DCP-LETT-2080
Summary
[CD’s abstract of Blyth’s letter of [21 Apr 1857], original of which is missing.] EB does not know whether hybrids of humped and common cattle are fertile inter se.
Species of Coracias cross in Bengal where they mix.
Crossing between Indian cat species.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | |
| Classmark: | Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2080 |
To J. D. Hooker 31 March [1858]
Summary
Writing section on large and small genera [for Natural selection, ch. 4].
Huxley supersedes Owen on parthenogenesis.
Buckle’s History of civilisation in England extremely interesting.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 31 Mar [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 230 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2248 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … been recommended to him by Hooker in 1857 (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from J. D. …
- … See Correspondence vol. 6, letter to T. H. Huxley, [before 12 November 1857] , for CD’s …
- … 1857 are scattered throughout the Darwin Archive (see DAR 45, 46.1, 47, 205.2, and 205.11 (2): 78–80). Jenyns 1858 . See following letter. …
- … and letter from J. D. Hooker, [25] February [1858] ). Livingstone 1857 . CD entered this …
- … 1857–61 , which CD recorded having read early in 1858 ( Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 128: 23). CD and Hooker had met Henry Thomas Buckle at a dinner party (see letter …
To Hugh Falconer [7 March 1857]
Summary
Thinking about HF’s paper on Plagiaulax [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck mammals are marsupials.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
| Date: | [7 Mar 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 144: 26 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3791 |
To T. H. Huxley 5 July [1857]
Summary
Asks THH’s opinion on embryological views of G. A. Brullé [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 13 (1844): 484–6] and F. M. Barnéoud [Ann. des Sci. Nat. ser. 3, Bot. 6 (1846): 268–96] and on Milne-Edwards’ classification.
Has been reading John Goodsir ["On the morphological constitution of the skeleton of the vertebrate head", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 5 (1857): 123–78].
Has embryology of bats ever been worked out?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 5 July [1857] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 67) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2118 |
To Nature 20 September [1873]
Summary
CD, in commenting on Wyville Thomson’s "Notes from the Challenger" [Nature 8 (1873): 347–9], recapitulates his work on rudimentary male cirripedes [Living Cirripedia], especially the complementary males attached to hermaphrodites. Offers an explanation, on evolutionary grounds, of their function and size.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Nature |
| Date: | 20 Sept [1873] |
| Classmark: | Nature, 25 September 1873, pp. 431–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9061 |
From J. D. Hooker 13–15 July 1858
Summary
Sends proofs [of "On the tendency of species to form varieties … ", read 1 July 1858, Collected papers 2: 3–19]. CD could publish his abstract [later the Origin] as a separate supplemental number of [Journal of the Linnean Society].
JDH has studied in detail CD’s manuscript on variable species in large and small genera and concurs with its consequences. Discusses methodological idiosyncrasies of systematists, e.g., Bentham, Robert Brown, and C. C. Babington, which complicate CD’s tabulations.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [13 or 15] July 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 116–19, 168 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2307 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … vol. 6, letter from J. D. Hooker, [6 December 1857] , and letter to J. D. …
- … 1857] ). In 1854, the East India Company had appointed Hooker a botanical examiner of the candidates for medical positions (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 385). The proof-sheets of Darwin and Wallace 1858 have not been located. See Appendix III for the changes made by CD. See letter …
To Edward Hewitt [c. 22 March 1868]
Summary
Asks for facts relating to courtship of birds and especially cases of females preferring particular males.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Edward Hewitt |
| Date: | [c. 22 Mar 1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 96: 41 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5963 |
To Bernard Peirce Brent 7 February [1857]
Summary
Sympathises with Brent’s legal difficulties. Declines offer of a cock silk fowl, but accepts offer of a German old fashioned pouter pigeon.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
| Date: | 7 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | Richard Brent (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2048F |
Matches: 4 hits
- … W. B. Tegetmeier, 6 February [1857] ; the passage of the letter that CD struck out is in …
- … letter and the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 6 February [1857] ( Correspondence vol. 6); …
- … cause no. 1857 B287 (Brent v Briggs)). See also Correspondence vol. 12, letter from B. …
- … Correspondence vol. 6, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 11 February [1857] ). CD had begun …
To J. D. Hooker 17 April [1865]
Summary
On Lubbock’s plans.
Visited by Antoine Auguste Laugel.
Guessed right on Bentham’s "Planchon".
Much struck by Thomson’s article on nomenclature [see 4812]; importance of this subject.
Sorry best scientists read so little; few read any long papers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 17 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 265 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4814 |
From T. V. Wollaston [November–December 1857]
Summary
He was unaware that varieties occurred proportionately more in large genera.
Recommends a work [Leonard Gyllenhaal, Insecta Suecica, 4 vols. (1808–27)] for tabulating varieties.
Lists "close geographical representatives of Europaean species" based on the species numbers [in T. V. Wollaston, Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira (1857)].
| Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [Nov–Dec 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 16: 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2133 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … The letter follows the publication of Wollaston 1857 , with which it deals. The book was …
- … the information given in this letter at any time from October 1857 to April 1858, when he …
- … seems likely that the letter was written during the close of 1857. Wollaston visited the …
- … letter from T. V. Wollaston, 2 March [1855] ). Stephens 1829 . Gyllenhal 1808–27. For CD’s calculations using Wollaston 1857 …
To [William Baxter or W. W. Baxter?] 10 [October 1842 – April 1882]
Summary
Orders distilled water, 2 oz of camphorated spirits, and perfume.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Baxter; William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | 10 [Oct 1842 – Apr 1882] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13776 |
To P. H. Gosse 27 April [1857]
Summary
Asks PHG to conduct an experiment to see if young littoral molluscs will cling to a duck’s foot – CD seeks to explain distribution of molluscs without adopting E. Forbes’s [continental extension] theory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Philip Henry Gosse |
| Date: | 27 Apr [1857] |
| Classmark: | Leeds University Library Special Collections (Brotherton Collection: Gosse Correspondence) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2082 |
To J. D. Hooker 24[–5] February [1863]
Summary
CD’s opinion of Lyell’s Antiquity of man and of Owen’s comment on it.
Disappointed Lyell has not spoken out on species and on man.
Pleasure of new hothouse and the plants JDH supplied for it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 24[–5] Feb [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 183 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4009 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … to J. D. Dana, 5 April [1857] , and letter to J. D. …
- … 1857] ( Correspondence vol. 6). John William Lubbock , CD’s neighbour in Down; his son, John Lubbock , may have discussed his father’s views with CD when he dined at Down House on 22 February 1863 (see letter …
- … letter to the Athenæum (see n. 2, above), Owen accused Lyell of implying that the anatomical world had been shocked by the inclusion of erroneous data in his reclassification of the mammalia according to cerebral characteristics ( Owen 1857 ). …
- … 1857 , p. 37), he divided the class into four sub-classes according to the structure of the brain: the ‘Lyencephala’, the ‘Lissencephala’, the ‘Gyrencephela’, and the ‘Archencephala’. Humans were placed in the distinct sub-class of ‘Archencephala’, based principally on three cerebral characteristics that Owen argued belonged exclusively to humans ( ibid. , pp. 19–20). See also letter …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 25 [June 1857]
Summary
Needs only one nearly-hatched chick.
Has all published numbers of Poultry book [1856–7].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 25 [June 1857] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2111 |
To Charles Lyell 11 February [1857]
Summary
Discusses a proposed expedition to Australia. Urges collecting and investigating productions of isolated islands. Recommends dredging the sea-bottom.
Mentions keeping Helix pomatia alive in sea-water.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 11 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.145) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2050 |
To ? 26 March [1858?]
Summary
Returns the Greenland catalogue, which he has kept too long.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 26 Mar [1858?] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2246 |
To J. D. Hooker [3 May 1857]
Summary
JDH’s last letter demolishes woolly alpine plant theory.
Correlation of apetalous flowers and cold climate.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [3 May 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 196 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2088 |
From H. C. Watson 20 December [1857]
Summary
Finds he cannot annotate CD’s list of subspecies and varieties as wanted. Mentions again his difficulties with "species"; he "cannot find the proof of species being definite and immutable whatever they may seem to be at any one time and spot".
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Dec [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A13–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2190 |
To J. D. Hooker 20 [October 1858]
Summary
Fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers [Collected papers 2: 19–25].
JDH’s reactions to CD’s theory.
Discussed human fossil evidence with Hugh Falconer.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 [Oct 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 250 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2345 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 August [1857]
Summary
Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Aug [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 206, 207 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2130 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … 1854 . Koch 1843–4 . Ledebour 1842–53 (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 August [1857] ). …
- … 1857] and 12 [August 1857]. Fürnrohr 1839 and Boreau 1840 . See letter to J. D. Hooker, …
- … from its use. See letters to J. S. Henslow, 10 August [1857] , and to John Lubbock , 11 …
- … 1857. For CD’s earlier remarks concerning the administration of chloroform during childbirth, see Correspondence vol. 4, letters …
| Darwin, C. R. | (432) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (40) |
| Gray, Asa | (15) |
| Watson, H. C. | (8) |
| Lyell, Charles | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (190) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (92) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (29) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (25) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (23) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (622) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (132) |
| Gray, Asa | (38) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (33) |
| Lyell, Charles | (30) |
| 1836 | (2) |
| 1837 | (1) |
| 1838 | (1) |
| 1842 | (1) |
| 1843 | (1) |
| 1844 | (1) |
| 1845 | (2) |
| 1848 | (1) |
| 1849 | (1) |
| 1851 | (1) |
| 1853 | (1) |
| 1854 | (3) |
| 1855 | (10) |
| 1856 | (45) |
| 1857 | (159) |
| 1858 | (92) |
| 1859 | (28) |
| 1860 | (44) |
| 1861 | (30) |
| 1862 | (34) |
| 1863 | (39) |
| 1864 | (20) |
| 1865 | (30) |
| 1866 | (20) |
| 1867 | (7) |
| 1868 | (22) |
| 1869 | (6) |
| 1870 | (2) |
| 1871 | (8) |
| 1872 | (2) |
| 1873 | (5) |
| 1874 | (4) |
| 1875 | (2) |
| 1877 | (2) |
| 1878 | (4) |
| 1879 | (2) |
| 1880 | (5) |
| 1881 | (2) |
| 1882 | (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: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
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
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …
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
- … There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was …
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: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
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
- … Origin is 157 years old. (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand …
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
- … I suppose “natural selection” was bad term but to change it now, I think, would make confusion …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
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: 1 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
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 …
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
- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
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,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
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: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
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: 1 hits
- … When I was in spirits I sometimes fancied that my book w d be successful; but I never even …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
