To Albany Hancock 25 May [1856]
Summary
Wants accurate information on "the economy of nature". Is interested in how far the struggle with other species checks the northern range of any species.
Thanks John Storey for information.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Albany Hancock |
Date: | 25 May [1856] |
Classmark: | J. Hancock 1886, pp. 277–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1332 |
To C. J. F. Bunbury [before 9 May 1856]
Summary
Adds comments to a list of Cape of Good Hope plants which are also European and gives some additions to the list [see Natural selection, p. 552].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Date: | [before 9 May 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 73: 159 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1617 |
To Miss Holland [May 1856]
Summary
An entomologist who has been staying with CD [T. V. Wollaston] says the pupa she sent would turn into a lackey moth.
Adds that the great destruction of birds in the winter preceding the last is probable cause of survival of caterpillars and resulting numerous cocoons.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miss Holland |
Date: | [May 1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1861 |
To Asa Gray 2 May [1856]
Summary
Suggests affinities of the U. S. flora that he considers would be worth investigating. Wants to know the ranges of species in large and small genera.
Questions AG on naturalised plants; whether any are social in U. S. which are not so elsewhere and how variable they are compared with indigenous species. Would like to know of any differences in the variability of species at different points of their ranges and also the physical states of plants at the extremes of their ranges.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 2 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (4) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1863 |
To Charles Lyell 3 May [1856]
Summary
Discusses possibility of publishing a sketch of his views.
Comments on CL’s letter [1862].
Mentions various geological topics.
Asks to borrow publication by Heer.
Mentions flight of Colymbetes over ocean.
Recalls visit by Wollaston.
Notes views of Hooker and Huxley on species.
Mentions ability of ducks to transport plant seeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 3 May [1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.127) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1866 |
To Laurence Edmondston 3 May [1856]
Summary
Thanks for reply to queries.
Requests that a wild rock-pigeon be sent. Have they been domesticated as William Macgillivray says [History of British birds (1837) 1: 275–84; see also Variation 1: 185n.]?
Is rabbit wild in Shetlands?
LE’s information on drifted trees adds an archipelago to his list.
Requests information on variation in domesticated Shetland animals;
bones of large quadrupeds in peat.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Laurence Edmondston |
Date: | 3 May [1856] |
Classmark: | L. D. Edmondston (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1867 |
To T. H. Huxley 4 May [1856]
Summary
It seems improper that his advances to G. B. Sowerby Jr for payment of engravings should not have been mentioned to Council of Ray Society. His appreciation of the Society.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 4 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 35) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1868 |
To J. D. Hooker 9 May [1856]
Summary
Lyell urges CD to publish a sketch of species theory; CD asks JDH’s opinion on best course.
Concerned about opposition, particularly by Owen, to Huxley’s admission to Athenaeum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 9 May [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 161 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1870 |
To E. W. V. Harcourt 9 May [1856]
Summary
Has seen EWVH’s list of the birds of Madeira, and would like to know more about the ‘occasional visitants’.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward William Vernon Harcourt |
Date: | 9 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Bodleian Libraries, Oxford (MS. Harcourt dep. adds. 346, fols. 248–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1870F |
To C. J. F. Bunbury 9 May [1856]
Summary
On geographical dispersal of plants. Would be interested in CJFB’s views on representative species and on his hypothesis of a mundane cold period, which CD cannot prove geologically, but thinks, if it explains many facts of geographical distribution, may be admitted as probable. Hooker and Alphonse de Candolle do not agree with him.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Date: | 9 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds (Bunbury Family Papers E18/700/1/9/6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1871 |
To Henry Ambrose Oldfield 10 May [1856]
Summary
Asks HAO about breeds of Tibetan dogs and other domesticated animals.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Ambrose Oldfield |
Date: | 10 May [1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.128) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1872 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 11 May [1856]
Summary
Thanks WBT for help with pigeons and poultry.
Will probably be away at the time of Anerley show.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 11 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1873 |
To J. D. Hooker 11 May [1856]
Summary
CD is unsure about JDH’s recommendation that he publish a separate "Preliminary Essay". It is unphilosophical to publish without full details.
CD will work for Huxley’s admission to Athenaeum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 11 May [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 162 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1874 |
To S. P. Woodward 15 May [1856]
Summary
Thanks for Supplement to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [1851–6]. Praises SPW’s work. "What an amount of labour is condensed in your little volume! … I fully believe & hope that you will reap the only reward worth having, the consciousness that you have done good service to the cause of Science."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Date: | 15 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Sotheby’s (dealers) (21 March 1966) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1875 |
To J. D. Hooker 21 [May 1856]
Summary
Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 21 [May 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 163 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1876 |
To J. W. Lubbock 27 May [1856]
Summary
Asks JWL to use his influence to forward the appointment of T. H. Huxley to the Examinership in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at University of London. Gives details of THH’s qualifications.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John William Lubbock, 3d baronet |
Date: | 27 May [1856] |
Classmark: | The Royal Society (LUB: D23) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1877 |
To T. H. Huxley 27 May [1856]
Summary
Has written very strong notes to Lord Overstone and Sir J. W. Lubbock and hopes they will be of service to THH.
Acknowledges receipt of THH’s lecture [unidentified].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 27 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 174) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1878 |
To S. P. Woodward 27 May [1856]
Summary
Thanks for answer to query. "I see … that there is no hope of comparing the same genus at two different periods, and seeing whether the tendency to vary is greater at one period in such genus than at another period."
Inclined to dispute SPW’s doctrine that islands are generally ancient. Doubts that they are remnants of continents.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Date: | 27 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections DC AL 1/5) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1879 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 31 May [1856]
Summary
Wants good rabbit specimens. Will be in London on 21 June and can pick up some pigeons.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 31 May [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1882 |
letter | (19) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Bunbury, C. J. F. | (2) |
Huxley, T. H. | (2) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (2) |
Woodward, S. P. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Bunbury, C. J. F. | (2) |
Huxley, T. H. | (2) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (2) |