some of his work be published, and sent him Wallace’s book on geographical …
- … to bear the ‘wear & tear of controversy’ ( letter to G. R. Jesse, 23 April 1881 ). Later in …
- … everyone else’s judgment on the subject ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 12 July 1881 ). However, some …
- … do not be disappointed if the sale is small’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 5 October 1881 ). The …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 12 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography …
- … to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and …
- … natural history. Despite losing most of his collection in a fire on the return to England in 1852, …
- … especially on geographical distribution (the so-called ‘Wallace line’ dividing Indian and …
- … the problem of species change. In 1857, Darwin and Wallace exchanged several letters on …
- … species, along with Darwin’s encouraging words, that led Wallace to send a draft of his own theory …
- … an injustice & never demands justice” (14 April 1869). But Wallace continued, both privately and …
- … means of inducing you to write & publish at once.” Wallace returned to London in 1862. …
- … and prone to misinterpretation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 2 July 1866). Wallace became one of …
- … open to scientific investigation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 18 April [1869]). Wallace’s views …
- … for a government pension, which Wallace received in 1881 (see Darwin’s letters to Wallace, 17 June …
- … each other, though in one sense rivals” (letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870]). Wallace …
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: 17 hits
- … chlorophyll by examining thin slices of plant tissue under a microscope. When not experimenting, he …
- … more weak than usual. To Lawson Tait, he remarked, ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly …
- … early April, he was being carried upstairs with the aid of a special chair. The end came on 19 April …
- … the nature of their contents, if immersed for some hours in a weak solution of C. of Ammonia’. …
- … up the results on Brazilian cane, with Darwin providing a detailed outline: ‘I had no intention to …
- … ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). He received a specimen of Nitella opaca , a species …
- … last book, Earthworms , had been published in October 1881. It proved to be very popular, with …
- … indeed more than complimentary.’ ‘If the Reviewer is a young man & a worker in any branch of …
- … believe in natural selection having done much,—but this is a relatively unimportant point. Your …
- … vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 ). He remarked on the ‘far reaching …
- … Correspondence vol. 29, letter to Emily Talbot, 19 July 1881 ) was also published in the …
- … American, Caroline Kennard, had written on 26 December 1881 (see Correspondence vol. 29) to …
- … on the topic of science and art. He had sat for Collier in 1881 for a portrait commissioned by the …
- … letter from John Collier, 22 February 1882 ; T. H. Huxley 1881, pp. 199–245). Huxley used …
- … discoverer of tidal evolution’ ( Nature , 24 November 1881, p. 81). Darwin boasted to Rich: …
- … the birth of his first child (Erasmus Darwin) on 7 December 1881. Finally, Darwin had a second …
- … by Lyell’s sister-in-law Katherine (see K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 445–6). A complete draft and …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
Matches: 8 hits
- … although he tended to avoid the subject as much as possible. A number of correspondents tried to …
- … nor is it clear that by challenging design, he provided a position completely incompatible with all …
- … point of departure reviews of Origin . The second is a single letter from naturalist A. R. …
- … for the attention now given to the subject. He poses Gray a question on design in nature, as he is …
- … He also discusses his views on design. He shares a witty thought experiment about an angel. …
- … idea of Pangenesis”. He talks about Gray giving him a good slap at his concluding paragraph, where …
- … of the fittest” instead of “Natural Selection”. Wallace urges Darwin to stress frequency of …
- … — Darwin, C. R. to Fegan, J. W. C., [Dec 1880 – Feb 1881] Darwin writes to J. W. C Fegan, a …
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: 20 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’ ( …
- … to the end’, added her husband Richard ( letter from R. B. Litchfield, 1 February 1880 ). Even the …
- … from scientific debate. The matter spilled over into January 1881. With Henrietta’s aid, the advice …
- … shake their heads in the same dismal manner as you & M r . Murray did, when I told them my …
- … bags ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [6, 13, or 20] March 1881 ). Romanes was at work on a lengthy …
- … 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. …
- … memorial was eventually submitted to Gladstone in January 1881 and was successful. For a copy of the …
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 …
- … 1877 191 A GRAY TO RW CHURCH, LATE IN STAY 1881 192 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 19 …
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: 22 hits
- … homeland by Robert FitzRoy several years earlier as part of a missionary enterprise. Darwin was …
- … In his private notebooks, he modeled evolution after a tree of life or coral that was " …
- … toward increased complexity and variety, he suggested, was a bi-product of the abundance of life; …
- … design, while others such as Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace placed limits on natural …
- … the dispute between monogenists and polygenists will "die a silent and unobserved death" …
- … moral powers. The "grade of civilization", he wrote, "seems a most important element …
- … Henslow, J. S., 11 April 1833 "The Fuegians are in a more miserable state of barbarism …
- … shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery.— What a proud thing for England, if she is the …
- … be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the Negros …
- … have remained unaltered for say 5000 years—is not this a very strong argument for the Polygenist? …
- … questionnaire on expression in the Cape Colony, and received a set of replies from the South African …
- … kind in taking such great trouble about expression, which is a subject that interests me to an …
- … ... is almost purely an appeal to the emotions, & the longer a Kafir has been on a Mission …
- … of Species , Darwin discussed his views on progress in a letter to Charles Lyell, insisting that …
- … , 6 th ed, p. 98). Letter 2503 : Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, C., 11 October [1859] …
- … Silurian age to present day. I grant there will generally be a tendency to advance in complexity of …
- … very simple conditions it would be slight & slow. How could a complex organisation profit a …
- … be entirely explained by Natural Selection I rather hail Wallace’s suggestion that there may be a …
- … clergymen Charles Kingsley, the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, and the philosopher William Graham …
- … have risen in rank." Letter 4510 : Darwin to Wallace, A. R., 28 [May 1864] …
- … Letter 13230 : Darwin to Graham, William, 3 July 1881 "I could show fight on natural …
- … (1864) [ available at archive.org ] Alfred Russel Wallace, "The origin of human races …
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: 20 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 ( …
- … Origin ( Letter 2577 ); by the time Darwin died in 1881 the book was in its sixth edition, and …
- … to publish Charles Lyell’s books he was not himself a convert to new scientific ideas such as …
- … in Geology (1877), an argument against Lyell’s view of a world that is slowly and continuously …
- … a translation into English of Fritz Müller‘s book Für Darwin (in English, ‘Facts and arguments …
- … an extra 500 to meet demand ( Letter 12862 ). In 1881 Darwin sent Murray the manuscript of …
- … sale of my book and utterly astonished’ ([after 25 October 1881?] Letter 13433 ). …
- … his publisher, after Murray’s annual sale in the autumn of 1881, Darwin expressed his satisfaction …
Volume 28 (1880) now published
Summary
1880 opened and closed with an irksome controversy with Samuel Butler, prompted by the publication of Erasmus Darwin the previous year. Darwin became fully devoted to earthworms in the spring of the year, just after finishing the manuscript of Movement in…
Matches: 7 hits
- … and observations. Financial support for science was a recurring issue, as Darwin tried to secure a …
- … years before in 1859, ‘came of age’. In November, a small deputation from the Yorkshire Naturalists’ …
- … criminals & vagabond boys’ supervised by a nonconformist pastor, and gave them each sixpence. …
- … before Butler made his views known. Butler complained in a letter to the Athenaeum , and in his …
- … and Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin drew up and circulated a memorial to leading scientists. In early …
- … in the year, Darwin’s children clubbed together to buy him a fur coat, which was left for him to …
- … I go on working at Science & in fact I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts & …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 17 hits
- … the whole of the confounded book out of my head’. But a large proportion of Darwin’s time for the …
- … , ‘for as my son Frank says, “you treat man in such a bare-faced manner.”‘ The most lively debate …
- … of illustrating his book. The year also brought a significant milestone for the family, as …
- … as feelings of hope for her future happiness combined with a sense of loss. Descent of man …
- … [of] the facts, during several past years, has been a great amusement’. Darwin had been working …
- … in the late 1830s. In recent years, Darwin had collected a wealth of material on sexual selection …
- … published on 24 February, and all 2500 copies were sold in a week. ‘Murray says he is “torn to …
- … three more printings, 2000 in March, 2000 in April, and a further 1000 in December. The level of …
- … and the speed at which they appeared. Arrangements for a US edition had been in place since December …
- … Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand trade to be a scientific man.’ …
- … 19, Appendix IV). Four of Darwin’s five sons received a copy, and his daughter Henrietta, who had …
- … William Winwood Reade thought the publication of so bold a theory would ‘encourage many in their …
- … almost thou persuadest me to have been “a hairy quadruped, of arboreal habits, furnished with a tail …
- … to Darwin with small corrections or contributions. A German emigrant in St Louis claimed that …
- … 25 April 1871] )). Hinrich Nitsche, ‘the lucky owner of a pair of well developed atavistic ears’, …
- … 1871 ). Darwin thought he might use the photographs in a second edition of Descent , and …
- … cage and helped himself to food (‘how dare you Sir’), a perfidious dog who crept silently onto a …
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: 20 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, …
- … that exhibited all three types of movement ( letter from R. I. Lynch, [before 28 July 1877] ). ‘ …
- … of a klinostat. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . 1881. Vol. XVIII, p. 450. …
- … and would later spend three months there from May 1881. While on holiday in the Lake District …
- … 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 …
- … a book-length critique of Darwin’s work (Wiesner 1881). Francis would later respond to Wiesner’s …
