American Philosophical Society Museum

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Dialogues with Darwin: An Exhibition of Historical Documents and Contemporary Art

From Darwin's Journeys: The Making of a Naturalist

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Darwin to Lyell, 2 Sept. 1849

In this letter to Charles Lyell, Darwin expressed excitement over his latest discovery—that male barnacles live inside the shells of females as “little husbands.” This finding provided Darwin with evidence of how a change in the means of reproduction could have occurred in barnacles over millions of years. Convinced that they evolved from hermaphrodites into species with separate male and female sexes, Darwin was now armed with even more empirical evidence for the evolution of species.

Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Letter to Charles Lyell, September 2, 1849.

Read the transcript of this letter.

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