To William Turner 28 March [1871]
Summary
Discusses errors in Descent. Not surprised that WT is not committed to full acceptance of evolution of man.
At work on Expression. Asks about muscles that raise spines of hedgehog and tail coverts of peacock. Asks about influence of mind on capillaries with regard to blushing. Mentions views of James Paget on influence of the mind on nutrition of body parts.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner |
| Date: | 28 Mar [1871] |
| Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Dc.2.96/5/4a) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7632 |
To K. T. E. von Siebold 4 December 1871
Summary
Thanks for the letter, photograph, and kind words about CD’s scientific work. [See 8088.]
CTEvS’s view of pseudova is new to CD;
he has not yet received the recent work on parthenogenesis
though he did receive the memoir on Polistes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold |
| Date: | 4 Dec 1871 |
| Classmark: | Museo Nacional de Etnología, Madrid (FD4472) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8094A |
To F. E. Abbot 27 May [1871]
Summary
CD is surprised and gratified by the interest in his views in America.
Has read the extract from the Liberal Christian sent by FEA and also Truths for the times, which he admires.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Ellingwood Abbot |
| Date: | 27 May [1871] |
| Classmark: | Harvard University Archives (Papers of F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. Darwin (son), 1871–1883, box 44. HUG 1101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7771 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. …
To F. E. Abbot 6 June [1871]
Summary
Sends subscription for the Index.
FEA’s article ["The intuitional and scientific schools of free religion", Index 15 Apr 1871] is one of the most striking CD has read.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Ellingwood Abbot |
| Date: | 6 June [1871] |
| Classmark: | Harvard University Archives (Papers of F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. Darwin (son), 1871–1883, box 44. HUG 1101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7804 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. …
From J. D. Hooker to Emma Darwin 15 September 1871
Summary
His mother very ill.
Mrs Hooker back from Bavaria.
Hopes marriage [of Henrietta] went well. Is accused of saying he would rather go to two burials than one marriage.
Has heard from Huxley who is threatening to "thin out" Mivart. Huxley is reading Francisco Suarez and finds Mivart misquotes or misunderstands him.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Sept 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 83–84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7945 |
To J. D. Hooker 16 September [1871]
Summary
Is preparing new edition of Origin [6th] in which he will introduce new chapter to answer Mivart’s criticisms. Mivart is unfair: suppresses facts in CD’s later editions.
Sends article [by Chauncey Wright, see 7940] reviewing Genesis of species.
Mivart writes to CD full of respect, but reviles him in print.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 16 Sept [1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 204–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7949 |
From Alexander Agassiz [before 1 June 1871]
Summary
Instances of sexual differences in viviparous fishes, suggested by reading chapters on sexual selection [in Descent] and by Mivart’s Genesis of species.
Notes on echinoderms.
| Author: | Alexander Agassiz |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 1 June 1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 69: A43–6 DAR 89: 29–31 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7415 |
To F. E. Abbot 16 November [1871]
Summary
Explains why he must decline to write for the Index: his health is poor and he has never systematically thought much on religion. FEA may print his comments, "with qualifications", if he wishes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Ellingwood Abbot |
| Date: | 16 Nov [1871] |
| Classmark: | Harvard University Archives (Papers of F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. Darwin (son), 1871–1883, box 44. HUG 1101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8070 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. …
From Maria [1871–82]
Summary
Writes at length on importance of God and Catholicism, and the need to seek salvation.
| Author: | Maria |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1871–82] |
| Classmark: | DAR 201: 25 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12387 |
To F. E. Abbot 6 September [1871]
Summary
CD’s views [on religion] are far from clear. He cannot make up his mind how far an inward conviction that there must be some Creator or First Cause is really trustworthy evidence. Does not feel he has thought deeply enough to express himself publicly on religion.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Ellingwood Abbot |
| Date: | 6 Sept [1871] |
| Classmark: | Harvard University Archives (Papers of F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. Darwin (son), 1871–1883, box 44. HUG 1101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7924 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. …
From George Cupples 22 April 1871
Summary
On reception of Descent in Edinburgh.
Anecdote about a dog helping another by separating combatants.
| Author: | George Cupples |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Apr 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 87: 111–12c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7707 |
From Karl Scherzer 28 May 1871
Summary
Craniological part of Novara voyage report is done.
Expresses his satisfaction at CD’s election as a Foreign Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
| Author: | Karl von Scherzer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 May 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 51 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9998 |
From John Fiske 23 October 1871
Summary
JF’s indebtedness to Herbert Spencer. [Published version complete.]
| Author: | John Fiske |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Oct 1871 |
| Classmark: | J. S. Clark 1917, 1: 389–91; DAR 164: 124 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8030 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the United States of America. 4 vols. 1857–62. ] [Reprint edition. Edited by Edward …
From W. W. Reade 21 February 1871
Summary
Various comments on Descent;
on suicide on Gold Coast;
on mulattoes’ not being prolific.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Feb 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 89: 172–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7501 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Reisen in Süd-Afrika in den Jahren 1849 bis 1857. Translated from the Hungarian by Johann …
From K. T. E. von Siebold 29 November 1871
Summary
Thanks CD for copies of the Origin and Cirripedia;
sends his latest publication in return [Beiträge zur Parthenogenesis der Arthropoden (1871)]. Discusses his work on parthenogenesis which, he believes, is a case of atavism.
| Author: | Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Nov 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 159 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8088 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … pseudova in the water-flea Daphnia ( Lubbock 1857 and 1858a). CD cited Lubbock’s work in …
| letter | (15) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Agassiz, Alexander | (1) |
| Cupples, George | (1) |
| Fiske, John | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Abbot, F. E. | (4) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Siebold, C. T. E. von | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
| Abbot, F. E. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Siebold, C. T. E. von | (2) |
| Agassiz, Alexander | (1) |
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
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: 11 hits
- … of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed aspects of …
- … as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test …
- … the alpine plants pretty effectually’ complained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May …
- … of calculation was wrong ( letter to John Lubbock, 14 July [1857] ). Darwin thought his results …
- … experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden vegetables like …
- … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette in October 1857, to be followed by a second notice in 1858. …
- … find the work: am I not a kind Father?’ Darwin wrote in 1857, soon followed by the complaint ‘You …
- … to end!’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, [17 February 1857] and 21 [July 1857] ). The problem of …
- … of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and hardly the veiled …
- … are all vividly displayed in Darwin's letters. By the end of 1857, Darwin was well on the way …
- … long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] ). From this letter it is evident …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was in Darwin’s day. To J. D. Hooker, 3 June [1857] : on the struggle for existence in …
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
- … 2070: Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, C. R., [before 29 Sept 1857] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …
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: 3 hits
- … natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same …
- … to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). …
- … was sent to A. Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October 1857 [‘or perhaps’ del ]’. The printed …
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: 4 hits
- … the Origin of Species…’ FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: 1857-1858 In which Gray and Hooker …
- … JUNE 1855 20 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 21 A GRAY TO C DARWIN, …
- … MARCH 1862 35 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 36 A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
- … OCTOBER 1858 59 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, 12 OCTOBER 1857 60 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, …
The "wicked book": Origin at 157
Summary
Origin is 157 years old. (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859. To celebrate we have uploaded hundreds of new images of letters, bringing the total number you can look at here to over 9000 representing more than…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ’s appearance, but there is a fascinating scrap from 1857 comparing his views on species to …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 3 hits
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
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: 1 hits
- … written in 1842 , and, as he told Asa Gray in September 1857 , he intended to call the ‘ big …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 7 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
- … 5 3 March 1857 The struggle for existence as bearing on …
- … 6 31 March 1857 On natural selection (DAR 10.2; …
- … 7 29 September 1857 Laws of variation: varieties & …
- … 8 29 September 1857 Difficulties on the theory of …
- … 9 29 December 1857 Hybridism (DAR 12; Natural …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of other cells. (Letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 14 April 1857 .) In a later letter …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
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…
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,…
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
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: 3 hits
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 7 hits
- … ago’, he wrote to the American botanist Asa Gray in July 1857, it occurred to me that …
- … staggered about the permanence of species.— By 1857, Darwin had found the confidence to …
- … And this much acceleration I owe to you. ’ In February 1857, the rate of this acceleration was …
- … the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of strength …
- … in theory of the descent of species ’. In December 1857, Darwin had expressed his satisfaction that …
- … there is no good & original observation ’. In 1857, Darwin recorded in his journal that …
- … varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I am now preparing …
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: 3 hits
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
- … with an abstract of his views sent to Asa Gray in September 1857. The correspondence between Darwin, …
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: 21 hits
- … 112 Jukes. “Students Manual of Geology” [Jukes 1857]— published a few years ago, good on …
- … Lucas l’Heredite Naturelle [Lucas 1847–50] 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami …
- … Thackeray English Humourists [Thackeray 1853] 1857 Jan. Cockburn life of Selby [ …
- … 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6]: Quits [Tautphoeus] 1857] 29 Lutfullah. Life of …
- … Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 Sir J. Mackintosh …
- … Oct. 22. Olmstead Journey through Texas [Olmsted 1857] Dec. Motley’s History of Dutch …
- … 1853]— Aug.— Sherard Osborne’s Quedah [Osborn 1857] d[itt]o d[itt]o Arctic Journal …
- … Harris 1842] Jukes Student Manual of Geology [Jukes 1857] Azara’s Quadrupeds [Azara …
- … *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857. History of civilization in …
- … 21v., 22; 119: 19a Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. 1857. The life of Charlotte Brontë . …
- … [Abstract in DAR 205.3: 138.] 119: 20a ——. 1857. The student’s manual of geology. …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 15v. Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches …
- … 3 vols. Vivay. [Other eds.] *119: 22 Lutfullah. 1857. Autobiography of Lutfullah: a …
- … *119: 23; 128: 5 Napier, William Francis Patrick. 1857. The life and opinions of General …
- … of Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 1858, 1859 . 2 vols. Edinburgh and …
- … on their economy . New York. 128: 25 ——. 1857. A journey through Texas; or, a winter …
- … an Arctic journal\. London. 128: 25 ——. 1857. Quedah; or, stray leaves from a journal …
- … Rouvroy, Louis de, Duke de Saint-Simon Vermandois. 1857. The memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 1v.; 119: 12a Smiles, Samuel. 1857. The life of George Stephenson, …
- … New York. *128: 178 [Tautphoeus, Jemima von]. 1857. Quits; a novel . 3 vols. London. …
- … . Edited by J. C. Morris. Madras. 1833–51. Second series, 1857–. [Abstract in DAR 74: 177.] *119: …
