From:
J. W. Howell
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
31 Mar 1878
Source of text:
DAR 201: 15
Summary:
Asks why pigeons fly in a circle.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
James Torbitt
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
3 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 178: 144
Summary:
Thanks for £100; will pay for planting this year’s varieties.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
5 Apr 1878
Source of text:
Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder)
Summary:
Observations on a sensitive Mimosa.
Comments on structure and positioning of "odoriferous organs" of moths and butterflies,
and feeding habits of butterfly larvae.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Thomas Travers Sherlock
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
9 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 177: 157
Summary:
Encloses some notes on Descent [2d ed.]. Discusses CD’s contention [p. 130] that natural selection could not act to increase altruistic behaviour in man; considers that the benefits conferred upon a person exhibiting such virtues would outweigh the threat to survival that such behaviour would pose.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George John Romanes
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 Apr 1878
Source of text:
E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 70
Summary:
Thanks for letter of sympathy.
Would like to visit in May.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Edward Dobson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
12 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 162: 193
Summary:
Sends CD two specimens of Fuchsia monstrosities.
He is writing on the geographical distribution of Cheiroptera and can find no information on presence or absence of bats in the Galapagos. Did CD see any there?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
William Henry Flower
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
12 Apr 1878
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.534)
Summary:
Bones in goose’s wing perfectly normal. Malformation probably due to want of balance in muscles; analogous to club-foot. Injury of the parent not reproduced in offspring, but may have led to disturbance in functions of nerves which control muscles. Would like further study.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Bartholomew James Sulivan
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[14–20] Apr [1878]
Source of text:
DAR 177: 304
Summary:
Asks whether CD wishes to join other old "Beagles" in supporting an orphan grandson of Jemmy Button.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Henry Potonié
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
16 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 174: 58
Summary:
Points out evolutionary comments by Alexander Braun in his Betrachtungen über die Erscheinung der Verjüngung in der Natur 1849–50.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Federico Delpino
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 162: 156
Summary:
Has reviewed Forms of flowers in Revista Botanica [(1877): 84–106].
CD’s treatment by the French Academy.
Hypothesises that the mollusc-like mantle of Balanus originates from a form of grafting.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Leonard Darwin
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 186: 34
Summary:
Encloses two photos [missing].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Thomas Meehan
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 Apr [1878]
Source of text:
DAR 171: 111
Summary:
Sends CD Dr Wood’s lecture on insectivorous plants.
Had no intention of antagonising CD with his observations on Linum; was anxious to account for its apparently different behaviour.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Johann August Georg Edmund (Edmund) Mojsisovics von Mojsvár
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 171: 226
Summary:
Sends the first part [of Die Dolomit-Riffe von Südtirol und Venetien (1878–9)], which explains the coral reefs of the Triassic in terms of CD’s theory and discusses the imperfection of the geological record.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Édouard Joseph Louis Marie (Édouard) van Beneden
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
29 Apr 1878
Source of text:
DAR 160: 135
Summary:
Asks for CD’s autograph and photograph.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Robert Thomson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
1 May 1878
Source of text:
DAR 178: 118
Summary:
On earthquakes, and the generation of massive sea-waves that accompany them.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Raphael Meldola
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
3 May 1878
Source of text:
DAR 171: 127
Summary:
Will exhibit the photos at the Entomological Society and have them identified.
Fritz Müller’s observations on relative abundance of mimicking and mimicked species.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
4 May 1878
Source of text:
DAR 164: 91
Summary:
Sends Ledum, the nectar of which catches many insects.
Describes his Primula varieties.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Arthur Fairfield Gray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 May [1878]
Source of text:
Nature , 30 May 1878, p. 121
Summary:
Found a live mussel attached to a blue-winged teal’s foot. Had the bird not been shot, the mussel might have been transported miles.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Howard Darwin
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[before 9 May 1878]
Source of text:
DAR 210.2: 66
Summary:
Recounts some figures relating deaf-mutism and consanguineous marriages.
GHD has failed to be elected to the Royal Society.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Bartholomew James Sulivan
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 May 1878
Source of text:
DAR 177: 305
Summary:
Scheme for Jemmy Button’s grandson has fallen through, as he has already been "adopted".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project