Sends expanded answers [to Queries about expression], in view of CD’s statement that his first list had not been sufficiently explanatory. Is pleased that some answers confirmed CD’s views [see Expression, passim].
Showing 1–20 of 82 items
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.
Sends expanded answers [to Queries about expression], in view of CD’s statement that his first list had not been sufficiently explanatory. Is pleased that some answers confirmed CD’s views [see Expression, passim].
Thanks MW for his essay [Die Darwin’sche Theorie und das Migrationsgesetz der Organismen (1868)]. Is highly gratified that MW agrees with him to a considerable extent.
Almost wishes that he could believe in the importance of isolation to the same extent as MW.
Asks for precise reference in Charles Bell to subject of CD’s question. Agrees to assist CD’s investigation. Asks about Bell’s observations on eyes engorged with blood. Has noticed that eyes of children with excessive photophobia tend to be pale when forced open.
Has circulated CD’s Queries about expression and gives some of his observations of the natives.
Gives Charles Bell’s explanation of the contraction of the orbicularis during screaming and seeks confirmation of his view because the action is "the key-stone of a whole class of expressions". Curious to learn WB’s conclusion in regard to the relation between contraction of the orbicularis and secretion of tears. Notes that voluntary contraction of the orbicularis causes no tears.
Thanks JB for his information. Has heard of analogous cases to JB’s observations on [colours of] crossed rats; the offspring of white and grey mice are stated to be either white or grey and never piebald.
Finds important differences between English and German versions of Variation on graft-hybrids.
Experiments and observations on submerged flowers.
On the changes in plumage of scarlet ibis at the zoo in breeding season.
Discusses apes and their relationships to each other. Writes particularly of the gibbon, its structure and well-developed legs giving it the ability to walk without using its hands.
Thanks for Variation.
CD must be happy about the tendency toward acceptance of his views, though it is regrettable that France is backward in this regard.
His own work goes slowly, but he still hopes his work on artificially produced monstrosities will help to answer the question of the origin of species.
Discusses how they might enquire about any provisions in the laws of partnership concerning lunacy.
Otto Staudinger’s catalogue shows prices of female Lepidoptera to be higher than those of males.
Asks for [John?] Smith’s exact count of seeds of the crossed and self-fertilised Victoria water-lily. Similar question on Euryale seed and seedlings.
JDH’s coming [BAAS] Presidential Address.
Movement in plants.
Dimorphism.
Would welcome FM’s opinion of Pangenesis.
Thanks CD for sending him copy of Variation.
Describes results of his brother’s [August Müller] experiments on effect of climate on maize.
Like ancestors of horses, young tapir is also striped.
Glad to hear about colours of Hylobates.
Cannot find any statement about which digits in man are most subject to syndactylism in Isidore Geoffroy [Saint-Hilaire]’s Histoire des anomalies [1832–7].
Asks questions concerned with seasonal and sexual changes in plumage of various bird species.
Does male woodpecker share in incubation?
MTM did not write Gardeners’ Chronicle review of Variation [(1868): 184].
Encloses letters supporting a project [Botanical Congress?] to promote horticulture, and hopes CD will reconsider giving his support.
CD thanks JJW for the mine of information his last "ten!" letters contain. Comments on sexual display of pheasants and colour preferences of pigeons.
Asks about hens that pair earliest in spring and about possible existence of unpaired birds.
Discusses the human foot and its abnormalities; notes an example of syndactylism.
Gives his observations on sexual differences in coloration of terns and ostriches.
Langstaff has seen no trace of blushing on the body.