From:
Edward Sabine
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[5 December 1862]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.265
Summary:
Discusses proposed Melbourne telescope, opinions of various scientists, and projected costs of construction.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Edward Sabine
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[6 December 1862]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.266
Summary:
Sends [William] Lassell's letter regarding Melbourne telescope. Pleased with scientific memoirs received from Harvard College.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
John Scott
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
6 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 108: 182a–d
Summary:
JS not ready to publish on Primula.
Some of his objections to natural selection are based on belief that plants with separate sexes are less variable than those in which sexes are confluent (as in ferns).
Sends his paper on fern varieties [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 16 (1862): 209–27].
Will soon read paper on Drosera irritability [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 17 (1863): 317–18].
How does CD explain capricious distribution of irritability among plants?
P. scotica’s non-dimorphism is native.
Beginning Laelia experiments shortly.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Brian Houghton Hodgson
Date:
6 December 1862
Source of text:
JDH/2/22/2 f.84-85, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
JDH discusses the health of Brian Houghton Hodgson's wife. His own wife, Frances, has had a tooth out but otherwise the Hooker family are all well, he particularly mentions his son Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker "growing a pace in stature & wisdom". He mentions a rocking horse much loved by his children. Thomas Thomson & his wife spent some time at Kew & have now gone to Hastings. [Sir James William] Colvile's house is shut up. Mentions chatting with [Sir Lawrence] Peel & a coin expert named Mr. Thomas at the Athenaeum Club. [Charles] Lyell is still working on his 'age of man', JDH comments that he will struggle to reconcile his old geology with recent discoveries, including Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. [Thomas Henry] Huxley is working on a publication about the relation of men to lower animals, JDH is very impressed with it. Summarises & critiques [Richard] Owen's paper, read at the Royal Society, on the dinosaur Gryphosaurus & its relation to birds vs. reptiles. JDH notes that the paper actually backs up [Charles] Darwin's: "much disputed dogma" regarding the geological record. JDH mentions some of Darwin's work and praises him as 'the first naturalist in Europe...as great as any that ever lived'. Discusses the reception, by the press and clergy, of Bishop [John William] Colenso's writings on the interpretation of the Bible. Mentions the Schlagintweit's book.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
7 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 145: 227, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 179)
Summary:
On THH’s Lectures to working men.
Work by Ferdinand J. Cohn on the contractile tissue of plants ["Über contractile Gewebe im Pflanzenreich" Abh. Schlesischen Ges. Vaterl. Cult. 1 (1861)] seems important. CD has come to the conclusion that there must be some substance in plants analogous to the supposed diffused nervous matter in lower animals.
[Part of P.S. missing from original.]
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas White Woodbury
Date:
7 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 148: 374
Summary:
Cannot aid TWW with respect to bees from East Indies. Suggests he write to Edward Blyth.
Thanks him for getting query on variation in bees circulated in Germany.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John R. Hind
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[8 December 1862]
Source of text:
RAS:JH Archive 12/1.6.7; Reel 10
Summary:
E. W. L. Tempel's 1860 discovery of nebula near Merope.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Asa Gray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
9 Dec 1862
Source of text:
DAR 165: 125
Summary:
Has forwarded Mitchella roots and Cypripedium.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Francis Julius (Julius) von Haast
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
9 Dec 1862
Source of text:
DAR 166: 1
Summary:
Will try to procure specimens of native rat and frog for CD. Will be glad to make observations for him.
Cites case of a species of duck that normally nests on ground but builds in trees if disturbed.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Text Online
From:
Ernst Becker
To:
Michael Faraday
Date:
10 December 1862
Source of text:
IET MS SC 2
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Edward Sabine
Date:
[10 December 1862]
Source of text:
Cambridge University Library 7656/H702 (C: Rosse Papers K2.)
Summary:
Extensive comments on the type and construction of telescope to be supplied to Melbourne University.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Scott
Date:
11 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 93: B37, B49–52
Summary:
Criticises style of JS’s fern paper [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 16 (1862): 209–27].
JS’s remark on "the two sexes counteracting variability in the product of the one" is new to CD.
Does the female [fern?] plant always produce female by parthenogenesis?
They seem to work on same subjects; CD has much material on Drosera.
Does not understand JS’s objections to natural selection.
Offers to suggest experiments.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Edinburgh Royal Medical Society
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[before 12 Dec 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 229: 6
Summary:
A diploma enrolling CD as an honorary member of the Society.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
12 [Dec 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 176
Summary:
Maintains his view on crossing. Thinks practical breeders would agree with him; doubts that variability and domestication are at all necessarily correlative.
Identical plants in different conditions a heavy argument against "direct action" [of physical conditions].
His 1000-pigeon case is altered if long-beaked are in least degree sterile with short-beaked.
His work on dimorphism inclines him to believe that sterility is at first a selected quality to keep incipient species distinct.
Case of easy modification of Lythrum pollen to favour or prevent crossing.
Monsters.
Has just finished chapter on variations of cultivated plants.
Edinburgh doctors have sent him Diploma of Medical Society.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Forsell Kirby
Date:
12 Dec [1862]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Summary:
CD sends thanks for Manual of European butterflies [1862].
Is pleased that WFK does not believe in immutability of species, "a doctrine perfectly adapted to stop philosophical research", and hopes he will publish further.
Notes WFK’s name is the same as the entomologist’s.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Text Online
From:
Michael Faraday
To:
Ernst Becker
Date:
12 December 1862
Source of text:
RI MS F1 F19
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project
Text Online
From:
Alfred Russel Wallace
To:
Cajetan von Felder
Date:
12 December 1862
Source of text:
Natural History Museum, London: NHM Catkey-418350
Summary:
Discusses the Lepidoptera of the Malay Archipelago and the possibility of exchanging specimens. He would be gratified to be honoured by the Imperial Zoological Society of Vienna.
Contributor:
Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project
Text Online
From:
William Pigott
To:
Michael Faraday
Date:
mid December 1862
Source of text:
LMA CLC/526/MS 30108/4/134
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project
Text Online
From:
Darwin, Emma
To:
Darwin, W. E.
Date:
[13 December 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 219.1: 69
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Darwin Family Letters
Text Online
From:
James Timmins Chance
To:
Michael Faraday
Date:
13 December 1862
Source of text:
LMA CLC/526/MS 30108/4/118
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project