From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Leonard Horner
Date:
[1856–7]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Summary:
Thanks LH for memorandum [missing] by K. R. Lepsius.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
[1856]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.448 (C: RS:HS 23.185)
Summary:
Discusses AS's new book [Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks...]. Wishes to have the completed work sent to him and sends congratulations on its completion. JH's health is improving.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
William Stanley Jevons
Date:
[1856 or later?]
Source of text:
RS:HS 25.14.16
Summary:
Not aware of any experiments to ascertain the amount of personal error in the estimate of time of a star transit. JH then comments on monetary matters including the value and gold equivalence of sovereigns issued by the Mint.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Unidentified
Date:
[1856 or later]
Source of text:
DMC 695A.885.13
Summary:
A note indicating JH's willingness to say a few words.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Professor Charles Cardale Babington
Date:
?-?-1856?
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/1 f.134, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
1 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
Will attend the Philoperisteron [pigeon fanciers’ club] if he possibly can.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Maurice Herbert
Date:
2 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.121)
Summary:
Thanks JMH for book of poems.
Recalls early days together. He cannot visit due to health.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Davy
Date:
3 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
David Schulson (dealer) (Catalogue 61, 1991)
Summary:
Delighted to hear that JD’s research is continuing. CD has heard that JD’s paper will at last be published. He is flattered by the form [as a letter addressed to CD] of communication. [See 1651a and 1819a, published in Phil. Trans. R. S. 146 (1856): 21–9 and Proc. R. S. London 8 (1856–7): 27–33.]
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Darwin Fox
Date:
3 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 86)
Summary:
Thanks WDF for his help and reports on progress in "the Cock and Hen line of business". Has written to every quarter of the world for skins of poultry and pigeons.
As for seeds, Hooker and Bentham obstinately refuse to believe they can live even a few years in the ground.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Stevens Henslow
Date:
3 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 93: A106–A107
Summary:
Thanks for JSH’s letter, which has been of real use.
Complains of the trouble caused by reports to Government required of Benefit Clubs.
Interested in case of Canada geese with seed in crop, because means of distribution is now a great hobby.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Tyndall
To:
George Gabriel Stokes
Date:
4th January-1856
Source of text:
MS RR/3/157, RS
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Tyndall Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau
Date:
4 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.144)
Summary:
The information correspondent hopes to get from M.-J.-P. Flourens will be valuable.
CD is keeping all varieties of pigeons, poultry, ducks, etc. for his work on variation.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Augustus De Morgan
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[7 January 1856]
Source of text:
RS:HS 6.280
Summary:
Wishing him well for the new year. Hears JH has visited the East India College. Sends a theorem. H. P. Brougham (Baron Brougham and Vaux) amuses himself by finding the laws of central force for curves. Has been finding information on a nephew of Isaac Newton. George Stanhope (6th Earl of Chesterfield) and T. A. W. Parker (9th Earl of Macclesfield) were pupils of Abraham De Moivre.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Charles Crump
To:
Edward Blyth
Date:
[before 8 Jan 1856]
Source of text:
DAR 98: A114–A116
Summary:
Reports upon a breed of wild cattle found in southern India. The herd is reputedly descended from a wild, red bull that mated with tame cows.
[This memorandum was forwarded to CD enclosed with 1817.]
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Edward Blyth
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 98: A110–13, A117–21
Summary:
Encloses "notes for Mr. D" [see 1818] and a memorandum on the wild cattle of southern India [see 1819].
Breeds of silky fowl of China and Malaya. Black-skinned fowl.
Doubts any breed of canary has siskin blood; all remain true to their type.
Wild canary and finch hybrids.
Hybrids between one- and two-humped camels.
Does not regard zebra markings on asses as an indication of interbreeding but as one of the many instances of markings in the young which more or less disappear in the adult.
Crossing of Coracias species at the edges of their ranges.
Regional variations and intergrading between species of pigeons.
Regards the differences in Treron as specific [see Natural selection, p. 115 n. 1].
Gives other instances of representative species or races differing only in certain details of colouring.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
John Davy
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 Jan 1856
Source of text:
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 8 (1856–7): 27–33
Summary:
On the vitality of the ova of the Salmonidae at different stages of development.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Thomas Spring-Rice
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[11 January 1856]
Source of text:
TxU:H/M-0376; Reel 1087
Summary:
TS will be chairman of Decimal Coinage commission. Do majority of bankers queried by JH favor this decimal system? Death of William Whewell's wife, Cordelia, sister-in-law of TS.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Edward Gray
Date:
14 Jan [1856]
Source of text:
British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1490, 1488)
Summary:
Requests that JEG secure the assistance of Samuel Birch in regard to information about varieties of domesticated animals and plants in China. Encloses memorandum.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
James Bevington
To:
John Tyndall
Date:
14th. January 1856.
Source of text:
MS JT/1/152, RI
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Tyndall Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[14 Jan 1856]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 6 (EH 88206455)
Summary:
Inquires about a Mr Smith, who might prove helpful "in the domestic bird line".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project