Showing 21–40 of 96 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.
Responds warmly to his very nice letter. CD need have no fear that she will not be as happy as he.
Again expresses uneasiness that their opinions on religion do not agree on all points. Hopes they will sympathise in their feelings on the subject.
A newly-elected Fellow returns the obligation to be signed upon entering the Geological Society.
He has the wedding ring. Agrees to coming straight home after the wedding, if that is what she prefers.
Asks permission to bring Fanny Allen to CB’s party.
Discusses CD’s religious doubts. Fears his work may lead him to discount what cannot be proved, and advises that there are some things which, "if true are likely to be above our comprehension" and "that there is a danger in giving up revelation".
Submits the account of Smith, Elder & Co. for the third number of part two and second number of part three of the Zoology.
Writes to CD as "Brother Benedick" and sends hearty good wishes for health and happiness in marriage. They are sending a little silver candlestick for a wax taper.
Asks WW to alter, before printing, the passages in WW’s Presidential Address to the Geological Society [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 3 (1839): 93] which pointedly allude to the delay in publication of CD’s Beagle journal; they might annoy FitzRoy, who, as Captain, has a right to first use of the papers of all officers on board.
Asks to be allowed to bring his sister to CB’s party "that she may see the World".
Supports John Lawrance’s application to become a fellow of the Geological Society.
Has finished earthquake paper ["Volcanic phenomena in South America" (1840), Collected papers 1: 53–86]. Gives instructions about a woodcut. There should be an outline map.
Sends his congratulations and best wishes on CD’s marriage.
Will send JP a map as requested. Asks for a ticket to one of JP’s lectures.
Formal request for F. Lutké’s charts of the Caroline Islands and any charts by Beechey of the Lagoon Islands [Ellice Islands] that the Society might possess.
Has objected to loading Narrative with advertisements, but thinks CD’s Zoology and Geology might be advertised. Mentions other details of the final stages of publication.
Captain FitzRoy has no objection to appending advertisement of other works connected with Beagle voyage to CD’s volume [Journal of researches].
Questions on breeding of plants: variation in established versus new varieties; predominance of wild species and old varieties when crossed with newer forms; predominance of males versus females; correlations between ease of hybridisation and tendency to vary and undergo cultivation; reversion; correlations between hybridisation and geographic distribution.
In WH’s Amaryllidaceae [1837], does he intend to say crossing is inimical to fertility?
[Sent via J. S. Henslow; note to amanuensis Syms Covington.]
Replies to CD’s questions on plant hybridisation and laws of inheritance. Rejects predominant transmission of characters by established forms. Males show predominance, but congeniality of parents’ constitution to climate and soil more important. No correlation between hybridisation and variability, cultivation, and geographical distribution. Rejects reversion.
Describes experiments in Hippeastrum in which pollen from another species proved more fertile than plant’s own pollen.
Did not intend to say that crossing is inimical to fertility.
Sends a book [his translation of Goethe’s Hermann u. Dorothea] as a wedding gift.
[Note forwarding 503.]
Lord Fitzwilliam’s gardener does not believe in hybrid ferns.
