From:
Francis Galton
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
22 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 105: A40; DAR 195.4: 103
Summary:
Encloses "account of Dr H. M. Butler’s hereditary odd habit".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
22 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 103: 99–100
Summary:
Philosophical Club dinner.
Lyell contradicts W. B. Carpenter on current in Straits of Gibraltar.
James Orton’s report on fossil shells found by L. Agassiz 2000 miles up the Amazon. Their identification disposes of the glacial hypothesis.
No news yet from Gladstone on Ayrton affair.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Francis Galton
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[after 22 Dec 1871]
Source of text:
DAR 105: A42–3
Summary:
Gives his account of H. M. Butler’s apparently inherited habit.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Henry Johnson
Date:
23 Dec 1871
Source of text:
Private collection
Summary:
Is unable to accept invitation to Shrewsbury. Is grateful for offer of assistance at Wroxeter.
The weight of dry earth cast up by worms is 161/10 tons per acre annually.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Henry Lee
Date:
23 Dec [1871]
Source of text:
Kenneth W. Rendell (dealer) (1995)
Summary:
"I have now looked at both lots of specimens, & I think both are the variable L. anatifera.–– I have disarticulated the right-hand scutal valve in both & the umbonal teeth are plain in both … I have hardly any doubt that both are L. anatifera.––"
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Archibald Geikie
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
24 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 165: 24
Summary:
Sends a paper on denudation ["On modern denudation", Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow 3 (1871): 153–90].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Text Online
From:
George Bentham
To:
Ferdinand von Mueller
Date:
25 December 1871
Source of text:
RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Ogle
Date:
25 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 261.5: 13 (EH 88205911)
Summary:
Sends notes on left- and right-handedness from observations made on his eldest son as an infant.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Louis Adolphe Thiers
Date:
[before 26 Dec 1871]
Source of text:
Pall Mall Gazette , 26 December 1871, p. 7
Summary:
Open letter with multiple signatories pleading with the President of France not to exile Élisée Reclus.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Archibald Geikie
Date:
27 Dec [1871]
Source of text:
DAR 185: 132
Summary:
His admiration for the papers of AG [see 8119].
Relates his recent discovery that earthworms have brought to surface no less than 161 tons of dry earth over an area of 10 acres, thus creating the conditions for significant denudation. Would welcome information about the persistence of ridges and furrows in old pasture lands ploughed centuries ago. Do they run down the slopes or transversely? Refers to [A. C.] Ramsay, [James] Croll, Elie de Beaumont, and [Henry] Johnson.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel
Date:
27 Dec 1871
Source of text:
Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A Abt. 1–52/26)
Summary:
Refers to priest who believes in "our ape-like progenitors".
EH’s work on sponges.
Pangenesis.
Describes new edition of Origin [6th]
and his work on plant crossing.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Andrew Crombie Ramsay
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
27 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 176: 17
Summary:
Sends description and measurements of the 18th century courtyard pavement of his house, the stones of which have sunk as a result of earthworm action [see Earthworms, pp. 192–3].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
William Erasmus Darwin
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 Dec [1871]
Source of text:
Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 48)
Summary:
Sends three sheets but keeps one. Suggests looking at a curved field on the way to Orpington.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Archibald Geikie
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
29 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 165: 25
Summary:
Action of earthworms and weather on surface soil of old earthworks and fortifications.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Howard Darwin
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
30 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 162: 64
Summary:
Varying depth of top-soil in a ridge-and-furrow field with a depression.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Erasmus Galton
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
30 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 165: 5
Summary:
After reading Descent sends two instances of men and animals using the same muscles to express similar emotional states.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Archibald Geikie
Date:
30 Dec 1871
Source of text:
DAR 185: 133
Summary:
Is obliged for valuable letter [see 8123] and encloses queries about the manner of gradual obliteration of ridges or furrows in old pasture lands in various parts of England.
Gives details of his experiment to test his observations of the downward flow of worm-casts.
Refers to [Lyon] Playfair, [A. C.] Ramsay, and AG’s edition of [J. B.] Jukes, [A student’s manual of geology, 3d ed., 1872].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Text Online
From:
Alfred Russel Wallace
To:
Frances ("Fanny") Sims (née Wallace)
Date:
31 December 1871
Source of text:
Natural History Museum, London: NHM WP1/3/80
Summary:
Announcing the birth of his second child, a son, the previous night.
Contributor:
Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project
From:
Francis Darwin
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[after 1871?]
Source of text:
DAR 274.1: 6
Summary:
Sends abstract, and will bring book on Saturday.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project