This appendix contains a transcription of Darwin's ‘Journal’ for the year 1875. Darwin commenced his ‘Journal’ in August 1838 and continued to maintain it until December 1881. In this small notebook, measuring 3 inches by 4½inches, Darwin recorded the periods he was away from home, the progress and publication of his work, and important events in his family life.

The version published by Sir Gavin de Beer as ‘Darwin's Journal’ (de Beer ed. 1959) was edited before the original ‘Journal’ had been found and relied upon a transcription made by an unknown copyist. The original, now in the Darwin Archive in Cambridge University Library (DAR 158), reveals that the copyist did not clearly distinguish between the various types of entries it contains and that the transcription made was incomplete.

From 1845 onward, Darwin recorded all that pertained to his work (including his illnesses, since these accounted for time lost from work) on the left-hand pages of the ‘Journal’, while the periods he was away from home, and family events, were noted on the right-hand pages. In order to how clearly Darwin's deliberate separation of the types of entries he made in his ‘Journal’, the transcription has the left- and right-hand pages labelled.

All alterations, interlineations, additions, and the use of a different ink or pencil have been noted. In addition, the editors have inserted additional information relevant to Darwin's correspondence throughout this transcription of the ‘Journal’ for 1875. These interpolations are enclosed in square brackets to distinguish them from Darwin's own entries, the source of the information being given in the footnotes.

[Left]

1875

March 29th. finished M.S of Insectivorous & recorrecting Climbing Plants. Began correcting Jan 3d

Began writing, with some observations on April 1st on Insectivorous Plants.

May 23d finished slips of Insectivorous Plants

July 2d Insectivorous Plants published 2700 sold immediately

— 6 Correcting 2d Edit of Var. under Dom

Oct 3d Finished about Var under Dom; but shall have nearly month of more work with proofs &c Therefore I may say I began “On advantages of Crossing” on Sept 1st.—

[Right]

1875

[1 February. John and Ellen Frances Lubbock visited.]

[16 February. Gustavus Frische visited?]

[6 March. Francis Maitland Balfour visited.]

March 31st to Eras9 & Litchfields

[4 April. Visited Thomas Henry Huxley.]

[6 April. To Richard Buckley and Henrietta Emma Litchfield.]

In 1875, Darwin received the following diplomas. Although not letters in the conventional sense, diplomas represent significant communication between Darwin and scientific organisations, and the citations in such diplomas often provide valuable indications of those aspects of Darwin's work that were considered worthy of honour.

In view of this, they have been included here.

From Leiden University 8 February 1875

RECTOR ET SENATUS ACADEMIAE LUGDUNO-BATAVAE

Lectoribus Salutem!

Honorum omnium, tum in re civili, tum in re literaria, hoc imprimis consilium esse, ut qui suis meritis alios antecedant, novam ab illis honoribus commendationem consequantur, acceptaque laude ad praeclara quaeque incitentur, communis omnium existimatio est. Neque tamen eorum honorum praestantiam et dignitatem in ea re unica aut praecipua spectari, recte semper iudicarunt maiores. Inchoantes praemiis incitare praeclarum est et iucundum, sed praeclarius etiam et iucundius honoribus illos ornare, qui sine tali incitamento ad eximiam eruditionis laudem pervenerunt, quoniam inde in ipsos, quibus haec praemiorum decernendorum provincia mandata est, aliquantum redundat ornamenti. Haec autem facultas viros eruditione et doctrina insignes iusto honore decorandi uti Nobis Rectori et Senatui Academiae Lugdano-Batavae semper grata et accepta fuit, ita nunc maxime est cum eo iure uti possimus, ut in virum egregium

Carolum Darwin

in Medicina lauream doctoralem honoris causa conferamus. Neque hoc eo animo agimus, ut viri Doctissimi laudibus aliquid inde accedat incrementi, sed ut nostrae erga eum benevolentiae exsistat documentum. Quapropter Nos, pro potestate Nobis concessa, eumdem

Carolum Darwin

Medicinae Doctorem solenni ritu creavimus et renunciavimus, concessis ei iuribus omnibus et immunitatibus, quae legitime creato Medicinae Doctori vel lege vel consuetudine tribui solent. Cuius rei ut firma sit et testata fides, Diploma hoc publicum, manu Actuarii nostri subscriptum ac maiori Academiae sigillo confirmatum, ei dari curavimus.

LUGDUNI BATAVORUM AD DIEM VIII FEBRUARII MDCCCLXXV.

A Heynsius Acad. Rector | A. E. J. Modderman | J. A. Boogaard | T. Zaaijer M Polano | D Doijer | G D L Huet | Siegmund Rosenstein

[Translation]

THE RECTOR AND SENATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIDEN

To the readers [of this document], greetings!

The general opinion of everyone is that the main purpose of all honours, both in public life and in the field of letters, is that those men who are outstanding by their deserts may acquire fresh esteem from those honours and, by receiving praise, they may be spurred on to further splendid achievements.

From F. J. Cohn 9 January 1875

Schweidnitzer Stadtgraben Nro. 26. | Breslau

9 January 1875

Highly honoured Sir

It is not without embarrassment that I receive your so very kind letter of the first day of the year; if according to the old belief the blessing of the wise brings luck, then the kind wishes that you bestowed upon me must herald a happy year for me. I return your good wishes with all my heart; may the year that has just begun, and many more beyond that, grant you the opportunity to discover new facts, new thoughts for humanity, and to enjoy with undiminished vigour the fruits of your intellectual endeavours, as well as the veneration of your contemporaries.

These days I have been very busy with the preparations for the golden jubilee of my teacher and friend Prof. Goeppert, who, like no other naturalist in our circle, has won the affection of his fellow citizens through his truly humane conduct as an academic teacher. A great number of celebratory gifts, scientific and other, have been prepared for this occasion by friends both local and abroad, and I myself will send you my publication in his honour, on “die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Gattung Volvox”, within the next few days. It is an account of the most remarkable organisation and reproduction of this microscopic “cell state”, and it sheds considerable light on the lowest orders of life. May I also take this opportunity to direct your attention to the fact that in an exceedingly primitive living being, that is scarcely more organised than Bathybius, the building instinct, the capacity to build a shelter for itself from foreign matter, is well developed. I mean the genus Difflugia, a common freshwater species-rich group of the family of Rhizopoda. Their plasma body is not naked like that of Amoeba, nor does it form a corneous or calcareous casing by secretion, like Arcella and the Foraminifera; rather, like the larvae of Phryganeidae, Volvox constructs a casing for itself by gluing together grains of sand, the cell walls of diatoms, and other corpuscles in the water. Such an activity on the lowest level of organisation is mysterious.

Though it has long been printed, my paper on Aldrovanda and Utricularia is still awaiting distribution, because it will appear in a volume whose concluding essay (on bacteria) I have not yet been able to finish.

Darwin began writing Insectivorous plants in April 1874 (CD's ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)); it was a subject that he had worked on, on and off, since 1859. He sent the manuscript to John Murray, together with the corrections to Climbing plants, which was originally planned to be included in Insectivorous plants, at the end of March or beginning of April 1875. Climbing plants was then detached from the planned book and sent back to Darwin. Darwin spent the second half of April and most of May working on the proof-sheets of Insectivorous plants, with the help of his son Francis (letter to J. V. Carus, 19 April [1875]; letter to Francis Darwin, 30 April [1875]; CD's ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). Insectivorous plants was published on 2 July. The first print run was of 1250 copies, but 1700 were sold, so a second printing of 1000 copies was prepared (letter from R. F. Cooke, 3 July 1875). By the time the second printing was ready, all copies were already sold, and another 750 copies were printed (letter from R. F. Cooke, 16 July 1875).

The first edition of Climbing plants was published in 1865 (see Correspondence vol. 13). Darwin sent the paper to the Linnean Society in January 1865 (ibid., letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865]). An abstract was read before the society on 2 February. The full paper was published as a double issue of the Journal of the Linnean Society in June, and a commercial offprint was made by Longmans and Williams & Norgate, as well as a separate set of author's offprints. No presentation list has been found for the first edition. The second edition was the first to appear in hard covers (Freeman 1977).

Darwin had originally planned to publish the second edition of Climbing plants as part of Insectivorous plants (letter to J. V. Carus, 7 February 1875). His ‘Journal’ (Appendix II) indicates that he worked on corrections to Climbing plants from January to March 1875. In April, however, Murray decided that the two books together were too big, and undertook to publish them as a separate volumes (letter from John Murray, 9 April [1875]; letter to J. V. Carus, 19 April [1875]).