Horrified to find he has forgotten to announce birth of daughter.
Showing 21–40 of 54 items
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.
Horrified to find he has forgotten to announce birth of daughter.
Congratulations on birth of daughter. CD used to dread birth-time.
Sexual selection has turned out to be a large subject.
Sends second lot of grass grown from locust dung pellets from Natal.
Will get name of grass [see 6243] from Gen. William Munro.
Has heard from Charles Wheatstone that CD has Prussian Order of Merit. Rejoices because it is the only distinction worth a fig.
Went to Handel festival; heard Messiah.
Went to poor old N. B. Ward’s funeral.
On Pour le Mérite; JDH has made him think more highly of it.
Messiah is the one thing he would like to hear again, but thinks his soul might be too dried up now to appreciate it. Sometimes hates science for making him "a withered leaf" for everything else.
Frank [Darwin] now doing botany seriously.
The grass [see 6243] is Sporobolus elongatus, common in the tropics.
Visit to Oxford with X Club.
On his forthcoming address.
Thanks for name of grass.
Plans to go to Isle of Wight on 17 July.
Frank cannot come to Kew, as he will be reading this long vacation at Cambridge.
Delighted with Bentham’s Presidential Address [Linnean Society, 1868].
Sketches out subjects he intends to speak on at Norwich [BAAS meeting]: museums, CD’s work in botany, Pangenesis, early history of mankind.
Asks about CD’s "book on man" [Descent].
Thinks JDH would be wise not to touch on Pangenesis; it has very few friends. Bentham is doubtful, Carus against, and Alphonse de Candolle likes it least in the book. CD still convinced it will be hereafter looked on as "best hypothesis of generation inheritance & development". If JDH means to cut up Pangenesis he has no word to say in opposition.
Looks forward to seeing JDH and hearing about address.
Feels better already.
Disappointed in house [they have taken at Freshwater].
Asks for information on how many languages Origin has appeared in, how many English and American editions it has gone through, and its reception abroad. Wants to disprove statement that the theory is "fast passing away".
Baby ill, scarcely any hope of recovery.
Some botanical books have come for CD.
Sorry to hear of baby’s illness.
Comments on statement that belief in natural selection is passing away. Common descent of species is almost universally accepted now, and this is more important. In large part acceptance is due to Origin. Discusses reception of and interest in Origin in various countries.
Thanks for information in CD’s letter.
Baby has been ill.
Has finished rough sketch of [BAAS] address.
Has got G. H. Richard to take Geographical Section at Norwich meeting.
Coming on Saturday.
Baby and wife pretty well.
Enjoyed JDH’s visit.
Mrs Cameron’s photograph of JDH is grand.
Has heard J. V. Carus will be at Norwich. Suggests JDH mention that Origin was translated by two distinguished naturalists, H. G. Bronn and Carus.
Reports on Norwich address [Rep. BAAS 38 (1868): lviii–lxxv]. Left out some things, i.e., Asa Gray’s being superseded.
Tyndall says CD and JDH are types of "unconscious merit".
Pleased at success of JDH’s address. Has read several press reports.
Spectator pitches into JDH about theology ["Dr Hooker on the evidences", 22 Aug 1868, pp. 986–7].
Feels JDH has "immensely advanced the belief in evolution of species".
The newspapers’ pother about his mild theology.
Tyndall’s reference to JDH and CD as the two "modestest" men in science.
Huxley offended the clergy twice without cause or warrant.
William Hooker ill.
Astronomers do not like JDH’s reference to them.
Athenæum [Owen’s?] attack on JDH [BAAS address] and CD. False statement that CD’s sole groundwork is from pigeons.
Agrees with JDH on foolishness of Red Lion Club.
Huxley’s want of judgment.
JDH’s argument about astronomy and astronomers.
Pall Mall Gazette [8 (1868): 593, 595–6] and Morning Advertiser on JDH’s address.
Has met A. J. Gower, Consul at Nagasaki, Japan, who knows all about the Ainus. JDH has given away all the copies of CD’s Queries about expression.
Nettled by Pall Mall Gazette review of BAAS address [see 6342].
Owen is indeed an ass. Carlyle’s comment on Owen’s smile.
The Asa Grays at Kew.