To J. N. Lockyer 4 and 6 March [1879]
Summary
Encloses a letter [from Fritz Müller, see 11839] which "eminently deserves to be published in Nature". Discusses the form and illustration needed. Spelling problems to be referred to Robert McLachlan.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Norman (Norman) Lockyer |
| Date: | 4 and 6 Mar [1879] |
| Classmark: | University of Exeter Library Special Collections (EUL MS 110) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11915A |
From Fritz Müller [12 and 31 August, and 10 October 1865]
Summary
FM’s comments on Climbing Plants.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 and 31 Aug 1865 and 10 Oct 1865 |
| Classmark: | Notes on some of the climbing-plants near Desterro, in South Brazil. By Herr Fritz Müller, in a letter to C. Darwin. [Read 7 December 1865.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 9 (1866): 344–9. |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4881F |
To Hermann Müller 5 May 1873
Summary
Comments on HM’s book [Die Befruchtung der Blumen (1873)]. Particularly glad to read historical sketch and discussion of work of C. K. Sprengel.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller |
| Date: | 5 May 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 434 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8901 |
From Asa Gray 22–30 March 1863
Summary
Discusses the Duke of Argyll’s article on the supernatural [Edinburgh Rev. 116 (1862): 378–97].
Has heard that the Incas married their sisters; this may be worth investigating as a case of inbreeding.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22–30 Mar 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 131 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4056 |
To J. D. Hooker 2 July 1874
Summary
Thinks Frank and he have worked out Pinguicula well and they long to attack Utricularia. Tried several plants with sticky glandular hairs; some few absorb ammonia, but the greater number do not. If JDH sends plant or seed of Lychnis CD will examine it to see whether it catches many flies. Asa Gray has written him much about Sarracenia, with a specimen showing the splendid dodge by which ground insects are enticed up and then drowned. Describes how it may be investigated, to see whether it absorbs decayed matter from flies, or ammonia thus generated.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 2 July 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 322–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9529 |
From Francis Galton 24 September 1875
Summary
Sends a lecture CD wished to see
and corrects himself about the twins.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Sept 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: A82 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10169 |
From Roland Trimen 13 January 1868
Summary
Variations in the ocelli of Lepidoptera.
Encloses six pages from his catalogue of S. African butterflies [Rhopalocera Africae australis, 2 pts (1862, 1866)].
| Author: | Roland Trimen |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Jan 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 40–2, 168 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5785 |
From Alphonse de Candolle 2 July 1868
Summary
Offers notes and reflections on Variation.
Not convinced by Pangenesis, particularly its dependence on the Cytisus [graft hybrid] examples [ch. 27 and ch. 11].
What a book could be written on the application of natural history to man! Gives examples of inheritance in man.
| Author: | Alphonse de Candolle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6264 |
To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 31 August [1877]
Summary
Discusses plants to be sent to Kew.
Thanks for letter about Trifolium
and for R. I. Lynch’s observations on sleep of Erythrina.
Mentions letter from F. J. Cohn, dealing with discovery by Francis Darwin, that CD has had printed in Nature ["The contractile filaments of the teasel", Nature 16 (1877): 339; Collected papers 2: 205–7].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | 31 Aug [1877] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Darwin: Letters to Thiselton-Dyer, 1873–81: ff. 89–91) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11122 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 [March 1863]
Summary
Lyell’s position on mutability.
Fertilisation of trees by bees.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 13 [Mar 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 186 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4039 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863] . See letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 and n. 13. The reference is to Hugh Falconer . According to the publisher’s marked copies of the journal (City University Library, London), the anonymous review of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evidence as to man’s place in nature ( …
From George Bentham 26 November 1869
Summary
Comments on CD’s observations on his address; clarifies his view of the importance of isolation, the effect of climate, the plants of S. Africa and Australia.
| Author: | George Bentham |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Nov 1869 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 165 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7012 |
To Robert McLachlan 12 March [1879]
Summary
Asks RMcL to correct the proper names in enclosed proof of a letter from Fritz Müller to be published in Nature. CD has no book with names of Trichoptera. [See 11930.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert McLachlan |
| Date: | 12 Mar [1879] |
| Classmark: | Superior Galleries (dealers) (28–31 January 1990) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11927A |
From Asa Gray 17 January 1865
Summary
New herbarium is finished.
Congratulations on Copley Medal.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Jan 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 146 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4747 |
To T. H. Huxley 11 April [1864]
Summary
Thanks for Lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy [1864].
If Owen wrote article on "Oken" [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.] and French work on archetype he never did a baser act [see ML 1: 246 n.].
Bad health lately.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 11 Apr [1864] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 203) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4459 |
To Ernst Krause 4 January [1881]
Summary
CD is pleased with EK’s account in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 321–2] of the Buffon and Coleridge passage [cited by Samuel Butler, see 12939, 12969]. Would like a translation published in England, but Butler seeks notoriety and would make unscrupulous use of it. Will ask advice. Thinks EK’s letter to Popular Science Monthly, just received, an excellent reply to Butler.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause |
| Date: | 4 Jan [1881] |
| Classmark: | The Huntington Library (HM 36211) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12976 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January 1881 ). Krause had suggested that his reply to Butler be published in Popular Science Review . William Sweetland Dallas was the editor of Popular Science Review . A translation of Krause’s reply to Butler was published in Nature , 27 January 1881, p. 288; this was a slightly revised version, dated 12 …
From John Scott [1–11] April [1863]
Summary
Studying self-sterility, particularly in Oncidium, where abortion occurs consistently but stigma functions normally. His hybrid orchid crosses show sterility occurs capriciously. Thus it is not a "special endowment".
Disputes Asa Gray’s and Hermann Crüger’s view of rostellar germination.
Doubts absolute sterility of Catasetum.
Disappointed by results with homomorphic cowslips.
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1–11] Apr [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 108: 183, DAR 177: 86 (fragile) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4073 |
From Ernst Krause 8 January 1881
Summary
CD may choose where to publish EK’s reply to Butler. Would prefer Athenæum. Thinks it better that CD not reply himself.
| Author: | Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan 1881 |
| Classmark: | DAR 92: B62 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12993 |
From E. S. Morse 23 March 1880
Summary
Offended by F. V. Dickins’ review [Nature 21 (1880): 350] of his Omori mound paper. Asks CD to have it reviewed elsewhere and encloses a letter to Nature he wants CD to forward. [See 12571.]
| Author: | Edward Sylvester Morse |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Mar 1880 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 247; Nature, 15 April 1880, pp. 561–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12544 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Nature , 12 February 1880, p. 350. The editor of Nature was Joseph Norman Lockyer . Dickins was a naval surgeon who collected plants and translated Japanese works ( ODNB ). See Morse 1879 , plates 1–15, and pp. 17–19. CD had commented on a proof-copy of Morse 1879 (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter …
From T. H. Huxley 16 July 1865
Summary
Did not intend to persuade CD against publishing Pangenesis. Will not take the responsibility, nor risk being made a horrible example 50 years hence.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 July 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 309 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4875 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to T. H. Huxley, 12 July [1865] , in which CD said he would try to persuade himself not to publish his views. The reference is to Thomas Carlyle and his admirers. In his well-known book On heroes, hero-worship, & the heroic in history , Carlyle compared the virtuous man’s ability to understand nature …
From Anton Dohrn 6 April 1874
Summary
His gratitude for CD’s gift. An account of his difficulties with the Zoological Station and his health.
F. M. Balfour has told him that CD would like to see the question of complemental males in cirripedes studied again. AD would like to enter the field and to study the whole morphological development of cirripedes.
Describes the interest in embryological work in Russia and Germany.
| Author: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Apr 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 214 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9394 |
| letter | (105) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (57) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
| Krause, Ernst | (4) |
| Müller, Fritz | (3) |
| Walsh, B. D. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (47) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
| Müller, Fritz | (4) |
| Nature | (3) |
| Balfour, F. M. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (104) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (17) |
| Müller, Fritz | (7) |
| Krause, Ernst | (6) |
| Gray, Asa | (4) |
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 …
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 …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
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: 1 hits
- … Letters | Selected Readings In Descent of Man , Darwin argued that human …
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 …
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 …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I think we have proved that the sleep of plants is to lessen injury to leaves from radiation …
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
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 …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations …
Interview with Randal Keynes
Summary
Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and the author of Annie’s Box (Fourth Estate, 2001), which discusses Darwin’s home life, his relationship with his wife and children, and the ways in which these influenced his feelings about…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and the author of Annie’s Box …
3.16 Oscar Rejlander, photos
Summary
< Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) led him to the Swedish-born painter and photographer, Oscar Gustaf Rejlander. Rejlander gave Darwin the notes that he had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s view on the kinship between humans and animals had important ethical implications. In …
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: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s daughter Henrietta wrote the following journal entries in March and July 1871 in …
