From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
[1857?]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 187
Summary:
Will be grateful for facts from Mr Linton on numbers of eggs from goldfinch–canary crosses.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Asa Gray
Date:
1 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (7)
Summary:
Thanks AG for 2d part of "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403].
Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.
Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
4 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 48)
Summary:
Congratulations [on Mrs H’s delivery].
Balanus balanoides positively identified by CD.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Henry Harvey
Date:
7 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
Sheffield City Archives (Gatty family autograph albums X561/1/1)
Summary:
Thanks for information, which is just the amount he wanted.
Will not go to the BAAS meeting in Dublin: the frightful voyage deters him.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Henry Doubleday
Date:
8 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
Dr Heather Whitney (private collection)
Summary:
Thanks for a kind note, and asks not to answer until better.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
17 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 188
Summary:
CD will advise W. F. Daniell on collecting.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
17 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939)
Summary:
Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.
CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
20 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 189
Summary:
CD will advise Daniell not to apply for Royal Society grant.
CD’s experiment: fish fed seeds, which germinated when voided.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[after 20 Jan 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 190
Summary:
CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.
CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.
CD’s method.
Diverging affinities in isolated genera.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Sharpey
Date:
24 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
The Royal Society (MC17: 336)
Summary:
Feels unqualified to offer advice on research by the expedition; he has never attended to natural history of the region. Suggests collecting Carboniferous plants and studying the geographical extension of sea-borne erratic boulders.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
25 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 20 (EH 88206469)
Summary:
Dining with the Lubbocks.
JL’s paper on respiration of insects ["On the distribution of the tracheae in insects", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1860–2): 23–50].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
3 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 104)
Summary:
Thanks THH for his response on glacial movement. Hopes Tyndall will experiment on broken ice and explain how two pieces of ice can freeze together.
Sorry to hear of THH’s row with Richard Owen.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Tyndall
Date:
4 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 261.8: 2 (EH 88205940)
Summary:
CD is "as ignorant of mechanics as a pig", but glaciers have interested him greatly. Hopes to hear that JT’s experiments with ice will explain the freezing together of ice below the freezing point.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Henry Doubleday
Date:
[before 5 Feb 1857]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Summary:
Have all varieties been bred from the same set of eggs so that there can be no doubt they are all the same species?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
6 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
Would welcome eggs of any rumpless fowl so that he can investigate how early in development rudimentary organs are rudimentary.
Has not noticed much difference between skeletons of ducks.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Bernard Peirce Brent
Date:
7 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
Richard Brent (private collection)
Summary:
Sympathises with Brent’s legal difficulties. Declines offer of a cock silk fowl, but accepts offer of a German old fashioned pouter pigeon.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Darwin Fox
Date:
8 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 110)
Summary:
Birth of his sixth son [C. W. Darwin]. It is dreadful "to think of all the sendings to school and the professions afterwards".
CD is not well but has not the courage for water-cure again; trying mineral acids.
Working hard on the book [Natural selection]; is overwhelmed with riches in facts and interested in way facts fall into groups.
To his surprise [Helix pomatia] has withstood 14 days in salt water.
Pigeons’ skins come in from all parts of the world.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:
11 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.145)
Summary:
Discusses a proposed expedition to Australia. Urges collecting and investigating productions of isolated islands. Recommends dredging the sea-bottom.
Mentions keeping Helix pomatia alive in sea-water.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
11 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
CD is sending two pairs of Persian fowl, from Hon. C. Murray.
Thanks WBT for various offers: a drake, a young silk fowl, a rumpless chick.
The German pouters are not old-fashioned ones but fancy birds, probably crosses since they do not breed true.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Brodie Innes
Date:
[after 16 Feb 1857]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.149)
Summary:
Recommends he read passages on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project