From J. J. Aubertin 16 January 1872
Summary
A friend of JJA’s wants CD’s opinion on whether the disease porigo decalvans (hair falling out in clumps) demonstrates the link between man and dogs and has continued to evolve with man after he passed out of his "hairy-animal state".
Capt. [Richard?] Burton disagrees with CD’s notion of beauty in the abstract, and would like to meet him.
| Author: | John James Aubertin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 127 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8160 |
From Fritz Müller 16 January 1872
Summary
Has no objection to CD’s alluding to FM’s idea that sexual selection has come into play in mimetic butterflies.
Reports observations on other butterflies and on termites.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 142: 55 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8161 |
From Henry Huxley 17 and 20 January 1872
Summary
His father has gone to Egypt.
Tells of visit to circus.
| Author: | Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 and 20 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 286 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8162 |
From P. C. Sutherland 17 January 1872
Summary
Has some birds which are allegedly the result of a cross between a common fowl and a guinea-fowl; describes their appearance, and will provide CD with likenesses.
| Author: | Peter Cormack Sutherland |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 321 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8163 |
From A. E. Dobbs 17 January 1872
Summary
Sends a pamphlet [not identified] in which he applies the principle of natural selection to the working of legislative institutions.
| Author: | Archibald Edward Dobbs |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 187 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8164 |
To W. W. Baxter? 17 January [1872–4]
Summary
Requests a prescribed physic [not specified].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1872-4] |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Autograph File, D) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8165 |
To J. W. Dawson 19 January 1872
Summary
Thanks recipient for memoir on fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John William Dawson |
| Date: | 19 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | McGill University Library, Department of Rare Books |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8166 |
To L. H. Morgan 20 January 1872
Summary
Thanks LHM for his work on consanguinity. [See 7299].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Lewis Henry Morgan |
| Date: | 20 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | University of Rochester Libraries, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8167 |
From Raphael Meldola 21 January [1872]
Summary
Discusses his paper on mimicry and natural selection [Land and Water 9 (1871): 321]. Believes natural selection tends to fix mimetic characters rigidly.
| Author: | Raphael Meldola |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 117 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8170 |
To Raphael Meldola 23 January [1872]
Summary
Discusses the problems of mimicry as related to natural selection; the general variability of colour as a character; and the conditions necessary for natural selection to fix firmly a character.
Encloses a Fritz Müller letter speculating that organisms respond to certain colours because of the prevalence of those colours in their environment.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Raphael Meldola |
| Date: | 23 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8172 |
To Francis Galton 23 January [1872]
Summary
His rabbits have lost their patches and are grey.
Has FG seen William Crookes [spiritualist]?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Galton |
| Date: | 23 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/3/2/2/12 Letter 1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8173 |
To W. E. Darwin 23 January [1872]
Summary
Discusses earthworm activity observed in old ploughed fields.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections MSS DAR 34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8174 |
From B. J. Sulivan 23 January 1872
Summary
Louis Agassiz is going on a voyage to the Falklands, and BJS wonders whether it is worth while telling him of the Gallegos fossil bed so that he can investigate.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 297 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8175 |
From J. D. Hooker 24 January 1872
Summary
William [Hooker] is in first division of matriculation list of London University.
Other family news.
No news on Ayrton affair. Ayrton has taken staff appointments out of JDH’s hands.
Asks whether CD knows about Zizania aquatica – can hardly believe it is an annual.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 103–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8176 |
From Thomas Stanley 24 January 1872
Summary
Wants references to the work of Julius von Haast and James Hector on New Zealand glaciers, which CD mentions in the Origin [6th ed., p. 335].
| Author: | Thomas Stanley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 246 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8177 |
To B. J. Sulivan 24 January 1872
Summary
Suggests BJS write to Louis Agassiz about his [fossil mammal?] specimens but doubts that he will have time to do the work. Regrets they were ignored at the Royal College of Surgeons; thinks Owen neglected many things because he was overworked.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Date: | 24 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | Sulivan family (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8178 |
To William Bowman 25 January 1872
Summary
Discusses role of orbicular muscle and distended veins in eye in secretion of tears. Asks WB’s opinion.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bowman, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 25 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8179 |
From Raphael Meldola 25 January 1872
Summary
Discusses the roles of natural and sexual selection in producing mimicry, and the problem of explaining the cause of the first mimetic variation; considers the ideas of A. R. Wallace and Fritz Müller on this problem.
| Author: | Raphael Meldola |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 118 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8180 |
To J. D. Hooker 25 January [1872]
Summary
Heartily glad about Willy.
Has never had Zizania.
Still has Leersia. He cannot make the beast produce.
What slow coaches the Ministers are about the Ayrton affair.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 25 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 218–19 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8181 |
From Arthur Mellersh 25 January 1872
Summary
Reminisces on the evening he, B. J. Sulivan, and J. C. Wickham from the Beagle spent with CD, nearly ten years ago.
Hopes the mission at Tierra del Fuego will not "improve" the people to extinction.
| Author: | Arthur Mellersh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 146 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8182 |
| Darwin, C. R. | (272) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (21) |
| John Murray | (21) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (15) |
| Reade, W. W. | (15) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (338) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (18) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (16) |
| John Murray | (16) |
| Unidentified | (16) |
