From J. D. Hooker [late February 1845]
Summary
Previous letter [missing] on Edinburgh position was ill-tempered. Friends assure him that he ought to be thankful for opportunity to try for professorship.
Reports meeting with Humboldt in Paris.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [late Feb 1845] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 165–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-832 |
From J. S. Henslow 2 November 1840
Summary
Would like further experimentation to confirm report about germination of wheat from Egyptian tombs. Sir G. Wilkinson may have been deceived by the Arabs.
| Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Nov 1840 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 236 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-579 |
To S. P. Woodward [14 January 1843]
Summary
Asks SPW to have obsidian specimens and book [Dieudonné de Gratet de Dolomieu, Voyage aux îles de Lipari (1783)] ready when he comes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward; Geological Society of London |
| Date: | [14 Jan 1843] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-652 |
To J. D. Dana 29 September [1856]
Summary
Thanks JDD for replies to queries [in 1925]; would like to know whether teeth of cave rat are of New or Old World type.
Wishes Louis Agassiz would publish his theory of parallels of geological and embryological development. "I wish to believe but have not seen nearly enough as yet to make me a disciple."
Is working hard on variations and origin of species, but fears it will be a couple of years before he publishes.
Describes his recent work on rabbits and pigeons.
The dispersal of land Mollusca is a most difficult problem.
Confesses he is sceptical of immutability of species; discusses difficulty of proving it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 29 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1964 |
From William Herbert to J. S. Henslow 5 April 1839
Summary
Replies to CD’s questions on plant hybridisation and laws of inheritance. Rejects predominant transmission of characters by established forms. Males show predominance, but congeniality of parents’ constitution to climate and soil more important. No correlation between hybridisation and variability, cultivation, and geographical distribution. Rejects reversion.
Describes experiments in Hippeastrum in which pollen from another species proved more fertile than plant’s own pollen.
Did not intend to say that crossing is inimical to fertility.
| Author: | William Herbert, dean of Manchester |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 5 Apr 1839 |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 63 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-503 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975. Variation : The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868. Walker, Alexander. 1838. …
From S. P. Woodward 15 July 1856
Summary
Has reduced 20 Cyrena species to geographical varieties of one species, Cyrena fluminalis. Hooker is reducing Indian flora at the rate of 19 to 1.
Recommends W. H. Harvey’s Seaside book [1849] and Charles Pickering’s Races of man [1850].
| Author: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 July 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 304 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1927 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975. Pickering, Charles. [1848. ] The races of man: and their geographical distribution. Vol. 9 of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838– …
To Henry Edwards 15 July [1873]
Summary
HE’s facts about the Mexican ant [Myrmecocystus mexicanus] are "most wonderful & interesting".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Edwards |
| Date: | 15 July [1873] |
| Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections MSS DAR A6) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8978 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975. Origin : On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859. Wesmael, M. 1838. …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
To Charles Lyell [19 December 1837]
Summary
Responds to Lyell’s query [missing] about northern and southern limits of coral islands of the Pacific. Warns that coral islands are much more thinly distributed than people realise and cites examples. Comments on views of Matthew Flinders. Reading work of É[lie] de B[eaumont]. Notes difficulty of setting an east-west boundary to coral islands.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [19 Dec 1837] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-394 |
From C. G. Ehrenberg 8 April 1845
Summary
Discusses table of Atlantic dust samples. Thinks dust came from South America.
Discusses Patagonian tuff samples.
Answers CD’s query about material from Pampas. Believes deposit made in brackish water.
Criticises account of Atlantic dust in F. J. F. Meyen [Reise um die Erde (1834–5)].
| Author: | Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Apr 1845 |
| Classmark: | DAR 39: 60–1b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-853 |
| letter | (10) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Ehrenberg, C. G. | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
| Herbert, William | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Dana, J. D. | (1) |
| Edwards, Henry | (1) |
| Geological Society of London | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (2) |
| Woodward, S. P. | (2) |
| Dana, J. D. | (1) |
| Edwards, Henry | (1) |
