Snark hunting with Charles Darwin
Folder: The Hunting of the Snark
See also: independent.academia.edu/GoetzKluge/Posts/5725223
If -- and the thing is wildly possible -- the charge of writing nonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem, it would be based, I [Lewis Carroll] feel convinced, on the line (in p.4) “Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.” In view of this painful possibility, I will not (as I might) a…
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An Expedition Team
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Darwin did use tuning forks for experiments with spiders.
201 · · You may seek it with thimbles--and seek it with care;
202· · · · You may hunt it with forks and hope;
203· · You may threaten its life with a railway-share ;
204· · · · You may charm it with smiles and soap --
I think that The Hunting of the Snark alludes to many events in the Victorian era. Among those, Charles Darwins Beagle voyage, his discoveries and the resulting challenge to religious beliefs surely were important issues to the Reverend Dodgson (aka. Lewis Carroll) and his Snark illustrator, Henry Holiday.
The image:
Illustration by Henry Holiday to the chapter The Hunting in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
Inset: Charles Darwin , photo probably by Messrs. Maull and Fox, around 1854, see also commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_aged_51.jpg .
Inset in inset: Charles Darwin's "I think" sketch of the evolutionary tree ( about July 1837 , 1st notebook 1837-1838, page 36) compared to a "weed" in the lower left corner of Holiday's illustration. I learned, that Darwin did not keep his notebook secret after the publication of On the Origin of Species , but I do not know of any presentation of his sketch before 1876. Thus, the resemblance between the "weed" and Darwin's evolutionary tree sketch may be purely incidental.
Remarks:
(1) I also left a copy here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CharlesDarwinHuntingSnark.jpg , License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
(2) The person on the right side in Holiday's illustration is "The Banker". This figure has different faces in different illustrations.
(3) Henry Holiday may have been inspired by Darwin's "tree of life" sketch when he did his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . However, the problem with my guess is, that (as far as I know) the sketch still may not have been known to the public when Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday worked on The Hunting of the Snark .
The Bellman and Charles Darwin
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1876 and around 1870.
If it was for this pairing only, I would not use this side-by-side image as an example for allusions to Charles Darwin (19th century portrait) in Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark . Also, too obvious allusions to Darwin would have narrowed the interpretation space which Carroll wanted to leave to his readers. However, there is more .
Darwin portrait found in What Mr Darwin Saw in His Voyage Round the World in the Ship ‘Beagle’ , 1879.
»Extracts paraphrased by W.P. Garrison from Darwin’s Beagle diaries.
Son of a US abolitionist, W.P. Garrison published this work anonymously. His stated aim was to 'interest children in the study of natural history, and physical and political geography'. Garrison selected extracts from Darwin's original diaries, reorganising material thematically into four parts: 'Animals', 'Man' (strange peoples and customs, particularly of savage and barbarous life), 'Geography' (physical features of the countries visited by Mr Darwin) and 'Nature' (account of the grandeur of terrestrial processes).«
Source: University of Cambridge > Department of History and Philosophy of Science > Whipple Library > Rare book collections > Online exhibitions
Crossing the Line
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"A sailing ship: the brig H. M. S. Beagle . It is commanded by the bigoted Captain Robert Fitz Roy. The year is 1831. On board, a brain explosion. With a delay of about two centuries of Physics, it is shattered by the the Galileo of Biology. The following stages: In 1838 the theory of natural selection was completed. In 1859 comes the Origin of Species.
· · Fade-over.
· · When it returns into the scene, it is still a ship. A sailing ship, of course. The Beagle took to the sea again? The year is 1874: Darwin is still alive, well and chatty." (Adriano Orefice)
Images:
[left]: Illustration "He had wholly forgotten his name" by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876)
[right]: "Crossing the Line" (1839), redrawn (2013) based on a print by Thomas Landseer, after Augustus Earle. The print you will find in Robert Fitz-Roy's Narrative of the surveying voyages of HMS Adventure and Beagle , Vol II (1839).
This comparison is related to my assumption that Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark at least partially has been inspired by Charles Darwin's explorational Beagle voyage.
The Boojum sitting on some of the 42 boxes
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1875: Proposal for a depicton of a Boojum turned Snark by Henry Holiday (and redrawn by me) to Lewis Carroll. However, Carroll (Dodgson) preferred to leave it to the imagination of his readers (and to the imagination of the Barrister ) how the Snark may look like.
The little vanishig guy is The Baker . Does the Boojum sit on some of the Baker's 42 boxes?
It is said that Carroll "suppressed" Holiday's Boojum, but I think that between these two gentlemen that is not the right term.
"[...] One of the first three [illustrations] I had to do was the disappearance of the Baker , and I not unnatuarally invented a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so. I assented, of course, though reluctant to dismiss what I am still confident is an accurate representation. I hope that some future Darwin in a new Beagle will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing. [...]"
(Source: Henry Holiday (1898): The Snark's Significance )
Did Henry Holiday's Boojum turned Snark sit on the Baker's boxes?
From a sketch by H. Holiday and a painting by J. E. Millais:
Beagle and Beagle?
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[left]: HMS Beagle Among Porpoises (183X) by Robert Taylor Pritchett.
[right]: A vessel in an illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
The shape of the vessels is pretty generic, but William Snow Harris' new lightning conductors were a special feature of the HMS Beagle.
Snark Hunting with the HMS Beagle
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Assembled scans from original 19th century sources:
• Illustration by H. Holiday to The Hunting of the Snark, 1876
• Inlay: Print based on a drawing (1834-04-16) by Conrad Martens , etching published in: Francis Darwin, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin , p. 160, 1888. Conrad Martens' drawing has been engraved by T. Landseer and published in the year 1838 by H. Colburn in The Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Adventure and Beagle .
h12
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Illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876.
Why should a peaceful activity like lace-making (see below or lines #277 to #280 of the Snark ) have "proved an infringement of right"? This image may have been used to symbolize dissection in context with C. L. Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll's) involvement in the vivisection debate .
053 · · The last of the crew needs especial remark,
054· · · · Though he looked an incredible dunce:
055· · He had just one idea--but, that one being "Snark,"
056· · · · The good Bellman engaged him at once.
057· · He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,
058· · · · When the ship had been sailing a week,
059· · He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,
060· · · · And was almost too frightened to speak:
061· · But at length he explained, in a tremulous tone,
062· · · · There was only one Beaver on board;
063· · And that was a tame one he had of his own,
064· · · · Whose death would be deeply deplored.
065· · The Beaver, who happened to hear the remark,
066· · · · Protested, with tears in its eyes,
067· · That not even the rapture of hunting the Snark
068· · · · Could atone for that dismal surprise!
069· · It strongly advised that the Butcher should be
070· · · · Conveyed in a separate ship:
071· · But the Bellman declared that would never agree
072· · · · With the plans he had made for the trip:
073· · Navigation was always a difficult art,
074· · · · Though with only one ship and one bell:
075· · And he feared he must really decline, for his part,
076· · · · Undertaking another as well.
077· · The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure
078· · · · A second-hand dagger-proof coat--
079· · So the Baker advised it-- and next, to insure
080· · · · Its life in some Office of note:
081· · This the Banker suggested, and offered for hire
082· · · · (On moderate terms), or for sale,
083· · Two excellent Policies, one Against Fire,
084· · · · And one Against Damage From Hail.
085· · Yet still, ever after that sorrowful day,
086· · · · Whenever the Butcher was by,
087· · The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,
088· · · · And appeared unaccountably shy.
And if that was not enough:
273 · · The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade--
274 · · · · Each working the grindstone in turn:
275 · · But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed
276 · · · · No interest in the concern:
277 · · Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,
278 · · · · And vainly proceeded to cite
279 · · A number of cases, in which making laces
280 · · · · Had been proved an infringement of right .
421 · · But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain
422 · · · · That the Beaver's lace-making was wrong,
423 · · Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain
424 · · · · That his fancy had dwelt on so long.
(from Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876)
Links:
o Charles Darwin: www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/album/370833
o Eva Amsen, Alice's Adventures in Animal Experimentation , 2007-09-19, easternblot.net/2007/09/19/alices_adventures_in_animal_experimentation
o Lewis Carroll, Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection , Fortnightly Review [London: 1865-1934] 23 (1875 Jun): 847-854; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003.
www.animalrightshistory.org/animal-rights-quotes/literatu...
o On the usage of lace-needles with microscopes see pg. 391 in Darwin, C. R. 1849, On the use of the microscope on board ship , in Owen, R., Zoology. In Herschel, J. F. W. ed., A manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy, and adapted for travellers in general. London: John Murray, pp. 389-395.
"Circular discs of fine-textured cork, of the size of the saucers (with one or two circular springs of steel-wire to keep the cork at the bottom of the water), serve for fixing objects to be dissected by direct instead of transmitted light. For this end short fine pins and lace-needles should be procured; wherever it is possible, the animal ought to be fixed to the cork under water."
darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&i...
o Jed Mayer: The vivisection of the Snark , 2009-06-22: Victorian Poetry (Amazon etext in HTML)
www.amazon.com/vivisection-Snark-fictional-animal-Report/...
o Rod Preece: Darwinism, Christianity, and the Great Vivisection Debate , Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 64, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 399-419
www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3654233
o Letters on vivisection from/to Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=letters&secondKeyword=vivisection&sort=date&itemsPerPage=25¤tPage=1&filterOperand=AND
o People related to vivisection and Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=people&keyword=vivisection&sort=title&itemsPerPage=25¤tPage=1&filterOperand=AND
Darwin's Study and the Baker's Uncle
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This is about a possible allusion by Alfred Parsons to Henry Holiday.
[left]: The Study at Down (from the The Century illustrated monthly magazine , v.25 1882-1883, p. 420 , Indiana University Library)
Illustration from a painting (1882, from a photo) by Alfred Parsons
Engraver: J. Tynan
(Scan from original 19th century source:
Francis Darwin: The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin , Vol. 1, 1888, p. 101)
[right]: illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876
The comparison of these two images started in June 2010. Alfred Parsons may have alluded to Henry Holiday's illustration. I am not so sure about that, but if Parson played Holiday's game with Holiday's illustration, then Parsons must have manipulated the reality of Darwin's study a bit.
The Uncle over Darwin's Fireplace
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Segments from
[left, vertically stretched]: The top of the fireplace in Alfred Parsons' depiction (1882) of Charles Darwin's study in Downe
[right]: an illustration (1876, printed 1911) by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark
Rescaleable formats for printing posters: PDF (7.7 MB) and SVGZ (8.3 MB).
(The segment of Alfred Parsons' depiction of Charles Darwin's new study is used here with permission by Dr. John van Wyhe, darwin-online.org.uk/ . Henry Holiday's illustration has been scanned from a 1911 book.)
Darwin's Fireplace and the Baker's Dear Uncle
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Segments from
• [left, vertically stretched]: Photo (before 1882) of the top of the fireplace in Charles Darwin's study
• [center, vertically stretched]: from Alfred Parsons' depiction (1882) of Charles Darwin's study in Down
• [right]: an illustration (1876) by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark
This is not one of Henry Holiday's allusions. Here Alfred Parsons perhaps alluded to Holiday's illustration. Parsons did not simply copy a photo, he also rearranged the fire place decoration a bit.
A little Zoo in Charles Darwin's Study
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Alfred Parsons' depiction of Charles Darwin's Study in Downe, drawn from a photo and engraved by J. Tynan, signed in August 1882, published in an article by Alfred R. Wallace in the Century Magazine ( The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine ), Volume 25, Nov. 1882 to April 1883. (Alfred Parsons' depiction of Charles Darwin's new study is used here with permission by Dr. John van Wyhe, darwin-online.org.uk/ ).
The little zoo, which Parsons (and Tynan) hid in his illustration, is highlighted by coloring the animals. Even when depicting real objects, artist can "play" with that reality.
But perhaps I also just fell victim to zoomorphism.
Beagle Laid Ashore
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This ship played an important role in the history of science .
Print based on a drawing by Conrad Martens , etching published in: Francis Darwin, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin , p. 160, 1888. Conrad Martens' drawing has been engraved by Thomas Landseer and published in the year 1838 by H. Colburn in The Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Adventure and Beagle .
Date: 1834-04-16
Location: Tierra del Fuego, Santa Cruz river, 50.1125°S and 68.3917°W
maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=5...
That is the position calculated by Captain Robert FitzRoy (who had no GPS). The error was small. The drawing shows that the site must have been a river bank (50.13°S, 68.39°W?) near the calculated position.
See also:
darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F10.2&vi...
thebeagleproject.blogspot.com/2009/04/keel-overhauled-175...
beagleproject.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/two-feet-from-sink...
Vector graphics (slightly snarked version):
www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/19726411
commons.wikimedia.org: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TheBeagleLaidAshore.png
Beagle Laid Ashore (2)
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Vector graphics:
PDF: www.academia.edu/9919476/The_HMS_Beagle
PDF: www.snrk.de/BeagleLaidAshoreSnarked.pdf
SVG: www.snrk.de/BeagleLaidAshoreSnarked.svg.7z
Beagle Landing
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Assembled scans from original 19th century sources:
• Print The Beagle Laid Ashore based on a drawing (1834-04-16) by Conrad Martens , etching published in: Francis Darwin, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin , p. 160, 1888. Conrad Martens' drawing has been engraved by T. Landseer and published in the year 1838 by H. Colburn in The Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Adventure and Beagle .
• Bellman , Banker and Beaver from illustrations by H. Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876
Adriano Orefice: La cerca dello Squallo
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Il Covile, anno XII NO690, 2012-03-29,
ISSN 2279-6924
www.ilcovile.it/scritti/COVILE_690_Snark.pdf
(or pg. 101 in www.ilcovile.it/raccolte/RACCOLTA_COVILE__3_Fine_e_popolare.pdf )
Translation of Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark, 16 pages:
LEWIS CARROLL
LA CERCA DELLO SQUALLO
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK
NELLA TRADUZIONE DI
ADRIANO OREFICE
In the preface to the introduction to his Snark translation, Adriano Orefice (whose main business is quantum physics ) associated the Snark hunt with research and Charles Darwin's Beagle voyage . Since 1982, Prof. Orefice's translation hibernated in some drawer until Raffaele Giovanelli (same business) found it 30 years later.
jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub ..…
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Size Height: 17.6 cm (6.9 in) Width: 20.8 cm (8.2 in) Depth: 20.8 cm (8.2 in)
Location Room 39 case 10
Description: The Beagle chronometer. In the British Museum.
Maker: Thomas Earnshaw
Date 27 June 2010
Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ).
See also: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Marine_Chronometer.jpg
For collecting time you don't need a subscription. And time doesn't take bribes.
381 · · “As to temper the Jubjub ’s a desperate bird,
382 · · · · Since it lives in perpetual passion:
383 · · Its taste in costume is entirely absurd—
384 · · · · It is ages ahead of the fashion:
385 · · “But it knows any friend it has met once before:
386 · · · · It never will look at a bribe :
387 · · And in charity-meetings it stands at the door,
388 · · · · And collects—though it does not subscribe.
389 · · “ Its flavour when cooked is more exquisite far
390 · · · · Than mutton, or oysters, or eggs:
391 · · (Some think it keeps best in an ivory jar ,
392 · · · · And some, in mahogany kegs :)
393 · · “You boil it in sawdust : you salt it in glue:
394 · · · · You condense it with locusts and tape:
395 · · Still keeping one principal object in view—
396 · · · · To preserve its symmetrical shape .”
See also:
※ www.academia.edu/9970930/Hunting_Snark_with_Charles_Darwin
※ www.quora.com/unanswered/Is-Lewis-Carrolls-%E2%80%9CJubjub%E2%80%9D-a-riddle-about-%E2%80%9Ctime%E2%80%9D-and-or-%E2%80%9Cchronometer%E2%80%9D
Tree of Life
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Segment of an illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876
The segment on the lower right side is Charles Darwin's Tree of Evolution or Tree of Life sketch in his 1st notebook, page 36, 1837-1838. I learned, that Darwin did not keep his notebook secret after the publication of On the Origin of Species , but I do not know of any presentation of his sketch before 1876. Thus, the resemblance between the "weed" and Darwin's evolutionary tree sketch propably is purely incidental.
Postprocessing: GIMP perspective transformation tool
Questions:
(1) When did Charles Darwin publish a facsimile of his sketch fo the first time? When (e.g. in lectures etc.) was it presented for the first time?
(2) Or is there a completely different explanation? Holiday's "weed" also could allude to an eagle riding a wild boar .
Lacing Pillow
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--> www.academia.edu/9962213/Lace-Making_An_Infringement_of_Right
Detail from an illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876.
273 · · The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade--
274 · · · · Each working the grindstone in turn:
275 · · But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed
276 · · · · No interest in the concern:
277 · · Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,
278 · · · · And vainly proceeded to cite
279 · · A number of cases, in which making laces
280 · · · · Had been proved an infringement of right .
421 · · But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain
422 · · · · That the Beaver's lace-making was wrong,
423 · · Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain
424 · · · · That his fancy had dwelt on so long.
(from Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876)
Why should a peaceful activity like lace-making have "proved an infringement of right"? How can lace-making be wrong? The Beaver's "lace-making" may have been used to symbolize dissection in context with C. L. Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll's) involvement in the vivisection debate .
Links:
o Charles Darwin: www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/album/370833
o Eva Amsen, Alice's Adventures in Animal Experimentation , 2007-09-19, easternblot.net/2007/09/19/alices_adventures_in_animal_experimentation
o Lewis Carroll, Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection , Fortnightly Review [London: 1865-1934] 23 (1875 Jun): 847-854; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003. www.animalrightshistory.org/animal-rights-c1837-1901/victorian-c/car-lewis-carroll/1875-06-vivisection.htm
o On the usage of lace-needles with microscopes see pg. 391 in Darwin, C. R. 1849, On the use of the microscope on board ship , in Owen, R., Zoology. In Herschel, J. F. W. ed., A manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy, and adapted for travellers in general. London: John Murray, pp. 389-395.
"Circular discs of fine-textured cork, of the size of the saucers (with one or two circular springs of steel-wire to keep the cork at the bottom of the water), serve for fixing objects to be dissected by direct instead of transmitted light. For this end short fine pins and lace-needles should be procured; wherever it is possible, the animal ought to be fixed to the cork under water."
darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&i...
o Jed Mayer: The vivisection of the Snark , 2009-06-22: Victorian Poetry (Amazon etext in HTML)
www.amazon.com/vivisection-Snark-fictional-animal-Report/...
o Rod Preece: Darwinism, Christianity, and the Great Vivisection Debate , Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 64, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 399-419
www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3654233
o Letters on vivisection from/to Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=letters&secondKeyword=vivisection&sort=date&itemsPerPage=25¤tPage=1&filterOperand=AND
o People related to vivisection and Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=people&keyword=vivisection&sort=title&itemsPerPage=25¤tPage=1&filterOperand=AND
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