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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.
AE, philosophy professor, is disposed to accept natural selection, but argues that it lacks direction. Suggests that direction would be given if one assumed the appearance of multiple advantageous traits in a single individual. Cites Herbert Spencer, Rudolf Virchow, Claude Bernard, and Carl Vogt.
David Forbes thinks WED’s chalk samples have been penetrated by surface mud.
Sends information on composition of chalk at Shoreham and Folkestone.
Thanks CD for Origin, 6th ed.
Has declined chair at Strasbourg.
Describes research on calcareous sponges.
Criticises Pangenesis.
Sends dirt residue of chalk samples for David Forbes to examine.
Response to 6th ed. of Origin. CD’s answer to Mivart on initial stages of modifications is complete; the "eye and ear objection" is not handled so satisfactorily.
Thanks for new [6th] edition of Origin.
Is working on Echini.
The more material he gets the less easy it is to diagnose a genus or species. Has little doubt that "classification is nothing but the most arbitrary convenient tool, depending upon the material at our command at a special time".
Thanks for facts about ducks.
Thinks TCE will be converted to principle of evolution if he continues testing facts for and against it. Natural selection is another question.
A. S. Packard would like to visit CD to pay his respects.
P.S. Information on earthworm activity on chalk downs, including two rough sketches for CD.
Down parish and family matters.
JM arranges to pay CD for the latest issue of Descent.
CD is vexed to hear that some of his friends and some booksellers complain of the type of the new [6th] edition of Origin. CD, whose eyesight is not good, had no trouble reading proofs.
Offers to send German editions of his works when he return home.
Wishes to use some of Fritz Müller’s observations in his paper on mimicry.
CD’s reply and Huxley’s article ["Mr Darwin’s critics", Contemp. Rev. 18 (1871): 443–76] have answered all of Mivart’s objections to natural selection as applied to man.
Has just finished his work [? The martyrdom of man (1872)]. The new points are: (1) Negroes have whiskers; (2) their music is sometimes agreeable; (3) the Kaffirs are Negroes.
Plans for visit to CD.
Has failed to discover the signs of earthworm activity that CD described.
Acknowledges payment from sale of his books.
On how various human emigrations have supported the work of natural selection.
Defends the view that soil and air account for taller stature of westerners in U. S.
