From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 16 July 1878
Summary
Sends specimens.
Sensitive plants.
| Author: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 July 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 103 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11612 |
From G. J. Romanes 2 December 1877
Summary
Thanks for letter. Values CD’s opinion more than that of anybody else.
Perfectly astonished at reception CD got among popular audiences at GJR’s lectures.
| Author: | George John Romanes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Dec 1877 |
| Classmark: | E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 68 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11283 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … degree and Huxley’s speech, see Nature , 22 November 1877, p. 64). Huxley told CD he had …
- … the soil, making them hard to eradicate. CD’s letter to Nature , 21 November [1877], was …
- … published in Nature , 29 November 1877, p. 78. It introduced the letter from Fritz …
- … various plants and insects. In Nature , 29 November 1877, pp. 84–7, John Scott Burdon …
- … but in the ‘News’ section of Nature , 27 December 1877, pp. 168–9. John Morley was the …
From F. J. Cohn [10?] August 1877
Summary
Accepts CD’s offer to publish his letter, confirming Francis Darwin’s observations [see Collected papers 2: 205–7].
H. Hoffmann’s observations on Amanita contractile filaments must be repeated.
Microscopic examination of secretory gland filaments in Dipsacus leafcups. FD’s pseudopod theory of Dipsacus.
| Author: | Ferdinand Julius Cohn |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [10?] Aug 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 204 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11101 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … from Cohn’s letter of 5 August 1877 in Nature ; Cohn had confirmed some of Francis Darwin’ …
- … intended ‘stomata’ (see letter to Nature , 15 August [1877]). CD added some of Cohn’s …
- … 5 August 1877 in his letter in Nature , 15 August [1877]. An abstract of Cohn’s lecture, …
- … 1877 My dear Sir That you value so highly the evidence I can give of the discoveries of Mr. Francis D. , is the greatest honour I ever was treated with. When you believe my witness necessary for the establishment of truth before the scientific jury of your country, then of course I am willing to testify the matter of fact. It is not without timidity that I may produce my evidence before the public being well conscious of the incorrectness of my English; but if you will kindly put right my letter which was written without regard of publicity, the readers of “Nature” …
From Fritz Müller 19 October 1877
Summary
Doubts that glands of calyx of cleistogamic Malpighiaceae serve as protection.
Some species of Solanum bear long- and short-styled flowers on same plant.
Changing colours of some flowers may show insects the proper moment for fertilisation.
Doubts that the style of Pontederia cordata changes length.
Sexual difference in wings of some butterflies due to development in male of scales that emit odours to excite female.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Oct 1877 |
| Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 363–4; Nature, 29 November 1877, pp. 78–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11191 |
From Leonard Blomefield 12 March 1877
Summary
Congratulates CD on testimonials from the savants of Germany and the Netherlands [Nature 15 (1877): 356, 410–12] and generally on his contributions to biology.
Asks if and when CD’s "Variability of organic beings in a state of nature", as projected in 1868 [see Variation 1: 4] is to appear.
| Author: | Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Mar 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 168: 59 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10889 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of Germany and the Netherlands [ Nature 15 (1877): 356, 410–12] and generally on his …
- … Nature , 22 February 1877, p. 356, reported that on the occasion of CD’s 69th birthday, he …
- … 1877. — My dear Darwin, I cannot refrain from writing you a few words of congratulation, in reference to the splendid Testimonial you have lately received from the savans of Germany & The Netherlands, & which I have read an account of in “Nature”. …
- … 1877 . CD had entered his 69th year; both albums made a mistake with his age, see n. 1, above. In Variation 1: 4–9, CD described two projected works based on his unpublished ‘big book’ on species ( Natural selection ). The first was to be on ‘variability of organic beings in a state of nature’, …
From T. F. Cheeseman 23 October 1877
Summary
Sends his paper on Selliera fertilisation [Trans. & Proc. N. Z. Inst. 9 (1876): 542–5]; contrasts it to CD’s description of Leschenaultia [Collected papers 2: 162–5].
Describes the irritability of Glossostigma elatinoides which he concludes is a mechanism to ensure cross-fertilisation.
| Author: | Thomas Frederick Cheeseman |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Oct 1877 |
| Classmark: | Nature, 27 December 1877, pp. 163–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11204 |
From Francis Darwin [before 21 May 1877]
Summary
Edwin Ray Lankester wants to reprint FD’s paper ‘Food bodies’ in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 21 May 1877] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 22 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10520F |
From J. V. Carus 22 March 1877
Summary
A curious error – too late to change: in Cross and self-fertilisation CD has "cleistogenous" for "cleistogamous" flowers throughout.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Mar 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 108 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10909 |
From G. J. Romanes 11 August 1877
Summary
Believes in differentiated nerve-tracts [in Medusa] because of experiment in which contractile waves blocked. [See GJR’s "Evolution of nerves", Nature 16 (1877): 231–3, 269–71, 289–93.] Did not know author of MS was Miss Lawless. Describes experiment on contractile waves in Aurelia. Also studying starfish.
| Author: | George John Romanes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Aug 1877 |
| Classmark: | E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 57 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11103 |
From Ernst Haeckel 9 February 1879
Summary
Sends birthday wishes.
Comments on progress of CD’s theory in Germany. Mentions opposition of Rudolf Virchow and his reply Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre [1878].
Describes research trip to Brittany and Normandy.
Research on Challenger Radiolaria.
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Feb 1879 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 72 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11865 |
From Alfred Moschkau 26 March 1878
Summary
Describes hereditary defect in ear muscle.
Discusses influence of wet nurse on infant.
Describes talking starlings.
| Author: | Otto Carl Alfred (Alfred) Moschkau |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Mar 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 252 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11446 |
From A. R. Wallace 23 June [1869]
Summary
Asks whether sexual selection could produce the changing plumules or "battledore" scales on the wings of certain butterflies.
| Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 June [1869] |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: B81–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6797 |
From Asa Gray 27 September 1877
Summary
Has received CD’s book [Forms of flowers]; thanks him for the compliment of the dedication.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Sept 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 198 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11155 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letter from F. J. Cohn, 5 August 1877 , and letter to Nature , 15 August [1877] and nn. 2– …
- … 1877 and n. 5). After receiving a copy of Francis Darwin’s paper ‘On the protrusion of protoplasmic filaments from the glandular hairs on the leaves of the common teasel ( Dipsacus sylvestris )’ ( F. Darwin 1877b ), Ferdinand Julius Cohn had successfully repeated his observations. CD published extracts from Cohn’s letter in Nature ( …
From P. L. Sclater 2 June 1877
Summary
Encloses a memorandum [missing] drawn up by W. H. Flower, Huxley, and himself, defending Charles Wyville Thomson against an attack made upon him.
| Author: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 June 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 76 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10981 |
From F. J. Cohn 31 December 1877
Summary
Sends details of H. H. R. Koch’s work on bacteria, including first photographs.
J. S. Burdon Sanderson’s and Koch’s collaboration on systemic fever.
Thinks movement of Francis Darwin’s Dipsacus filaments is an artifact.
| Author: | Ferdinand Julius Cohn |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Dec 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 205 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11298 |
From J. D. Hooker 27 January 1877
Summary
JDH recounts discussion at Royal Society over Günther’s paper on distribution and affinities of gigantic tortoises ["Description of the living and extinct races of gigantic land-tortoises, Parts III and IV", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 25 (1876–7): 506–7]. Huxley suggests they are Miocene relics.
Royal Society will publish Frank’s Dipsacus paper [but see 10971 and 11073].
Thiselton-Dyer will review Cross and self-fertilisation.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Jan 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 77–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10817 |
From S. B. J. Skertchly 27 February 1878
Summary
Sends CD a copy of his memoir on the fenland [Geology of the fenland (1877)].
Outlines the results of his recent researches into the geological history of man, the development of Palaeolithic culture, the occurrence of Palaeolithic remains in the boulder-clays of eastern England, and their relation to glacial and inter-glacial periods.
| Author: | Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Feb 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 176 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11379 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … the discovery in their letters to Nature , 21 June 1877, pp. 141–2. Both letters mentioned …
- … about the matter appeared in Nature , 28 June 1877, pp. 162–3, and 5 July 1877, p. 182; …
- … 1877 , pp. 536–46). Skertchly updated his work on the post-tertiary beds in The fenland, past and present (S. H. Miller and Skertchly 1878, pp. 492–588). Skertchly had reported his discovery of Palaeolithic implements near Brandon, Suffolk, in strata he described as middle glacial or earlier in his letter to Nature , …
From William Saville-Kent 26 March 1877
Summary
Proposes to construct an aquarium on Jersey and wants to use CD’s name in support of the project.
| Author: | William Saville-Kent |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Mar 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 202: 106 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10915 |
From C. W. Thomson 30 June 1877
Summary
Wants CD’s advice on who would undertake describing the Crustacea from the Challenger expedition [1872–6].
| Author: | Charles Wyville Thomson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 June 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 115 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11026 |
From Fritz Müller 5 April 1878
Summary
Observations on a sensitive Mimosa.
Comments on structure and positioning of "odoriferous organs" of moths and butterflies,
and feeding habits of butterfly larvae.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Apr 1878 |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11463 |
| letter | (75) |
| Müller, Fritz | (6) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (5) |
| Romanes, G. J. | (4) |
| Darwin, Francis | (3) |
| Darwin, G. H. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (75) |
| Müller, Fritz | (6) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (5) |
| Romanes, G. J. | (4) |
| Darwin, Francis | (3) |
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … no little discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the …
Photograph album of German and Austrian scientists
Summary
The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade, and contained 165 portraits of German and Austrian scientists. The work was lavishly produced and bound in blue velvet with metal embossing. Its ornate…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil …
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: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron : A practical manual for …
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. …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 …
German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
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: 1 hits
- … The power of movement in plants , published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical …
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The following extracts and selected letters explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual …
Dipsacus and Drosera: Frank’s favourite carnivores
Summary
In Autumn of 1875, Francis Darwin was busy researching aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (F. Darwin 1876). This phenomenon occurs when coloured particles within either protoplasm or the fluid in the cell vacuole (the cell sap) cluster…
Matches: 1 hits
- … By John Schaefer, Harvard University* Charles Darwin’s enthusiasm for carnivorous …
1.14 William Richmond, oil
Summary
< Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, celebrated his honorary degree of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma mater for the presentation ceremony…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
Plant or animal? (Or: Don’t try this at home!)
Summary
Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in particular, his real passion was something even more ambitious: to show that there are no hard-and-fast boundaries between animals and plants. In 1875 Darwin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is famous for showing that humans are just another animal, but, in his later years in …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both …
Darwin on human evolution
Summary
'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I shall be well abused, for as my son Frank says: "you treat man in such a bare-faced manner." …
The origin of language
Summary
Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of his wide-ranging speculations about the transmutation of species. In his private notebooks, he reflected on the communicative powers of animals, their…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species , published in 1877, …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts of …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …
