From:
Henry Walter Bates
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
20 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 160: 83
Summary:
HWB thinks he can buy specimens of male and female insects at Mr Janson’s.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
21 May [1868]
Source of text:
DAR 94: 62–4
Summary:
JDH too severe on Duke of Argyll.
Pities JDH on [BAAS] address [see 6099]; Huxley feels JDH will do well and will not pity him.
Thinks Huxley will give an excellent and original lecture on geographical distribution of birds.
Has been working hard on sexual selection and correspondence about it.
Mignonette is sterile with its own pollen but any two distinct plants are fertile together. It is utterly mysterious and not even Pangenesis will explain it.
On Lyell’s book [Principles, 10th ed.].
Wallace’s wonderful cleverness, but he is not cautious enough. CD differs from Wallace on birds’ nests and protection.
A. Murray’s miserable criticism of Wallace [J. Travel & Nat. Hist. 1 (1868): 137–45].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
William Farr
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
21 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 164: 31
Summary:
Has sent the Registrar General’s Report which shows proportion of male to female births in every county.
Consanguineous marriages.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Harward
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
22 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 166: 118
Summary:
Will obtain information on sheep.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Bullar
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 160: 372
Summary:
Is interested in CD’s remarks on role of pollen in modifying ovarium. Sends his own observations on numerical relations of stamens and pistils to divisions in the ovarium.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
William Winwood Reade
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 176: 34
Summary:
Will answer CD’s queries from Africa.
Reports extreme amazement of some natives in Gabon upon seeing a white man for the first time.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Spence Bate
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
24 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 82: A69–70
Summary:
On structure of Crustacea; size of claws [see Descent 1: 330–1].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Asa Gray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 165: 164
Summary:
CD’s book taking on famously. AG’s review in Nation [see 5921] and preface to American edition.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 142: 49a, 52
Summary:
Describes change of plumage in chickens in order to be sure he is clear about the age of chickens on which CD wants information. Encloses feathers to illustrate changes.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Edward Westey Janson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 82: 99–100
Summary:
Sends specimens selected by H. W. Bates.
Among the Lamellicornes the family Dynastidae have most instances of presence of stridulating organs; Frederick Smith says that in Hymenoptera female Mutilla has stridulating faculty in high degree.
[Itemised bill for Coleoptera specimens enclosed.]
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Cupples
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
26 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 83: 127–8
Summary:
Refers to letter from John Wright offering to help CD on his queries about deerhounds and sexual preferences.
More details about a terrier bitch previously referred to [letter missing].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Murray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
27 May [1868]
Source of text:
DAR 171: 359
Summary:
Will be glad to see Miss Wedgwood’s MS on Wesley.
The clichés of Fritz Müller’s work [Für Darwin] have arrived.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Friedrich Rolle
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 176: 204
Summary:
Questions CD’s view in Variation that Torfschwein formerly ranged from Europe to China.
Cites numerous German publications relating to CD’s theory.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Henry Walter Bates
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 160: 84
Summary:
He has been occupied with Royal Geographical Society anniversary meeting, but did go to Janson and selected various specimens for CD, some of which have remarkable stridulating organs.
The habits of Lethrus are found in Kirby and Spence’s Introduction [to entomology, 7th ed. (1856)].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Browne
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
30 May 1868
Source of text:
DAR 160: 329
Summary:
Is reading CD’s instances of inherited peculiarities of eye [Variation 2: 8–10]. Gives cases of colour-blindness of males in his family.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Robert Goodwin Barr
To:
George Cupples
Date:
[after 11 May 1868?]
Source of text:
DAR 85: B27
Summary:
Sends replies on dogs – sexual differences and preferences.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Gilbert William Child
Date:
6 May [1868]
Source of text:
Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP/LEGAC/1001/64)
Summary:
Cannot judge GWC’s fitness for the Botanical Chair at Oxford. But CD appreciates his work, particularly that on spontaneous generation [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 13 (1863–4): 313; 14 (1865): 178].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
26 May 1868
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
Did not know of complex change of plumage. From WBT’s letter, CD thinks six weeks to two months old is the best period. Sends details of breeds and other particulars.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther
Date:
12 May [1868]
Source of text:
Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library (Gunther letters 2); DAR 82: B21–2
Summary:
Sends some questions on secondary sexual differences of fishes [missing], which he hopes AG will look over.
Invites AG to come to Down.
Encloses queries on sexual differences and nest-building habits of fish.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project