Book review: ‘The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 29 • 1881’

The twenty-ninth volume of Charles Darwin’s correspondence comprises all the surviving letters both from and to Darwin from the year 1881.

During this year, Darwin continued to respond to feedback about his book The Power of Movement in Plants, and completed and published his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms. Several times, he expressed sentiments about feeling his age, which were perhaps exacerbated by the death of his beloved brother, Erasmus, in August. On a happier note, the year also saw the arrival of Charles and Emma Darwin’s second grandchild, also named Erasmus in honour of the child’s recently deceased great uncle.

Other highlights from Darwin’s 1881 correspondence include:

• Alfred Russel Wallace continuing an amicable disagreement with Darwin on plants migrating between mountain tops, to which Darwin replies, “How lamentable it is that two men shd take such widely different views, with the same facts before them; but this seems to be almost regularly our case, & much do I regret it.” Darwin subsequently writes to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker: “Though I differ in much from Wallace, his Island Life seems to me a wonderful book.”
• Prime Minister William Gladstone informing Darwin that, further to Darwin’s representations, he has decided to award Alfred Russel Wallace a civil pension of £200 p.a. After Darwin breaks the news to Wallace, Wallace sends thanks, then further thanks on learning the initiative had been primarily Darwin’s.
• Thomas Henry Huxley on his new job as Fisheries Inspector.
• Darwin placing an order for a new product named Vaseline, and bear grease for his beard.
• Darwin asking Ernst Haeckel to speak with Carl Zeiss to ensure he provides good quality microscope lenses for Darwin’s son Francis.
• Darwin’s benefactor Anthony Rich informing him he intends to bequeath his Worthing home to Thomas Henry Huxley.
• Darwin’s sceptical reply to a letter (written in German) suggesting large birds might be trained to tow aircraft.
• George John Romanes describing his plan to test cats’ homing instincts by abandoning them in the wilds! (He subsequently reports none of the cats has returned home.)
• Darwin’s seeking Romanes’ advice on a definition of the term ‘intelligence’ that might be used to assess that of earthworms. Romanes sends a detailed response.
• Darwin’s admitting to his old HMS Beagle shipmate Bartholomew James Sulivan, “We are growing very old men—or at least I feel so.” To another correspondent, he states, “I shall use what little strength is left me for more confined & easy subjects.”
• Darwin making clear his views on vivisection to a Swedish correspondent.
• An American religious crank sending Darwin a pamphlet equating the universal force of magnetism with the human soul.
• Prime Minister William Gladstone suggesting Darwin become a trustee of the British Museum. (Predictably, Darwin declines.)
• Darwin on his father’s reminiscences of Benjamin Franklin. His American correspondent subsequently sends an anecdote concerning Darwin’s paternal grandfather (Erasmus Darwin) and Benjamin Franklin.
• Darwin regretting removing a famous, much misunderstood/misrepresented, hypothetical passage from On the Origin of Species.
• Darwin sending his autograph to a young autograph hunter saying, “My [childhood] collections led me to turn to Science, & I hope that it may have the same effect on you, for there is no greater satisfaction as I know by experience than to add, however little, to the general stock of knowledge.”
• George John Romanes suggesting Thomas Henry Huxley’s son-in-law John Collier should be chosen as artist for a planned portrait of Darwin for the Linnean Society. (Darwin agrees.)
• Darwin being invited to a lunch being attended by the Prince of Wales. (He does not enjoy the experience.)
• Darwin describing to his son the dreadful weather in the Lake District, signing off, “Your affectionate & dismal Father.”
• Darwin complaining to Joseph Dalton Hooker, “I have not the heart or strength at my age to begin any investigation, lasting years, which is the only thing, which I enjoy, & I have no little jobs which I can do.— So I must look forward to Down grave-yard, as the sweetest place on this earth.—“
• Following correspondence regarding the possibility of creating of artificial diamonds, Darwin hypothesising to his son, “Might not organisms have lived on our globe when it was red hot & pressed by an atmosphere a 100,000 heavier than our present one?!!!”
• Darwin describing seeing a new bird in the Lake District: “I have seen quite close today a British bird new to me, the Pied Flycatcher, & a very conspicuous & pretty bird it is.”
• Darwin sending some thoughts to Arabella Burton Buckley on her draft biography of Charles Lyell for the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Darwin telling Alfred Russel Wallace, “What I shall do with my few remaining years of life I can hardly tell. I have everything to make me happy & contented, but life has become very wearysome to me.”
• Darwin’s sending feedback to Joseph Dalton Hooker‘ about his planned presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science on the history of the study of the geographical distribution of species. Darwin agrees with Hooker on the major contribution made by Alexander von Humboldt. He provides plenty of advice and details for Hooker’s address.
• Darwin complaining”, Everything which I read now soon goes out of my head…”
• Following the death of Darwin’s brother, Erasmus, Joseph Dalton Hooker recalling his first meeting with Darwin at Erasmus’s house. In his reply, Darwin pays tribute to his late brother, and also recalls his first meeting with Hooker.
• Darwin sending a copy of Alfred Russel Wallace’s book The Geographical Distribution of Animals to a young scientist who can’t afford to buy his own copy.
• Darwin’s sceptical reply to a correspondent who tells of a frog reportedly found inside coal.
• Darwin updating his will to leave £1,000 each to Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley.
• Darwin writing to his neighbour John Lubbock on the great advances made in geology over the last 50 years.
• Darwin writing to his sister about having almost no memory of their mother, and on the miniature of her he has inherited from their late brother.
• Darwin’s sceptical response to a report of a chicken startled by an alarm clock that supposedly subsequently laid eggs with clock-face markings on them.
• Darwin stating, “I always admire & sometimes envy men, like Huxley, whose minds seem crammed with new ideas, which they can pour out on the shortest notice. But I am not one of those fortunate individuals.”
• The artist of the famous Punch caricature depicting Darwin among earthworms sending Darwin a proof copy.
• Having read Darwin’s book on earthworms, Alfred Russel Wallace admitting he has hitherto looked on earthworms as a nuisance, and Joseph Dalton Hooker confessing, “I must own I had always looked on worms as amongst the most helpless & unintelligent members of the creation; & am amazed to find that they have a domestic life & public duties! I shall now respect them, even in our garden pots; & regard them as something better than food for fishes.”
• Darwin observing, “With respect to the large arctic mammals, anyone might maintain that large size was an advantage in retaining warmth, from the relatively small superficies, compared with smaller mammals. The number of whales, walrusses narwhals in the artic seas & of huge seals in the antarctic seas, may possibly be thus explained.”
• Darwin stating, “I hate controversy, & it wastes much time, at least with a man who like myself can work for only a short time in a day.”
• Darwin’s son George expressing astonishment at “a piece of the very best acting [in a play] I ever saw; everyone is quite astounded at a man acting a woman so well & he has the extra advantage of being a great beauty & not a more masculine voice than one sometimes hears in a woman.”
• Darwin expressing a strong wish to contribute to a legal fund for a vivisectionist who is being prosecuted.
• Darwin being invited to contribute a paper on the current state of science for the Archbishop of Canterbury’s newly formed science group. (Darwin declines.)
• Darwin admitting he formerly took an erroneous view of the nature and capabilities of Fuegians.
• A letter from someone claiming to possess the original manuscript of an unpublished poem entitled Materialism by Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin. (According to an annotation made on the letter by Darwin’s son Francis, the letter was seen as an attempted swindle.)
• Darwin’s humorous response to the latest autograph hunter.
• Darwin’s old HMS Beagle shipmate Bartholomew James Sulivan writing about live Fuegians being exhibited at a German zoo. He is trying to get them sent home.
• Darwin observing, “I have been occasionally well abused; but it has annoyed me hardly at all, as I am conscious of having endeavoured to discover the truth to the best of my ability & after long-continued work.”
• Darwin admitting he suspects he was in error when he said beating the ground does not summon earthworms.
• Darwin reporting having been experiencing heart pains.
• Darwin on the phenomenon of naming too many new species: “I quite agree with you that it is a serious evil to load our books with new names. Nevertheless the description, as a variety, of any constant difference, however small, between two forms, seems to me highly advisable.”

As with all the volumes in this series, this book is really aimed at people with a serious interest in Charles Darwin. As with all the other volumes, every letter is annotated with meticulously researched footnotes explaining its context and references. The series as a whole is a masterpiece of scholarship.