From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
[23 Nov 1866?]
Source of text:
Alexander Historical Auctions (dealers) (29 April 2000)
Summary:
Will call on Wallace tomorrow (Saturday) at 10.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
23 Feb 1867
Source of text:
Marchant ed. 1916, 1: 178
Summary:
Asks why caterpillars are sometimes beautifully coloured. It poses a problem for view that sexual selection is the explanation of colours of male butterflies.
More on mimetic butterflies.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
26 Feb [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434, f. 76)
Summary:
ARW’s explanation of protective value of conspicuous coloration is ingenious.
CD still holds to sexual selection with respect to beauty in male butterflies.
Sexual selection and the races of man.
Expression of emotions is another subject he plans to include in his essay [Descent].
Asks ARW to suggest an observer in Malay Archipelago to whom he might send queries [on expression].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
7 Mar [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434 ff. 20–20v)
Summary:
Grateful for addresses of informants, especially that of Rajah James Brooke.
Dispatch of queries on expression. Answers will make interesting appendix to his "Essay on man" [Descent].
Protective adaptation of female butterflies believed probable.
Believes in sexual selection as applied to man.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
[12–17] Mar [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434 ff. 80–83v)
Summary:
Asks to be kept informed on gaudy caterpillars.
Problems of his work on man; scope and role of sexual selection.
Indulgence of interest in expression is simply a "hobby-horse". Will see whether he can get queries inserted in an Indian newspaper.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
29 Apr [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434, f. 84)
Summary:
Comments on ARW’s view of colouring in relation to sexual selection and protection. It is not new to CD. Hopes to discuss subject fully in his "Essay on Man" [Descent]. As to the problem of brightly coloured females, CD is not satisfied that it is due to males taking over incubation. Admires "value and beauty" of ARW’s generalisations.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
5 May [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434 f. 89)
Summary:
Returns ARW’s notes. He will work up subject much better than CD.
Apologises for the note of illiberality in his letter regarding ARW’s work on the colouring and other sexual differences in mammals.
Discusses laws of inheritance based on sexual selection.
He questions the extent of applicability of principles of protection and sexual selection to lower animal forms, though Ernst Haeckel has shown how protection may account for transparency and absence of colour in lower oceanic animals.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
[24 June 1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434, f. 74)
Summary:
CD now acknowledges that the sometimes very great sexual, i.e., ornamental, differences in fishes offer a difficulty to the view that females are not brightly coloured on account of the danger to propagation of the species.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
6 July [1867]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434, f. 92)
Summary:
Acknowledgment of article on mimicry [Westminster Rev. 88 (1867): 1–43].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
12 and 13 Oct 1867
Source of text:
The British Library (Add 46434 f. 96)
Summary:
Response to ARW’s "Creation by law", especially the Angraecum sesquipedale and the predicted Madagascar moth.
ARW’s argument on beauty strikes CD as good.
Wishes ARW had made more clear the assumption of the reviewer [in North Br. Rev.] that each variation is a strongly marked one.
The Duke of Argyll’s argument on beauty is not candid.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
22 Feb [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 104–5)
Summary:
Reports work on sexual selection. Problems with the relative numbers of the two sexes and polygamy. Asks ARW’s help with several questions on polygamous birds.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
27 Feb [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 108–11)
Summary:
Pleased by ARW’s response to Pangenesis.
On negative reception by his friends.
Further argument concerning sterility and natural selection.
Polygamy and sexual selection.
Protection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
17 [Mar 1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 43434: 115–17)
Summary:
On his Primula paper for the Linnean Society ["On the specific difference between Primula veris, Brit. Fl. (var. officialis, Linn.), P. vulgaris, Brit. Fl. var. acaulis, Linn.), and P. elatior, Jacq.; and on the hybrid nature of the common oxlip; with supplementary remarks on naturally produced hybrids of the genus Verbascum", [officinalis!?] J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 437–54].
Peacocks and sexual selection.
ARW’s sterility argument has driven CD’s sons half-mad.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
[21 Mar 1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 119–20); DAR 106: B160–3
Summary:
On problem of sterility, CD cannot persuade himself that it has been gained by natural selection.
On sexual selection and minute variations, he tends to agree with ARW. Sends George Darwin’s notes on ARW’s argument.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
27 Mar [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 123–4)
Summary:
There are so many doubtful points on the problems relating to sterility that they will never agree.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
6 Apr [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 125–9)
Summary:
More on the "terrible problem" of natural selection and sterility. CD’s reasons for disagreeing with ARW. CD analyses and answers ARW in detail in defence of his conclusion that sterility cannot be increased through natural selection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
9 Apr [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434)
Summary:
Warns ARW of dubious character of list of European alpine genera and species in volcanoes of Hawaii. Problems of geographical distribution in oceanic islands.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
15 Apr [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 133–5)
Summary:
Admires ARW’s "Theory of birds’ nests" [J. Travel & Nat. Hist. 1 (1868): 73].
Discusses their respective views on birds’ nests, sexual selection, and protection.
Asks why, if brilliant colours of female butterflies are result of protective mimicry, do not males become equally brilliant? CD believes variation in females alone accounts for it, rather than protection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
30 Apr [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 136–9)
Summary:
More on CD’s objections to ARW’s views on protection and natural selection.
Sexual selection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
5 May [1868]
Source of text:
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 140–1)
Summary:
Criticism of ARW for too little esteem of the role of sexual selection as agent in giving colour.
Response to other topics.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project