To Francis Galton 2 November [1875]
Summary
Has heard that FG will write on inheritance. Huxley does not believe in E. G. Balbiani’s views on subject.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Galton |
| Date: | 2 Nov [1875] |
| Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/17) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10237 |
To G. J. Romanes 24 September [1875]
Summary
Will propose GJR for membership in Linnean Society.
Discusses GJR’s grafting experiments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George John Romanes |
| Date: | 24 Sept [1875] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.476) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10168 |
To J. D. Hooker 14 April [1875]
Summary
CD and others now think it advisable to go further than a petition on vivisection, and a bill has been drafted.
F. Delpino’s pamphlet on pitchers ["Sulle pianti a bicchieri", Nuovo G. Bot. Ital. 3 (1871): 174–6].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 14 Apr [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 384–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9927 |
To Anton Dohrn [after 7 February 1875]
Summary
The Zoological Station has already resulted in "capital work" by F. M. Balfour and Ray Lankester. G. J. Romanes is coming next year.
CD will be interested in AD’s ancestry of vertebrates. "I shall be very sorry to give up the ascidians."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
| Date: | [after 7 Feb 1875] |
| Classmark: | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Ana 525. Ba 1120) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9852 |
To August Weismann 1 and 4 May 1875
Summary
Comments on AW’s work [Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie, vol. 1 (1875)].
On seasonal dimorphism in Lepidoptera in relation to sexual selection.
Discusses evolutionary reversion.
Comments on birds’ avoiding brightly coloured caterpillars. Offers references on subject.
Alpheus Hyatt says Franz Hilgendorf mistaken [about Planorbis multiformis].
Quotes from letter from J. J. Weir on birds’ rejection of brightly-coloured caterpillars.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Leopold Friedrich August (August) Weismann |
| Date: | 1 and 4 May 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 344 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9965 |
To Georg von Seidlitz 17 July 1875
Summary
Is obliged to be given a second and improved edition of GKMvS’s excellent lectures.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Georg Karl Maria (Georg) von Seidlitz |
| Date: | 17 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | Zoologische Staatssammlung München |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10077F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … copy of the first edition ( Seidlitz 1871 ) is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia …
To George Harris 27 April 1875
Summary
Briefly answers GH’s query whether animals can perceive any qualities unperceived by man.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Harris |
| Date: | 27 Apr 1875 |
| Classmark: | University of California Los Angeles, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division (Ms. 10, Letters concerning George Harris’s A Philosophical Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of Man) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9953 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871. Harris, George. 1876. A philosophical …
To E. H. Stanley 15 April 1875
Summary
CD has helped leading physiologists to prepare a draft bill for legislation with regard to vivisection, and he hopes Lord Derby will support the bill and mention it to ministers of the Cabinet. Has heard that other groups are preparing bills for the same purpose, and feels it important that the science of physiology be protected as well as animals.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby |
| Date: | 15 Apr 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 97: C22–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9933 |
To George Rolleston 2 September [1875]
Summary
Thanks for GR’s "Address" [see 10141].
Wishes he had not quoted Bagehot’s remark [in Descent 1: 239] about decrease in savage populations. Interest in subject.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Rolleston |
| Date: | 2 Sept [1875] |
| Classmark: | Wellcome Collection (MS.6119/68) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10150 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871. Wright, Chauncey. 1870. [Review of …
To C. V. Riley 30 May 1875
Summary
Thanks for the seventh of CVR’s Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial and other insects in the state of Missouri (Riley 1869–77).
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Valentine Riley |
| Date: | 30 May 1875 |
| Classmark: | Kenneth W. Rendell (dealer) (August 2005) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10002F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … The first report sent by Riley to CD in 1871 was the third of his Annual reports on the …
To W. E. Darwin [2 April 1875]
Summary
About elections to [an unspecified] club.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [2 Apr 1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 140 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9910 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … had been members but had died in 1862 and 1871 respectively ( ODNB ). Membership of the …
To Annie Dowie 27 July 1875
Summary
Has previously quoted details concerning the regrowth of her amputated extra digit in Variation [2: 14–15]. The case has since been disputed, so CD, who is revising his work, asks for some fuller details.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Anne (Annie) Chambers; Anne (Annie) Dowie |
| Date: | 27 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | Bonhams (dealers) (13 March 2002) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10096 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Dowie’s father, Robert Chambers , died in 1871. See letters from Anton Bachmaier , 4 …
To G. H. Darwin [25 October 1875]
Summary
Asks that a copy of GHD’s paper on cousin marriage be sent to Hermann Müller. J. F. McLennan admires it "as a model".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Howard Darwin |
| Date: | [25 Oct 1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.1: 49 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10223 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871. McLennan, John Ferguson. 1865. Primitive …
To R. F. Cooke 23 May [1875]
Summary
Discusses the price to be charged to Appleton’s for the plates of Insectivorous plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
| Date: | 23 May [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 97: C27 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9989 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871. Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. …
To Anton Dohrn 24 May 1875
Summary
Thanks AD for his Ursprung [der Wirbelthiere (1875)], which astonished CD. AD’s views, if accepted by competent authorities, will show how much we have to learn about the history of every animal. Suggests caution on "degradation principle". Comments on other views in the work. Has long seen importance of the principle of "Functionswechsel" [transfer [change!?] of function], but never enunciated it as a distinct principle.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
| Date: | 24 May 1875 |
| Classmark: | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Ana 525. Ba 1122) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9991 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … organs would be functionless ( Mivart 1871 , p. 38; Dohrn 1875 , p. 61). CD’s copy of Carl …
To T. H. Huxley 14 January 1875
Summary
Is alarmed by the petitions against vivisection that are being circulated. Believes there is scope for reasonable legislation and would like to see eminent physiologists prepare a petition so that the science could be protected and animals saved from needless suffering.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 14 Jan 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 97: C37–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9817 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to fulfill this request reported at the 1871 meeting. They concluded that anaesthetics …
To Lawson Tait 11 June [1875]
Summary
Has found that H. G. Bronn in the chapter appended to his translation of Origin cited ears and tail of mice as facts opposed to natural selection. Suggests RLT examine hairs of tails of mice for possible nerves.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
| Date: | 11 June [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 24–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10013 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … as an important tactile organ; Schöbl 1871 ). In Origin 6th ed. , p. 189, CD referred to …
To J. D. Hooker 21 October [1875]
Summary
Describes observations by his son Horace on the extreme sensitivity of twisted seeds to moisture.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 21 Oct [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 397–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10209 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1872–4 ), volumes four and five of an 1871 reprint of the first edition ( Watts 1863–8 ), …
To J. B. Innes 10 May [1875]
Summary
On colour changes in rabbits. Suspects JBI’s is of impure origin.
Is correcting proof of Insectivorous plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | 10 May [1875] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9975 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Sketchley Ffinden , vicar of Down since 1871 and chairman of the School Committee, had not …
| letter | (19) |
| Dohrn, Anton | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Chambers, Annie | (1) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
| Darwin, G. H. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
| Dohrn, Anton | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Chambers, Annie | (1) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
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: 30 hits
- … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the …
- … promotes the sale’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 ). The profits for Darwin were …
- … first two printings, Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand trade to be a …
- … in memory of the book’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871 ). Reaction …
- … to read it ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 19 February 1871 ). The African explorer and …
- … pleasant or not’ (letter from W. W. Reade, 21 February 1871). The geologist William Boyd Dawkins …
- … to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). Thomas Henry Huxley marvelled that …
- … tide-marks!’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 February 1871 ). Asa Gray remarked, somewhat …
- … and pointed ears” (letter from Asa Gray, 14 April 1871) Like his previous book, …
- … arms and legs ( letter from C. L. Bernays, 25 February 1871 ). Samples of hair arrived from …
- … his head ( letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [before 25 April 1871] )). Hinrich Nitsche, ‘the lucky …
- … orang-utan foetus ( letter from Hinrich Nitsche, 18 April 1871 ). Darwin thought he might use the …
- … poor return’ ( letter to Hinrich Nitsche, 25 April [1871] ). Animal anecdotes appeared in …
- … space each morning ( letter from Arthur Nicols, 7 March 1871 ; letter from B. J. Sulivan, 11 …
- … of beauty ( letter from E. J. Pfeiffer, [before 26 April 1871] ). Roland Trimen, a long-time …
- … in the past ( letter from Roland Trimen, 17 and 18 April 1871 ). Candid disagreement …
- … were raised to a high pitch, as Innes wrote on 26 May 1871 about the darker races arising …
- … as far as this goes’ ( letter to J. B. Innes, 29 May [1871] ). On religion and morality …
- … Creator made it’ ( letter from George Morrish, 18 March 1871 ). Darwin received an anonymous …
- … Descent ( letter from a child of God, [after 24 February 1871] ). Yet some continued to …
- … religious feeling’ ( letter from F. E. Abbot, 20 August 1871 ). The Anglican clergyman and …
- … brethren’ ( letter from George Henslow, 5 December 1871 ). Ernst Haeckel boasted of his month …
- … monkey !’ ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 21 December 1871 ). Descent was extensively …
- … independent of all times and all circumstances’ (8 April 1871, p. 5). Darwin condemned the author of …
- … & classics’ ( letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871] ). But a similar point was made by …
- … the killing of some members of a hive a duty (Cobbe 1871, pp. 174, 188–9). Darwin was particularly …
- … by culture, not biology ( letter from John Morley, 30 March 1871 ). Reaction at home …
- … its master. ( Letter from Hensleigh Wedgwood, [3–9 March 1871] .) Some of Darwin’s …
- … to me’ ( letter to Hensleigh Wedgwood, 9 March 1871 ). A widening rift By far the …
- … 1871a), which appeared just prior to Descent in early 1871. ‘I daresay it will tell heavily …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 14 hits
- … Blair, R.H. 11 July 1871 Worcester College for the …
- … Brooke, C.A.J. 30 April 1871 Sarawak, Borneo …
- … Chaumont, F.S.B.F. de 11 March 1871 Woolston, …
- … Crichton-Browne, James 3 April 1871 West Riding …
- … Donders, F.C. 28 March 1871 Utrecht, Netherlands …
- … Foster, Michael 4 June [1871] Trinity College, …
- … Gray, Asa 14 April 1871 Cambridge, Massachusetts, …
- … Gray, Asa 10 & 14 March [1871] Cambridge, …
- … Mivart, G.J. 26 Jan 1871 North Bank, London, England …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 1 Feb 1871 11 St Mary Abbot's …
- … Rejlander, O.G. [1871] Victoria Street, London, …
- … Smith, Andrew 1 Feb. 1871 11 Saint Mary Abbot's …
- … Smith, Andrew 17 April 1871 16 Alexander Square, …
- … Swinhoe, Robert 14 March 1871 33 Oakley Square, …
Frank Chance
Summary
The Darwin archive not only contains letters, manuscript material, photographs, books and articles but also all sorts of small, dry specimens, mostly enclosed with letters. Many of these enclosures have become separated from the letters or lost altogether,…
Matches: 6 hits
- … first is undated but we know it was written before 25 April 1871 because Darwin alluded to a case …
- … report by the pigeon-fancier W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 April [1871] . In his letter Chance is …
- … (Letter from Frank Chance, [before 25 April 1871] ) Responding to this meticulous self …
- … were very rare. When we were editing volume 19 (1871), Chance’s enclosure of beard and …
- … : In your work on the ""Descent of Man"" (ed. 1871) ii. 298, 299, in …
- … followed up on a similar case that CD had observed on 13 May 1871. William’s letter of 5 June 1871 …
4.17 'Figaro', unidentifiable 1871
Summary
< Back to Introduction Yet another portrayal of Darwin as a tree-dwelling ape was published in The Figaro in October 1871, and titled ‘A Darwinian hypothesis’. The image survives in a torn page in the Darwin archive, but it has so far proved…
Darwin’s favourite photographer: From O. G. Rejlander, 30 April 1871
Summary
In the 1860s Darwin began collecting photographs of emotional expression. They seemed to capture fleeting movements of the face, and allowed him to observe with more detachment. But the technology was still new. Even under the best conditions, exposure…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In the 1860s Darwin began collecting photographs of emotional expression. They seemed to capture …
Animals, ethics, and the progress of science
Summary
Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In Descent, he argued that some animals exhibited moral behaviour and had evolved mental powers analogous to conscience. He gave examples of cooperation, even…
Matches: 3 hits
Henrietta Emma Darwin
Summary
Henrietta “Etty” Darwin (1843–1927) was the eldest of Charles Darwin’s daughters to reach adulthood. She married Richard Buckley Litchfield in 1871. She was a valued editor to her father as well as companion and correspondent to both of her parents.…
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: 4 hits
- … of self-fertilisation’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 23 July [1871] ). Darwin also informed Müller of this …
- … in his hothouse ( To Fritz Müller, 2 August [1871] ). By late 1871, Darwin was already …
- … generations’ ( To Federico Delpino, 22 November 1871 ). Delpino replied that he looked forward to …
- … and horticulture ( From Federico Delpino, 5 December 1871 ). When Darwin began writing in February …
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … [1850] and n. 6; and letter to J. B. Innes, 29 May [1871] ). Their true friendship does …
- … request favourably—’ (letter from J. B. Innes, 26 May 1871 ). Indeed Innes had such a high …
- … school and organ funds (letter to J. B. Innes, 13 January 1871 ). Down’s next clergyman …
- … very dull sermons’ (letter to J. B. Innes, 18 January [1871] ). Mr Powell was happy to take up …
- … qualifications’ (letter from J. B. Innes, 5 June 1871 ). Particularly in the early days of …
Moral Nature
Summary
In Descent of Man, Darwin argued that human morality had evolved from the social instincts of animals, especially the bonds of sympathy and love. Darwin gathered observations over many decades on animal behavior: the heroic sacrifices of social insects,…
Matches: 8 hits
- … Letter 7048 : Darwin, W. E., to Darwin, C. R., [April? 1871] In Descent of man (1: 71 …
- … Letter 7645 : Morley, John to Darwin, 30 March 1871 The politician and man of letters, …
- … of Descent of Man in the Pall Mall Gazette (Morley 1871). Darwin admired the review, and …
- … Letter 7685 : Darwin to Morley, John, 14 April [1871] "When I speak of intellectual …
- … Letter 7691 , Morley, John, to Darwin, 17 April 1871 "I don't think Mr. Mill& …
- … 7470 : Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, [before 3 March 1871] Darwin exchanged long letters …
- … Letter 7537 : Darwin, C. R. to Wenslow, Hensleigh, 3 March [1871] Using the example of …
- … 3. [ available at Darwinonline ] Cobbe, F. P. 1871. 'Darwinism in morals'. …
Strange things sent to Darwin in the post
Summary
Some of the stranger things Darwin received in the post can tell us a lot about how Darwin worked at home. In 1863, Darwin was very excited when the ornithologist Alfred Newton sent him a diseased, red-legged partridge foot with an enormous ball of clay…
Darwin and vivisection
Summary
Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…
Matches: 3 hits
Experimenting with emotions
Summary
Darwin’s interest in emotions can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by the sounds and gestures of the peoples of Tierra del Fuego. On his return, he started recording observations in a set of notebooks, later labelled '…
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Matches: 8 hits
- … wrote the following journal entries in March and July 1871 in a small lockable, leather-bound …
- … by Henrietta herself. Darwin’s letters in 1870 and 1871 ( Correspondence , vols 18 and 19) …
- … missions due to take place between 26 February and 5 March 1871 in four towns within the deanery of …
- … from Charles and Emma Darwin to F. J. Wedgwood, [March 1871?], and letter from F. J. Wedgwood to H. …
- … University Library. Henrietta Darwin | March 1871 1871 March— Sea Grove …
- … away what they have no equivalent for. July 4th 1871. How hard it is to wait—the …
- … I think I am a very happy woman. Sunday July 9 th . 1871 I want to think why I shd …
- … mission leaders in the Hampshire Advertiser , 21 January 1871, p. 7. 4 Probably John …
William Winwood Reade
Summary
On 19 May 1868, an African explorer and unsuccessful novelist, William Winwoode Reade (1838–1875) offered to help Darwin, and started a correspondence and, arguably, a collaboration, that would last until Reade's death. After a first 1861 tour of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of it" – Winwood Reade to Charles Darwin, 31 January 1871 ) and sought Darwin’s advice on …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Letter 7624 - Bathoe, M . B. to Darwin, [25 March 1871] Mary Bathoe responds …
- … Letter 7644 - Barnard, A. to Darwin, [30 March 1871] J. S. Henslow’s daughter, …
- … 7651 - Wedgwood, F. J. to Darwin, H. E., [1 April 1871] Frances Wedgwood offers …
- … 7411 - Pfeiffer, E. J. to Darwin, [before 26 April 1871] The poet Emily Pfeiffer …
- … Letter 8055 - Hennell, S. S. to Darwin, [7 November 1871] Sarah Hennell writes to Darwin …
Francis Galton
Summary
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…
Diagrams and drawings in letters
Summary
Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have been added to the online transcripts of the letters. The contents include maps, diagrams, drawings, sketches and photographs, covering geological, botanical,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of sexual differences in viviparous fish, [before 1 June 1871] Fritz Müller's …
Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
Summary
On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were very pleased to welcome Terry Molloy back to the Darwin Correspondence Project for a special recording session. Terry, known for his portrayal of Davros in Dr…
Matches: 1 hits
- … politely worded rebuke to St G. J. Mivart ( 21 April [1871] ) for the inadequacies, as Darwin saw …
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
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
