From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Mary Holland
Date:
[Apr 1860]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Summary:
Asks for information about birds eating berries of a mountain-ash.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
François Jules Pictet de la Rive
Date:
1 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Bibliothèque de Genève (MS. fr. 1651, ff. 10–11)
Summary:
Thanks FJP for his review which CD has received and read. There have been many reviews in England opposed to CD but FJP’s is "the single one which seems … perfectly fair & just & candid". The only difference between them is that CD "attaches much more weight to the explanation of facts, & somewhat less weight to the difficulties" than FJP. "I always jump at any theory which groups & explains facts".
Would be proud to send FJP a copy of his Journal of researches.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
George Robert Waterhouse
Date:
1 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections MSS DAR 7)
Summary:
Has no drone cells in collection of honeycombs. Discusses construction of cells by bees and ability of bees to judge distances in constructing comb.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Williams & Norgate
Date:
1 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Swiss National Library, Helvetic Archives (SLA-Rhyn-06-d/02)
Summary:
Thanks for information about French dictionaries.
Asks that Westminster Review [of Apr 1860] be sent.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Stevens Henslow
Date:
2 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 93: A65–6
Summary:
Reminds JSH to send "sketch & account of the wasp’s comb in transitional state from horizontal to vertical, & the country whence procured".
Asks for information on spread of Anacharis [Elodea].
Sedgwick [in criticism of Origin] was not very fair, but Murray says it is splendid for selling copies to "the unfortunate students".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Asa Gray
Date:
3 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (47)
Summary:
Thinks AG’s review [of Origin] will aid much in making people think about subject.
Has been savagely and unfairly reviewed by Adam Sedgwick in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860],
but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] a very fair one.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Murray
Date:
4 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 f. 76)
Summary:
Has not yet read Huxley’s review of Origin in Westminster Review [Apr 1860].
F. J. Pictet has published an excellent review, though opposed to CD, in Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève [Mar 1860].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Frederick Smith
Date:
4 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
H. R. Glennie (private collection)
Summary:
Variations in sizes of bees’ cells.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
6 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 261.6: 5 (EH 88205922)
Summary:
Comments enthusiastically on WBC’s review ["The theory of development in nature", Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Maxwell Tylden Masters
Date:
7 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.
Summary:
Much interested in MTM’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On the relation between the abnormal and normal formations in plants", Notes Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1860): 223–7].
Asks for information about crossing of varieties of peas. Describes his own experimental results: "the offspring out of the same pod, instead of being intermediate, was very nearly like the two pure parents; yet in one, there was a trace of the cross & the next generation showed still more plainly their mongrel origins".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Albert Way
Date:
7 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.205)
Summary:
Asks AW about archaeological evidence concerning the first appearance of dray horses.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Bookseller.
Date:
9 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Uppsala University Library: Manuscripts and Music (Waller MS alb-54:068)
Summary:
Orders a copy of Matthew 1831 from a bookseller.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
9 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 111)
Summary:
Owen on the branchiae of Balanidae.
The Edinburgh Review article on the Origin [by Owen, 111 (1860): 487–532] full of misrepresentations, with a brutal attack on THH.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Marshall
Date:
9 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 146: 336
Summary:
Asks for information about Anacharis.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Murray
Date:
9 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 ff.90–91)
Summary:
Asks that a copy of Origin [1860] be sent to R. A. von Kölliker.
A venomous review "manifestly by Owen" has appeared in Edinburgh Review.
Sedgwick has been fierce in Spectator, but fair and open.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Heinrich Georg Bronn
Date:
10 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
DAR 143: 150
Summary:
Has received copies of translation of Origin. Thanks HGB for undertaking it.
Comments on review by F. J. Pictet ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce, par Charles Darwin: analyse et critique",Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:
10 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.206)
Summary:
W. B. Carpenter’s review of Origin [in Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404] "very good and well balanced, but not brilliant".
"There is a brilliant review by Huxley" [Westminster Rev. 17 (1860): 541–70].
Asa Gray sends good case of selection producing black pigs in Virginia.
Great blow to CD that CL cannot admit potency of natural selection.
Owen’s review in Edinburgh Review [111 (1860): 487–532] "extremely malignant, clever".
Patrick Matthew has published extract in Gardeners’ Chronicle [7 Apr 1860] from his Naval timber and arboriculture [1831], a complete but not developed anticipation of natural selection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Williams & Norgate
Date:
10 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Alexander Autographs (dealers) (20 February 2005, Lot 273)
Summary:
Asks Williams & Norgate to forward one copy of the German translation of Origin (Bronn trans. 1860) to Jan van der Hoeven, and another to Jacob Moleschott.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
11 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 113)
Summary:
On THH’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On species and races, and their origin", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 195–200]. Praises eloquence of his conclusion.
Has sent first part of German translation of Origin to THH.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Heinrich Georg Bronn
Date:
13 Apr [1860]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.207)
Summary:
Thanks HGB for sending copies of his Untersuchungen [1858] and Morphologische Studien [1858] and for a portrait.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project