Thanks THH for the delightful evening he gave Frank [Darwin].
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Thanks THH for the delightful evening he gave Frank [Darwin].
AJ, a collector, would like a few lines from CD and an autographed photograph.
Is "almost certain" plant is Menispermum canadense.
CD’s health remains bad and as he grows older he becomes weaker.
Tells of shooting wood-pigeons that had in their crops acorns that did not grow locally.
[Fragment of letter glued to 2197.]
Pigeons in Egypt alight on trees rather than on the mud hovels of the natives [see Variation 1: 181].
[Two fragments glued to 2196.]
Prepared to think world infinitely old, but not that life originated with a single cell. Questions whether geological evidence supports gradual progress in organisation. HW thought scientific opinion during Vestiges debate was against this hypothesis. Argues that presence of same senses in lower animals and vertebrates does not imply descent; assumes resemblance is due to living in same world and thus having organs for the same purposes. Wants CD to know how others may see these questions.
Suggests it would be easier and cheaper if he were given one or two pages in preface [to Journal of researches] for two or three important errors. Would like to take out one sentence if present preface is not stereotyped. Table of contents is shabby.
Habits of ducks when sleeping on water.
Agassiz denounces Origin as "atheistical";
AG is currently reviewing it [in Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 153–84].
Jeffries Wyman praises it, though not a convert.
CD asks how soon JM will go to press with Journal [of researches]; thinks he had better look it over to see if progress of science has made any correction necessary.
P.S. Asa Gray has written that Origin has caused great excitement in U. S. Agassiz has denounced it.
Will keep THH’s secret [of authorship of Times review of Origin]. It has made deep impression.
J. D. Dana’s illness.
Daily News accuses him of plagiarising Vestiges.
Returning Thomas George Bonney’s certificate, which it was a pleasure to sign.
Delighted that JH is interested in his book [Origin?]
Thanks CD for the Origin. WW is not yet a convert but there is so much "of thought and of fact" in what CD has written that "it is not to be contradicted without careful selection of the ground and manner of the dissent".
High praise and detailed comments on JDH’s introductory essay to Flora Tasmaniae, which CD has now finished reading.
Disagrees on power of transoceanic migration. Advocates glacial transport of plants.
CD’s response to reviews of Origin in Saturday Review [8 (1859): 775–6] and John Lindley’s in Gardeners’ Chronicle [but see 2651].
Notes by HCW on the Origin dealing especially with divergence and convergence. Believes there is some natural tendency to converge into groups in opposition to divergence generated by natural selection.
Praises CL’s work on human species.
A critical review of Origin in Saturday Review [24 Dec 1859].
A letter from J. G. Jeffreys criticises CD’s geological statements.
A note from William Whewell concerning Origin.
Remembers reading Smith’s memoir in Geological Transactions on the anomalous nature of Ventriuculidae. Asks for a copy.
Discusses the possibility of "convergence" occurring; believes it could be only very limited.
Queries on expression among Fuegians and Patagonians.