To Charles Lyell [11 October 1847]
Summary
Discusses enclosed figures on elevation of terraces in several Scottish glens as surveyed by William Kemp and David Stevenson. Comments on Robert Chambers’ view of the terraces. Mentions a letter on the terraces, originally written for publication, which he has asked Robert Jameson [editor of the Edinburgh New Philos. J.] to destroy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | [11 Oct 1847] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.64) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1126 |
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 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … To Charles Lyell 11 February [1857] …
- … Mss.B.D25.145) Charles Robert Darwin Down 11 Feb [1857] Charles Lyell, 1st baronet …
- … Charles Lyell , and others, were acknowledged in the Narrative of the voyage ( Scherzer 1861–3 , 1: 3–4). The personal thanks of Archduke Maximilian of Austria were read out at a meeting of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society on 11 …
DCP-LETT-2501F
Summary
Cancelled: Known only from reference in letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859]
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [4 October 1859] |
Classmark: | |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501F |
To Charles Lyell 11 August [1860]
Summary
Comments on his fear that "so many heavy guns fired by great men" might influence the public and scientists.
Sends CL the Owen-inspired Wilberforce review [Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].
Mentions defence of Origin by Asa Gray at American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Agassiz and Theophilus Parsons have poor criticisms ["Prof. Agassiz on the origin of species", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 30 (1860): 142–54].
Lists other negative reviews by Rudolph Wagner ["An essay on classification by Louis Agassiz", Göttingische Gelehrte Anz. (1860) pt 2: 761–800], Charles Daubeny ["Remarks on the final causes of the sexuality of plants, with particular reference to Mr Darwin’s work On the origin of species by natural selection", Rep. BAAS 30 (1860) pt 2: 109–10], and two anonymous ones (one favourable).
Huxley says K. E. von Baer "goes a long way with us".
Comments on "pipes" in chalk as evidence of geological processes still at work.
Is writing on origin of dog breeds [Variation 1: 15–43].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 11 Aug [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.223) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2895 |
From Charles Lyell 4 October 1859
Summary
Response to Origin. Praise for summary of chapter 10 and chapter 11.
The dissimilarity of African and American species is ‘necessary result of “Creation” adapting new species to the pre-existing ones. Granting this unknown & if you please miraculous power acting’.
C. T. Gaudin writes of Oswald Heer’s finding many species common between Miocene floras of Iceland and Switzerland. Interesting for CD’s migration theory.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 170: 81; The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Notebook 241, pp. 75–90) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3132 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . On Agassiz’s theory …
- … see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . In his discussion …
- … Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] ; for further comments …
- … Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] ). See also L. G. …
- … see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . The phrase ‘is …
- … see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] . The reference has …
- … tail’ ( Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [1859] ). CD discussed …
To Charles Lyell 20 October [1859]
Summary
Comments on CL’s letters.
Discusses foreign animals naturalised in Australia and elsewhere.
Affirms man’s capacity to survive in Eocene climate.
Comments on American types.
Denies necessity for "continued intervention of creative power".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 20 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.173) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2507 |
From Charles Lyell 11 March 1863
Summary
Defends position he takes on species [in Antiquity of man]. CD overestimates CL’s capacity to influence public. Will not dogmatise on descent of man; prepared to accept it, but it "takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past". Cannot go to Huxley’s length with regard to natural selection. Responds to CD’s comments on Antiquity of man.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Mar 1863 |
Classmark: | K. M. Lyell ed. 1881, 2: 362–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4035 |
To Charles Lyell 11 October [1859]
Summary
CL’s comments on Origin. Mentions corrections to last chapter suggested by CL.
Comments on lack of peculiar bird species on Madeira and Bermuda. Emphasises importance of American types in Galapagos.
Denies necessity of continued creation of primitive "Monads".
Denies need for new powers and any principle of improvement.
Discusses gradations of intellectual powers.
Adaptive inferiority and extinction of groups of species and genera.
Asserts that climate is less important than the struggle with other organisms.
Suggests an experiment involving primroses and cowslips.
The chapter on hybridisation.
Rudimentary organs.
Gives opinion of Lamarck’s work.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 11 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.172) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2503 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … To Charles Lyell 11 October [1859] …
- … Mss.B.D25.172) Charles Robert Darwin Ilkley 11 Oct [1859] Charles Lyell, 1st baronet …
- … 11’ in brown crayon. These numbers refer to CD’s portfolios of notes on the means of dispersal of plants and animals and on classification, respectively. Letters from Charles Lyell, …
To Charles Lyell [21 January – 11 February 1855]
Summary
Relationship of schists to alternating beds of slate in western Tierra del Fuego and the Chonos Islands.
Comments on Sharpe’s theory of curved cleavage planes.
Example of metamorphosis in a "clay-slate porphyry region". Importance of previous lines of cleavage and stratification in foliation of metamorphosed rock.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | [21 Jan – 11 Feb 1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.112) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1633 |
To Charles Lyell 12–13 March [1863]
Summary
[On Antiquity of man] CD is "convinced that at times … you have … given up immutability". "A clear expression from you, if you could have given it, would have been potent with the public."
Objects to CL’s description of CD’s view "as a modification of Lamarck’s doctrine". Quotes Henrietta [Darwin]’s observations on this description.
Comments on CL’s controversy with Owen concerning the human brain.
The controversy between Falconer and CL.
The "wretched" review of CL [Antiquity of man, Athenæum 14 Feb 1863, pp. 219–21] and Huxley [Man’s place in nature].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 12–13 Mar [1863] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.290) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4038 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 . CD refers to Lyell’s reaction to the criticisms …
- … C. Lyell 1830–3 ). See letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 . In the second edition …
- … and n. 10. See also letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 . CD refers to Georges Louis …
- … letter has been found. See letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 and n. 13. CD refers …
- … Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 44). Lyell appears to have replied to this request in a missing portion of his letter to CD of 11 …
- … Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] and n. 40); it may have been one of the passages criticised in a letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker to Lyell (see the letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 March 1863] and n. 6). Lyell did not refer to the passage in his letter to CD of 11 …
To J. D. Hooker 13 [March 1863]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 [Mar 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 186 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4039 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 June [1869]
Summary
The house at Barmouth.
His poor health.
Bentham’s interesting Linnean Society Address ["On geographical biology", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1869): lxv–c].
CD particularly wishes to know how botanists agreed with zoologists on distribution.
Still thinks isolation more important in preserving old forms than Bentham is inclined to believe.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 22 June [1869] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 134–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6793 |
To Charles Lyell 1 September [1860]
Summary
Discusses at length CL’s criticisms of natural selection.
Comments on possible former connection between the Galapagos and South America.
Discounts survival of mammals on atolls.
Discusses reptile origin of mammals.
Discounts development of a mammal on an island and the descent of mammals from a bird.
The antiquity of islands.
Comments on bats of New Zealand. Geographical distribution of seals. Discusses Amblyrhynchus.
Glad CL will read his MS on origin of dogs [Variation 1: 15–43].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 1 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.225) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2903 |
From Charles Lyell 22 October 1859
Summary
Wishes CD would enlarge on the doctrines of [Pyotr Simon] Pallas about the various races of dogs having come from several distinct wild species or sub-species.
Suggests organisms have a latent principle of improvement which is brought out by selection or breeding.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A1/242: 15–24) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2508F |
To Mary Elizabeth Lyell [4 October 1847]
Summary
Thanks Mrs Lyell for barnacle specimens.
Mentions Agassiz’s classification of saurians.
Discusses letter from Chambers on "roads" in Scottish glens; views of Agassiz and Buckland on the glens.
Is reading Hugh Miller [First impressions of England and its people (1847)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Mary Elizabeth Horner; Mary Elizabeth Lyell |
Date: | [4 Oct 1847] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.63) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1122 |
From Charles Lyell 3 October 1859
Summary
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: B1–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 and 22 May [1863]
Summary
The Lyell–Falconer squabble.
Discusses island vs continental floras and their degree of modification.
Critical of Wallace.
CD’s observations on phyllotaxy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 and 22 May 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 193 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4167 |
To Asa Gray 11 May [1863]
Summary
CD despairs when men like AG and Lyell consider themselves incapable of judging on change of species by descent.
Is confused over phyllotaxy.
Has been looking at Plantago lanceolata.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 11 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (59) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4153 |
To Charles Lyell 28 [September 1860]
Summary
Discusses extinction of ammonites.
Discusses August Krohn’s cirripede research and Krohn’s correction of his own work.
Discusses origin of dog in connection with origin of man.
Comments on the guinea-pig in South America.
Notes K. E. von Baer’s view of species.
Mentions difficulty of crossing rabbit and hare.
Agrees with Hooker’s views on variation under cultivation and in nature.
Regrets use of term "natural selection", would now use "Natural Preservation".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 28 [Sept 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.229) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2931 |
To Charles Lyell 22 January [1865]
Summary
Criticises Duke of Argyll’s address [to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1864)] and demurs on Argyll’s "new birth" theory.
Agrees with CL on beauty.
Enjoyed hearing of Princess Royal’s discussion [on Darwinism].
CD’s illness.
CL’s advice on chapter [of Variation] on dogs was excellent.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 22 Jan [1865] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.304) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4752 |
letter | (201) |
bibliography | (6) |
Darwin, C. R. | (129) |
Hooker, J. D. | (24) |
Lyell, Charles | (14) |
Gray, Asa | (3) |
Blyth, Edward | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (67) |
Lyell, Charles | (37) |
Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
Gray, Asa | (15) |
Huxley, T. H. | (4) |
Darwin, C. R. | (196) |
Hooker, J. D. | (54) |
Lyell, Charles | (51) |
Gray, Asa | (18) |
Wallace, A. R. | (6) |
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