To Otto Zacharias 17 April [1878]
Summary
Doesn’t know anything about the insects in question, but has sent the photographs on to an expert in London.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Otto Zacharias |
| Date: | 17 Apr [1878] |
| Classmark: | University of Southern California Libraries, Special Collections, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library (Collection no. 0204, Lion Feuchtwanger papers, Box 01) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11478F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … no. 0204, Lion Feuchtwanger papers, Box 01) Charles Robert Darwin Down 17 Apr [1878] Otto …
From Edward Cresy 10 November 1860
Summary
Explains discrepancies in weights and measures caused by changes since 1836 in apothecaries’ measures.
EC has found that a discrepancy in A. W. von Hofmann’s experiments with iodine solutions resulted from an error in Hofmann’s use of decimals.
Reports S. P. Woodward’s opinion of the Origin: "a very sad book, it unsettles all one’s religious principles and the worst of it is so much of it is true".
| Author: | Edward Cresy, Jr |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Nov 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 7, 9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2980 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of iodine in 1 kilogramme of water. i.e. .01 milligramme per gramme. [diag] The original …
- … of the solution containing therefore .01 milligramme that is 1 100 of a milligramme, & he …
- … 1000 grammes = 1 kilogramme = 1 litre—gives .01 per gramme and in this the Sec says I am …
- … to write a milligramme .001 then the D rs .01 becomes .00001 a very clumsy figure to work …
From Leonard Darwin [after 14 February 1874]
Summary
Statistics showing rate of decline of population in Sandwich Islands, 1832–72.
| Author: | Leonard Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 14 Feb 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 90: 8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8709 |
To Karl von Scherzer 1 April 1878
Summary
Glad to hear of Ernst Haeckel’s reception in Vienna.
R. Virchow’s address ["Liberty of science", Nature 17 (1877–8): 72–4, 92–4, 111–13] very arrogant.
Sorry to hear of death of Arthur Lane.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Karl von Scherzer |
| Date: | 1 Apr 1878 |
| Classmark: | University of Southern California Libraries, Special Collections, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library (Collection no. 0204, Lion Feuchtwanger papers, Box 01) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11460 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … no. 0204, Lion Feuchtwanger papers, Box 01) Charles Robert Darwin Down 1 Apr 1878 Karl von …
To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 30 April [1876]
Summary
Suggests JSBS’s new machine for observing arterial action be used to test CD’s hypothesis that blushing is caused by thinking intensely about a part of the body and thus releasing the arteries.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 30 Apr [1876] |
| Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-01) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10485 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-01) Charles Robert Darwin London, Queen Anne St, …
From J. V. Carus 19 March 1876
Summary
Insectivorous plants is out
and Climbing plants is at the printer’s.
He is now at work on the geological writings.
Thinks all of CD’s papers extremely interesting "for the spirit and the method".
Cites some misprints in Climbing plants.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Mar 1876 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 103 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10419 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … P. 58 l. 12 from bottom read 8,1 mg for 8, 01 mg. Do you happen to have a bound copy of …
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Carus, J. V. | (1) |
| Cresy, Edward, Jr | (1) |
| Darwin, Leonard | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (1) |
| Scherzer, Karl von | (1) |
| Zacharias, Otto | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (6) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (1) |
| Carus, J. V. | (1) |
| Cresy, Edward, Jr | (1) |
| Darwin, Leonard | (1) |
Evolution in Commentary
Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Provenance: CUL DAR 6: 51 Notes 1 The printed version is headed: “Abstract of a …
Natural selection
Summary
How do new species arise? This was the ancient question that Charles Darwin tackled soon after returning to England from the Beagle voyage in October 1836. Darwin realised a crucial (and cruel) fact: far more individuals of each species were born than…
Matches: 1 hits
- … How do new species arise? This was the ancient question that Charles Darwin tackled soon after …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 0 hits
Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
Summary
Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared. Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…
Matches: 0 hits
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 0 hits
Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
Summary
As he was first developing his ideas, among the potential problems Darwin recognised with natural selection was how to account for developmental change that conferred no apparent advantage. He proposed a ‘mysterious law’ of ‘correlation of growth’ where…
Matches: 1 hits
- … during a long succession of generations. ( Descent 1: 244–5 n. 48) …
