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1870-1879 in date 
Tait, Lawson in addressee 
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From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
8 Oct 1871
Source of text:
Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library
Summary:

Does not know anything about a supra-condyloid process on the humerus, but would like to see RLT’s paper should he publish on the subject.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
[13–15 Mar 1875]
Source of text:
Birmingham Daily Post , 8 April 1875, p. 6
Summary:

Thinks CD is right about the retention of a tail.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
20 Mar [1875]
Source of text:
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Hannover (Noviss. 450: A 48)
Summary:

Has read RLT’s essay [The pathology and treatment of diseases of the ovaries (1874)] with interest. His facts about tumours seem to CD "highly favourable to some such notion as Pangenesis".

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
25 Mar 1875
Source of text:
John Wilson (dealer) (Catalogue 62, July 1989)
Summary:

Would be glad to make RLT’s acquaintance, but CD’s health would make RLT’s visit to Down unprofitable. Suggests a meeting in London at end of month.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
4 June [1875]
Source of text:
Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections DC AL 1/19)
Summary:

CD’s observations on the power of movement and transmission of motor impulses in plants. If RLT succeeds with the tails of mice, it will be "a beautiful little discovery"; CD will enjoy it the more "because some German sneered at natural selection and instanced the tail of the mouse" [see 10013].

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
11 June [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 24–5
Summary:

Has found that H. G. Bronn in the chapter appended to his translation of Origin cited ears and tail of mice as facts opposed to natural selection. Suggests RLT examine hairs of tails of mice for possible nerves.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
13 June [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 26
Summary:

RLT’s observations come too late, as CD’s book on Droseraceae has been printed.

Reports on his observations of ferment in secretions in Drosera rotundifolia and Drosophyllum.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
[after 17 June 1875]
Source of text:
Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library
Summary:

RLT will find abundant evidence of absorption by Aldrovanda in CD’s forthcoming book [Insectivorous plants]. Congratulates him on his discovery of ferments.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
17 [July 1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 27
Summary:

Informs RLT of J. D. Hooker’s work on Nepenthes ["Nepenthaceae, Cytinaceae", in Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis by A. P. de Candolle (1873), 17: 90–116].

Has asked JDH to try secretions of pitchers that had caught no insects.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
20 July [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 28
Summary:

CD returns MS of a paper by RLT. "If you have succeeded in separating the ferment, the fact is manifestly important." Asks whether RLT tested the digestive ability of fluid from pitchers without animal matter. This would be necessary to prove that there was ferment in the fluid. CD is glad to hear about the [passage?] for guiding insects; he had guessed this to be the case.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Francis Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
22 July [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 29
Summary:

CD sends words that he is too busy to work on the Drosera RLT has sent. CD also regrets that the fluid on virgin pitchers of Nepenthes was not tested with white of egg. Until that is done, he doubts whether physiologists would admit the presence of the ferment.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
15 Aug [1875]
Source of text:
Leeds University Library Special Collections (Brotherton Collection, tipped into Insectivorous plants (1875): MS Misc. Letters 2)
Summary:

Thanks him for his kind review of Insectivorous plants in the Spectator. Disputes Tait’s report of a Nepenthes that trapped a fly but did not digest it.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
10 Sept [1875]
Source of text:
Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library
Summary:

CD gives a few instances of various animals (starfish, earwigs, spiders) that take charge of their young.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
14 Oct [1875]
Source of text:
Department of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas (MS 331 box 1 folder 11)
Summary:

Will be happy to present RLT’s paper on Nepenthes to Royal Society.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
27 Nov [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 30
Summary:

Because CD has been unwell, he has not read RLT’s paper carefully, but it seems an important contribution to science. Hopes RLT’s chemical observations will be confirmed. It seems a great anomaly that two substances with an acid should be requisite for digestion.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
1 Dec [1875]
Source of text:
Josh B. Rosenblum (private collection)
Summary:

Abstract sent to the Royal Society. It seems to CD "uncommonly clear and well-done".

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
22 Feb [1876]
Source of text:
Randall House, Santa Barbara (dealers) (Catalogue XXV, 1993)
Summary:

Herbert Spencer invented the term "survival of the fittest". CD used it but found "natural selection" more convenient.

He has often spoken of natural selection’s destruction of individuals which do not come up to "proper standards of structure", which comes to nearly the same thing as RLT’s suggested distinction.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
2 Mar 1876
Source of text:
DAR 147: 527
Summary:

Thanks RLT for his letter. CD took much trouble over his two cases [regrowth of amputated supernumerary digits, in Variation] but the evidence was shaky.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
25 Mar [1876]
Source of text:
DAR 221.5: 33
Summary:

RLT’s two articles in Spectator [4 Mar and 25 Mar 1876] greatly honour CD.

Tait has made a good point about "Survival of the Fittest".

Dr Rudinger’s extensive inquiries show that all eminent German surgeons are unanimous about non-growth of extra digit after amputation.

J. Kollmann has written regretting CD has given up atavism and extra digits [in 2d ed. of Variation]; gives new evidence of a rudimentary sixth digit in batrachians.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
Date:
28 Mar 1876
Source of text:
Roy Davids Ltd (dealer) (1996)
Summary:

James Paget’s scepticism about regrowth of digits. Suggests RLT experiment with amputation of digits, both extra and normal, of kittens and fowls. Fears they will fail to regrow, but, if regrowth is proved, it will be an important discovery.

Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project