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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.
Thanks for informatiion about birds and for copies of the Cottage Gardener (26 March 1861). Discusses ancestor of domestic fowl.
Does not think much of the arguments of the Duke [of Argyll], though liberal and complimentary to himself.
THH’s Athenæum letter ["Man and the apes", 30 Mar 1861, p. 433] almost too civil. What a thorn THH must be to Owen.
CD never dreamed primroses did not abound with DO; apologises for trouble and sends flowers.
Will repay DO for cost of Cypripedium and for the Dionaea, if any can be got.
Details of peculiarities in poultry.
Is examining wild varieties of rabbit.
CD urges HWB to write on his travels;
asks for facts on domestic variations;
is pleased by HWB’s acceptance of the theory of sexual selection.
He still believes in migration from north to south during glacial age.
Hopes Bates will publish a paper on mimicry.
Affectionate regards to Henslow.
Primula sibirica seems to be the only non-dimorphic species. Has made over one hundred Primula crosses.
Regrets Henslow’s illness.
Sends two letters from G. Lincecum about ants ("perhaps the most marvellous instinct ever recorded") for possible publication. [See Gideon Lincecum, "The habits of the ""agricultural ants"" of Texas", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 6 (1862): 29–31.]
A bee’s sting always remains behind.
Requests information about Japanese and Chinese encyclopedias,
about the rarity of fowls with black feathers,
and about date of the king Thouthmosis III.
The stinging of bees and wasps contrasted.
Thanks JC for pamphlets.
"I do not believe in Metempsychosis nor in Genesis – & you are growing so orthodox, that you will end your days, I believe, in believing in the Tower of Babel–."
Asks DO to identify enclosed Fumaria or Corydalis flower, with springing hood adaptation.
Huxley and CD fear Chauncey Wright’s review is too general.
Reports the praise for AG’s pamphlet.
J. S. Henslow is dying.
Francis Bowen strikes CD as weak and unobservant; presumes he is a metaphysician, which accounts for his "entire want of common sense".
Does wild Apocynum catch flies in U. S.?
CD infers [incorrectly] from Huxley’s report that Henslow is dead.
Discusses progress of CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].
CD had not thought of subsidence in connection with "roads" of Glen Roy.
Discusses habits of ants.
Since his previous letter, has unexpectedly arranged to go to London next Tuesday.
Hopes to call on recipient.
CD misunderstood Huxley: Henslow is not dead.
Inquires about rabbits.
Sends list of queries on poultry.
WBT’s fowls’ skulls have arrived.
Index of Origin does not refer to variability of rudimentary organs mentioned at pp. 149, 168. Offers references to Rudolf Leuckart and to Franz von Leydig to support CD’s point.