The red notebook of Charles Darwin / edited, with an introduction and notes by Sandra Herbert.

  • Charles Darwin
Date:
1980
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: The red notebook of Charles Darwin / edited, with an introduction and notes by Sandra Herbert. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/184 (page 23)
    INTRODUCTION 23 In his later account Darwin recalled being particularly impressed by the similarity between great fossil animals covered with armour [glyptodonts] and living armadillos. See Nora Barlow, ed., The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (London, 1958), p. 118. Richard Owen confirmed Darwin's interpretation of the affinity of the 'glyptodont' and the armadillo in January 1837. See Leonard Wilson, Charles Lyell: The Years to 1841 (New Haven and London, 1972), p. 437. Red Notebook, p. 130 and note 159. It should be stressed that the relationship of the South American and Galápagos mockingbirds is exactly that which Darwin described in his autobiography: During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply impressed.. .by the South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they differ slightly on each island of the group; none of these islands appearing to be very ancient in a geological sense. Nora Barlow, ed.. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (London, 1958), p. 118. Sir Gavin de Beer, ed., 'Darwin's Journal', Bulletin of the British Museum {Natural History) Historical Series, vol. 2 (1959), p. 7, refers to the opening of the first notebook on 'transmutation of Species' in July 1837. This is Notebook B. Darwin filled this notebook sometime in February or March 1838. The exact date is in doubt. Darwin referred in his heading to the notebook (probably added in 1844 when he was arranging his papers) that he completed the notebook at the beginning of February. In fact the notebook must have been completed somewhat later, for p. 235 refers to the issue of the Athenceum of 24 February 1838. Since the notebook ran to another 29 pages of text after p. 235, it was probably completed no earlier than the end of the month. Notebook В is numbered as vol. 121 in the Darwin MSS, Cam¬ bridge University Library, and is published as: Sir Gavin de Beer, ed., 'Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species. Part I', First Notebook (July 1837-February 1838), Bulletin of the British Museum [Natural History) Historical Series, vol. 2 (1960), pp. 2Ъ-1Ъ. A number of the excised pages to Notebook B, and to its successors. Notebooks C, D, and E, were later published as : Sir Gavin de Beer and M. J. Rowlands, 'Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species. Addenda and Corrigenda', Bulletin of the British Museum [NaturalHistory) Historical Series, vol. 2 (1961), pp.185- 200, and Sir Gavin de Beer, M. J. Rowlands, and B. M. Skramovsky, 'Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species, Part VI, Pages Excised by Darwin', Bulletin of the British Museum [Natural History) Historical Series, vol. 3 (1967), pp. 129-176. There is, incidentally, another passage in Notebook В which supports the more general conclusion that Notebook В was the successor to the Red Notebook. On page 153e of Notebook В Darwin referred to the Red Notebook as follows: See R.N. p. 130 speculations range of allied species, p. 127 p. 132. There is no more wonder in extinction of individuals than of species. Clearly the Red Notebook, at least to page 130, was already in existence by the time Darwin made this entry in Notebook B.