From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
12 July [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 23
Summary:
Eldest daughter [Henrietta] very ill.
CD enjoys Owen’s having had "a good setting down".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
24 [June 1861]
Source of text:
Bellmans (dealers) (5 December 2019, lot 632)
Summary:
Thanks HF for offer of valuable specimen, but CD has no aquarium. Suggests the Zoological Society would be the best place for it.
Will keep HF’s note among a very few precious letters.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
[8 May 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 24
Summary:
Will try to call tomorrow. What HF tells him about horses makes him eager to come.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
1 Oct [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 25
Summary:
Extreme interest in MS of HF’s paper on the American fossil elephant [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 43–114].
Pleased HF does not believe in immutable species. Significance of proboscidean group verging towards extinction. Comments on natural selection preserving type despite variability. Natural selection solves problem of how every part of each creature has become adapted.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
4 Oct [1862]
Source of text:
Maggs Brothers (dealers) (catalogue 1345, 2003)
Summary:
Explains that he returned the MS - part of a paper on fossil and living species of elephant (Falconer 1863) - to Falconer’s house in Park Crescent the previous Thursday.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
14 Nov [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 27
Summary:
Comments on HF’s paper on Plagiaulax from the Purbeck beds. Paper "dreadfully severe" on Owen.
"I am worse than ever in bearing any excitement."
Glad HF attacked Australian Mastodon. Never did believe in him.
Mentions Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
29 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 28
Summary:
Has HF met with any cases of what gardeners call "sports" and what CD will call "bud-variations"?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
5 and 6 Jan 1863
Source of text:
DAR 144: 29
Summary:
His admiration for HF’s paper on American fossil elephant.
Notes "temporary irruption of S. American forms into N. America".
Rejoices that HF has "smashed" case of Mastodon on Timor.
Shares HF’s anger at Owen.
He is eager to hear about fossil bird [Archaeopteryx].
Comments on criticisms of species theory by [Johann Andreas?] Wagner.
Describes research on fertilisation of Melastomataceae.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
20 [Jan 1863]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 30
Summary:
If jaw belongs to Archaeopteryx, it will show great peculiarity. A German author has advanced the case as argument for Origin.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
22 Apr [1863]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 31
Summary:
Good of HF to tell him about Brazilian beast. So intermediate a form is "very glorious". Must assume it is very old.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
[25–6 Aug 1863]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 32
Summary:
Thanks for information about Pliocene mammal. Interested in relating process of formation to duration of the species. Oswald Heer’s view that species suddenly formed surely false.
Bad summer with much sickness. Going to Malvern [for water-cure] for a month.
Muddled over phyllotaxy and made out nothing.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
4 [Sept 1863]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 33
Summary:
Sends address.
Comments on BAAS meeting at Newcastle.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
4 Nov [1864]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 35
Summary:
[Copley] Medal very great honour. Cordial thanks.
Chuckled over [Gaspard-Auguste] Brullé and pupils.
Splendid converts in Rudolf Leuckart and Carl Gegenbaur.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
8 Nov [1864]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 36
Summary:
Gratified to receive Copley Medal. Cannot attend anniversary [of Royal Society]. Would HF receive medal for him?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
4 Dec [1864]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 37
Summary:
Much pleased by Edward Sabine’s address.
Grateful to HF for his interest [in the award of Copley Medal to CD].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
6 Jan [1865]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 38
Summary:
"I return your letter to [William] Sharpey." Grandest eulogium CD has received.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Falconer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
9 July [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 164.1: 5
Summary:
Hyaena remains show how recently Sicily was joined to Africa.
Reports on the Oxford meeting of BAAS.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Falconer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 June 1861
Source of text:
DAR 99: 3–4
Summary:
Offers CD a live Proteus anguinus from Adelsberg cave. In his hands it will have a fair chance of developing into "some type of Columbidae (say a pouter or tumbler)".
The Origin is universally praised in Italy and Germany, even by those who disagree with it.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Falconer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
7 May [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 380
Summary:
Wanted to talk with CD about the astonishing new Pliocene fossil discoveries in North America reported by Leidy. One horse fossil’s dentition, if it could be believed, would be of great interest to CD’s views.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Falconer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
24–7 Sept [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 164: 6
Summary:
Encloses MS ["On the American fossil elephant", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1863): 43–114]. Shows persistence of specific characters through glacial period.
Eocene monkeys mistakenly described as pigs.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
