More on Darwin's Illness

Colp Ralph Jr , To be an invalid: The illness of Charles Darwin (Chicago, 1977; hereafter: Illness), and “To be an invalid, redux”, Journal of the history of biology, xxxi (1998), 211–40.

“Stability-Lability A dimension of sensitivity to stimuli due to individual variations in autonomic nervous systems. Thus, a labile individual would be expected to react to a wider range of stimuli than a stable person” ( Goldenson Robert M. (ed.), Longman dictionary of psychology and psychiatry (New York and London, 1984), 707).

The new English dictionary (Oxford, 1888), defines “knock up” as: “To overcome or make ill with fatigue; to exhaust, tire out.” Burkhardt Frederick Smith Sydney (eds), The correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge, 1985–; hereafter: Correspondence ), i, 230; ii, 353. While I have previously explained Darwin's “violent fatigues” by the 1980 diagnosis of panic disorder (“To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 211–13), I now believe that, although Darwin sometimes had the symptoms of this disorder, there were many occasions when his symptoms were either too few, or too numerous and too complicated, to fit the diagnosis of the disorder. Thus in this essay, instead of using the panic attack diagnosis, I have explained Darwin's “violent fatigues” as being different states of excitement, and my aims have been to describe the clinical symptoms and possible causations of each of these states.

Correspondence, i, 16, 22; Darwin Francis (ed.), The life and letters of Charles Darwin (New York, 1896; hereafter: Life and letters), i, 143.

Barlow Nora (ed.), The autobiography of Charles Darwin (London, 1958; hereafter: Autobiography), 44. Darwin cited his trembling after killing his first snipe as an example of the nervous system acting on the body independently of the will, or of habit, in his The expression of the emotions in man and animals (London, 1872: Third edn, London, 1998), 69–71, and footnotes on p. 71.

Autobiography , 61–62; John Maurice Herbert to Francis Darwin, 2 June 1882, manuscript letter in the Darwin Archive at the Cambridge University Library, vol. cxii. Darwin mentioned his shivering from hearing “fine music” in his Expression of the emotions (ref. 5), 71.

This account of the 8 October 1829 events of the Birmingham Musical Festival is based on the printed program of the Festival, and a detailed report — “Birmingham Musical Festival” — Published in the Birmingham journal , 10 October 1829, p. 3. The report emphasizes the richness and variety of the operatic events, and Mailbran's “talismanic witchery of … voice and look”, which held the very large audience “spell-bound”. Correspondence, i, 93–94.

Ibid., i, 74, 81, 88, 325; Herbert to Francis Darwin (ref. 6). In a September 1831 letter to his family Darwin mentioned a fluctuating skin disorder of his hands, about which there was no further identifying information (see ref. 31).

Bowlby John , Charles Darwin: A new biography (London, 1990), 99–101. While I have previously criticized Bowlby's explanation ( Colp , “To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 213, fn. 5), I now believe that it is a plausible evaluation of what is known about Darwin's life in the first part of 1829. Autobiography, 68.

Correspondence, i, 155–56, 163, 179, 180, 183; Autobiography, 79–80; Keynes Richard Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin's ‘Beagle’ diary (Cambridge, 1988), 10–13.

Darwin's ‘Beagle’ diary (ref. 10), 17–19; Life and tetters, i, 193, 197–8; Correspondence, i, 206; Darwin Charles , Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world , 2nd edn (London, 1845), 217; Colp , Illness, 11–12; Autobiography, 77, 78.

Darwin's ‘Beagle’ diary (ref. 10), 42–43, 309; Correspondence, i, 247; Life and letters, ii, 237–8.

Colp , “To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), “Appendix: Chagas' disease as a cause of Darwin's illness”, 233–5. Correspondence, i, 503.

Autobiography , 82–84; Correspondence, ii, 51–52, 85, 97; Barrett Paul (eds), Charles Darwin's notebooks, 1836–1844 (London, 1987), 527, 532.

Darwin's notebooks, 1836–1844 (ref. 14), 539. For an insightful account of the influence of this review of Comte on Darwin's formulation of his transmutation theory see: Schweber Silvan S. , “The origin of the Origin revisited”, Journal of the history of biology, x (1977), 229–316, pp. 241–64; Correspondence, ii, 170–1.

Litchfield Henrietta (ed.), Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin: A century of family letters (Cambridge, 1904), i, 458, 461; Emma Darwin's diary for March 1839, in the Darwin Archive at the Cambridge University Library, vol. ccxlii; Correspondence, ii, 227, 234, 433.

Emma Darwin's diary, in Emma Darwin (ref. 16), 4–9 August 1840; Correspondence, ii, 260–1, 269–70, 281, 293, 307, 313, 319, 433; Autobiography, 98.

Correspondence, ii, 269–70, 279, 298, 435; Autobiography , 99, 120; Darwin's notebooks, 1836–1844 (ref. 14), 398. Accounts of the prejudices against evolutionary ideas in early nineteenth-century England are given in Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (London, 1991), 34–35, 41, 220, 221, 223, 236, 239, 251.

Colp , “Chagas' disease” (ref. 13).

Autobiography , 114; Correspondence, ii, 344–5.

Copeland James , A dictionary of practical medicine (London, 1858), i, 1043, 1044; Darwin's Diary of health ratings of his flatulence are quoted in Colp , Illness , 47; Judd John W. , The coming of evolution (Cambridge, 1910), 119; Letter read by Dr. B.W. Richardson, F.R.S. at his lecture on Chas. Darwin, F.R.S. in St. George's Hall, Langham Place, October 22nd, 1882, by [Dr] Edward Lane. This is a pamphlet of seven pages (without publisher or date of publication) that consists of recollections of Darwin by one of his physicians. A copy is in the Darwin Archive at the Cambridge University Library, vol. cxii.

Darwin Charles , “A biographical sketch of an infant”, reprinted in: Barrett Paul (ed.), The collected papers of Charles Darwin (Chicago, 1977), ii, 191–200, p. 194; Emma Darwin's diary, in Emma Darwin (ref. 16), 30 October 1840; Darwin's original notebook on his son William is published in Correspondence, iv, “Appendix III: Darwin's observations on his children”, 410–33, p. 415.

Correspondence, iv, 205; ix, 99; Nash Louisa , “Some memories of Charles Darwin”, The overland monthly, x (1890), 404–8, p. 406.

Colp , Illness , 38–39, 54–56; Autobiography, 115.

Correspondence, vii, 247, 445, 449; viii, 133; Judd , The coming of evolution (ref. 21), 117.

Correspondence, vii, 462; Burkhardt Frederick Smith Sydney (eds), A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin (New York, 1985; hereafter: Calendar): Darwin to Dr E.W. Lane, 23 June 1873, #8946; Colp , Illness , 33–35; Autobiography, 97.

Correspondence, iii, 47, 338. Darwin's 1849–55 Diary of health records many instances of unexplained increases in his flatulence.

Mrs Jane Loring Gray to her sister Susan Loring Jackson, 28 October – 9 November 1868, Gray Herbarium, Harvard University; Correspondence, x, 482.

Hooker Joseph Sir , “Reminiscences of Darwin”, Nature , 22 June 1899, 188; Colp , Illness , 31–32; Correspondence, vii, 377, 398; x, pp. xxii–xxiii; Calendar: Darwin to Fox, 23 March [1863], #4057; Jones Henry Bence to Darwin Emma , 1 October 1867, #5639.

Sauer Gordon C. , “Charles Darwin consults a dermatologist”, to be published in International journal of dermatology. “Atopic eczema” is discussed in: Sauer Gordon C. Hall John C. , Manual of skin diseases, 7th edn (Philadelphia and New York, 1996), 81–87.

In the 1850s, in his Diary of health, Darwin noted that he had skin lesions which he called “rash”, “erythema”, and “eruption”, which occurred for varying durations on unspecified parts of his body, and had no apparent causations. In July 1862 he wrote to Hooker: “my hands are burning as if dipped in hell-fire”, and then appears to have made no further mention of this lesion. (This may be similar to the hand lesion that he complained of in 1831; see ref. 8.) In May 1865 he noted, again without further elaboration, that he had a “fiendish-rash” (location unspecified). Colp , Illness, 47, 84; Correspondence, x, 270.

Colp , Illness , 38, 83–84, 97; Correspondence, vii, 247; Colp , “To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 220, fn. 38.

Correspondence, vii, 462–3. Darwin's nocturnal obsessions have been described as follows: “He was troubled at night by the activity of his thoughts, and would become exhausted by his mind working at some problem which he would willingly have dismissed. At night, too, anything which had vexed him in the day would haunt him, and I think it was then that he suffered if he had not answered some troublesome person's letter”, Darwin Francis , “Reminiscences of my father's every day life”, in Life and letters, i, 102.

Correspondence, viii, 272; Calendar. Darwin to Hooker , 15 May [1863], #4167.

Colp , Illness , 38–43, 71–86; “To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 217–19.

Emma Darwin's diary (ref. 16) for January and February 1865 has entries on “sick” [vomiting], for 24 and 25 January, without identifying the individual. On 27 January, “C [Charles] sick”, and on 7 February, “C. very languid for 3 days past sick”. Calendar: Darwin to Hooker [7 January 1865], #4769; Darwin to Hooker , [2 February] 1865, #4762; Hooker to Darwin , 3 February 1865, #4765; Darwin to Hooker , 9 February [1865], #4769. Hooker had reported in his letter of 3 February that he had eczema, and in his letter of 9 February Darwin wrote: “How I wish I could beg borrow or steal your eczema, intensified a dozen fold; for this alone would do me good.”.

Darwin to Hooker , 9 February [1865], see ref. 36 (published in part in: Darwin Francis Seward A. C. (eds), More letters of Charles Darwin (New York, 1903), i, 260–1). Darwin's anticipation of the sun's heat cooling was influenced by Thomson's William “On the age of the sun's heat”, Macmillan's magazine , March 1862; reprinted in Thomson William Sir , Popular lectures and addresses, i (New York, 1889), 349–68.

Darwin to Wallace Alfred , 28 May [1864], in Marchant James (ed.), Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and reminiscences (New York, 1916), 127–8. Calendar: Darwin to Hooker, 6 April [1865], #4805.

Emma Darwin's diary (ref. 16), for 1865, 22 April through September; De Beer Gavin Sir (ed.), Darwin's journal (London, 1959), 17.

Calendar: Darwin to Huxley , 27 May [1865], #4837; Huxley to Darwin , 29 May 1865, #4838; Darwin to Huxley , 30 May [1865], #4841; Huxley to Darwin , 1 June 1865, #4845; Darwin to Huxley , 12 July [1865], #4870; Darwin to Huxley , [after 12 July 1865], #4872; Huxley to Darwin , 16 July 1865, #4875. Colp Colp , Illness, 84–85.

While I have previously minimized the impact of the anniversary of Annie's death and FitzRoy's suicide as primary causes for Darwin's 1865 illness (“To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 219–20, fn. 34), I now think that these two events could have impacted as secondary causes, along with Darwin's other depressed feelings.

Although Darwin has left no record of his reaction to the death of John William Lubbock he may have felt this death as the loss of a close acquaintance of over twenty years, who had aided him in the building of his 1846 Down sandwalk and his 1863 hothouse, and with whom he had worked in the 1850s to improve the schools in the village of Downe (Correspondence, iii, 276–77; v, 154, 161–2, 189, 253–4, 257–8; Calendar: Darwin to John William Lubbock, [January 1863], #3893). Darwin's feelings of loss may have been enhanced by the closeness of his friendship for John William's son, John who (according to the latter's biographer) “deeply felt” the death of his father ( Hutchinson Horace G. , Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury (London, 1914), i, 41–42, 48–50, 67, 148).

Calendar: Darwin to Hooker , 28 September 1865, #4901, published in part in Life and letters, ii, 223–4.

Calendar, Darwin to Hooker , 1 June [1865], #4846.

Darwin's Account Book for July, August and September 1865 (cited for me by Frederick Burkhardt); Emma Darwin's diary (ref. 16), for August 1865; Calendar: Darwin to Hooker , [28 September 1865], #4901; Darwin's journal (ref. 39), 17.

A century of family letters (ref. 16), ii, 210; Autobiography, 43. Emma's diary (ref. 16) shows that when Darwin was severely ill and only seeing members of his family, these included Catherine and Susan.

Colp , Illness , 87–88; “To be an invalid, redux” (ref. 1), 220, fn. 38 (cf. ref. 32).

Autobiography, 91–92, 138; Darwin to Hooker , 17 June [1868], Life and Letters, ii, 273–4; Nash , “Some memories of Charles Darwin” (ref. 23), 406.

Darwin to his son George, 24 January [1868], A century of family letters (ref. 16), ii, 216; Life and letters, ii, 377–8; Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes; with minutes of evidence and appendix (London, 1876), 3 November 1875, 233–4.

Darwin George , “My recollection of my father”, 12 May 1882, Darwin archive at the Cambridge University Library, vol. cxii; Darwin Francis , “Reminiscences of my father's everyday life”, Life and letters, i, 87–136, p. 101.

Darwin Francis , ibid. , 90; Forster Laura to Jebb William , January 1883, Darwin archive at the Cambridge University Library, vol cxii.

Darwin Francis , op. cit. (ref. 44), 105–6; Darwin to Hooker , 25 February [1875], in Life and letters, ii, 375; Correspondence, vi, 344.