Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
Notebook M, the ‘metaphysical’ notebook, and others

After returning from his voyage around the world on HMS Beagle in 1836, Darwin kept a series of small notebooks where he jotted down observations and speculations relevant to his already emerging theories. The one open in this image, marked ‘Private’, starts with notes of a discussion on 15 July 1838 with his father, a medical doctor, on inherited habits: ‘My father has seen innumerable cases of people taking after their parents, when the latter died so long before, that it is extremely improbable that they should have imitated.’

MS DAR 125 (open) and 123, 127 and 128