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 …
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 |
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 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 |
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 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 |
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 |
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: 6 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] ). See also L. G. …
- … CD’s response to Lyell, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October [ …
- … citing Lyell. For CD’s response, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 …
- … Lyell asked, ‘Why have the majority of existing creatures remained stationary throughout this long succession of epochs, while others have made such prodigious advances? ’ ( ibid. , p. 574). For CD’s response, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Charles Lyell, 11 …
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: 4 hits
- … Letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 . CD refers to Lyell’s reaction to the criticisms …
- … letter has been found. See letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 and n. 13. CD refers …
- … of geology ( C. Lyell 1830–3 ). See letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863 . In the …
- … Lyell’s copy of the part of the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London containing Owen 1862c (see letter to 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 …
To the Scotsman [after 20 September 1847]
Summary
Comments on article by David Milne ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber" (1847), Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. Refers to his paper on Glen Roy [Collected papers 1: 87–137]. Comments on Louis Agassiz’s article ["The glacial theory and its recent progress", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 33 (1842): 217–83]. Cites his own observations on glaciers in N. Wales. Discusses possibility of ice barrier creating lake. Notes objections to theory of an ice barrier. Defends his own theory that the roads are sea-beaches. Suggests questions for further investigation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | The Scotsman |
Date: | [after 20 Sept 1847] |
Classmark: | DAR 50: B1–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1121 |
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 |
From Ferdinand von Hochstetter 26 March 1868
Summary
Thanks CD for advice received before his Novara voyage. Sends volumes [Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde … Geologischer Theil, ed. FCvH, 2 vols. in 3 (1864–6)].
Author: | Ferdinand von Hochstetter |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Mar 1868 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 223 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6057 |
From Karl von Scherzer 21 November 1867
Summary
Sends copy of book containing measurements taken of individuals of different races during voyage of Novara [Karl Heinrich von Scherzer, ed., Reise der Fregatte "Novara", Anthropologischer Theil (1867)].
Asks for scientific advice concerning newly planned expedition.
Says Carl Vogt plans to use data from book in lectures.
Author: | Karl von Scherzer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Nov 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 49 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5691 |
From Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny 5 July 1862
Summary
Sends concluding part of his recent lecture on orchids so CD may see how his inquiries were represented in one of the great centres of clerical influence.
Asks whether insects are attracted to one species of orchids more than another.
Author: | Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 July 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 162.1: 115 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3643 |
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 Asa Gray 10 September [1860]
Summary
Has received second part of AG’s Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.
Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 10 Sept [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (34) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2910 |
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 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … to the Scotsman . See letter to Charles Lyell, [11 October 1847] , in which CD informs …
- … Lyell 1843 , p. 185). This was the first evidence of the presence of reptiles in the Carboniferous formations. On his second trip to North America, Lyell verified an earlier discovery of footprints of a reptilian quadruped in the coalfields of Pennsylvania ( C. Lyell 1846 ). This letter has not been found. See letter from Robert Chambers, 5 October 1847 . See letter to Charles Lyell, [11 …
To Asa Gray 25 February [1864]
Summary
Has not worked for six months due to illness.
Has been looking at climbing plants.
Hermann Crüger’s paper shows that CD was right about Catasetum pollination. Crüger’s account of pollination of Coryanthes "beats everything".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 25 Feb [1864] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (80) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4415 |
letter | (134) |
bibliography | (6) |
Darwin, C. R. | (91) |
Hooker, J. D. | (14) |
Lyell, Charles | (13) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Bemmelen, A. A. van | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (42) |
Lyell, Charles | (30) |
Hooker, J. D. | (20) |
Gray, Asa | (8) |
Huxley, T. H. | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (133) |
Lyell, Charles | (43) |
Hooker, J. D. | (34) |
Gray, Asa | (10) |
Huxley, T. H. | (3) |