[This document was created by John van Wyhe, Research Fellow at National University of Singapore in 2000 and since modified by Diane Josefowicz, PhD, Science & Technology Editor, The Victorian Web.]

Primary sources:

Anon. Review of Essay on the Theory of the Earth. The British Review and London Critical Journal 5.10 (1813): 400-413.

Anon. Review of Essay on the Theory of the Earth. Edinburgh Review. January 1814.

Anon. "Mary Anning, The Fossil Finder." All the Year Round. February 11, 1865.

Babbage, Charles. Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. 1837.

Campbell, G., Duke of Argyll. Preface. The Reign of Law. 1860.

Cuvier, Georges. Elegy of Lamarck. 1832.

Cuvier, Georges. Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe, et sur les changemens qu'elles ont produits dans le règne animal. 3rd Fr. ed. 1825.

Cuvier, Georges. Discourse on the revolutionary upheavals on the surface of the globe and on the changes which they have produced in the animal kingdom. 1825.

Darwin, Charles. "Autobiography." The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. F. Darwin, ed. 1887.

Darwin, Charles, An historical sketch of the progress of opinion on the origin of species. 1872. (First published in 1861).

Genesis creation stories from the Bible.

Henley, W. H. In Hospital.

Jenkin, Fleeming. Review of Darwin's The Origin of Species. The North British Review. 46 (June 1867): 277-318.

Maxwell, J.C. "Molecules." Nature. (Sept. 1873): 437-44.

Owen, Richard. "Darwin on the Origin of Species." Edinburgh Review. 3 (1860): 487-532.

Spencer, Herbert. "Development Hypothesis." The Leader. 20 March 1852.

Spencer, Herbert. "A Theory of Population, deduced from the General Law of Animal Fertility." Westminster Review. 57: (1852 [New Series, Vol. I, No. II]): 468-501.

Tyndall, John. Address Delivered Before the British Association Assembled at Belfast. 1874.

Wallace, A.R.. On the Law which has Regulated The Introduction of New Species. 1855.

[Wilberforce, Samuel,] Review of On the origin of species. Quarterly Review. (1860): 225-264.

Other primary sources online

Athenaeum Project. A searchable online database of reviews and reviewers from the Athenaeum newspaper.

Books On-line by John Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania. This engine provides links to most online text collections. Frequently updated.

[Chambers, Robert] Explanations: A Sequel to "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." By the author of that work. 1st ed. London: John Churchill, 1845.

[Chambers, Robert] Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. London, 1844.

Classics in the History of Psychology by Christopher D. Green.

Combe, G. A System of Phrenology. 2 vols. 5th ed. 1853.

Combe, G. The Life and Correspondence of Andrew Combe M.D. 1850.

Combe, G., The Constitution of Man considered in relation to external objects. 8th ed. Edinburgh, 1847.

Combe, G. Science and Religion. 1893. (First published in 1857.)

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. All of Darwin's published work, as well as correspondence and manuscripts, in citable form with page numbers and illustrations. By John van Wyhe.

Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia. An enormous digital library with texts in fifteen languages. Most of these texts are presented in beautiful html with pagination and other aspects of the originals preserved.

Classic Papers in the History of Chemistry.

Selected Classic Papers in the History of Chemistry by Carmen Giunta.

The Journal of Syms Covington by Vern Weitzel.

Delta Omega Classics. A collection of classic texts from the history of medicine, available as PDFs.

Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences. 2nd ed. 1892. With commentary and related primary documents such as correspondence.

Gibbon, Charles. The Life of George Combe: Author of "The Constitution of Man." 2 vols. London: Macmillan & Co., 1878. Download volume 1; volume 2.

The Internet Library of Early Journals. Complete page images of 20 year runs of: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, The Builder, The Annual Register, The Gentleman's Magazine, Notes and Queries, & Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.

J.D. Hooker by Jim Endersby. Several texts by Hooker.

The Huxley File by Charles Blinderman & David Joyce. Includes the nine-volume Collected Essays, 40 selections from the five-volume Scientific Memoirs, and many more sources and images.

Life of Leonard Jenyns by by Roger F.Vaughan.

Lundie, H. The Phrenological Mirror; or, Delineation Book. 1844.

Making of America. One of the largest and best online text collections. Although limited to American texts, some books are American editions by foreign authors. Thousands of journal articles. Text searches available.

History of Mathematics at St. Andrews.

History of Mathematics by Earl Fife & Larry Husch.

McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought.

Quarterly Review Archive. Edited by Jonathan Cutmore.

Paley, William. Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. 1802.

Penny Magazine. Select issues from the 1830s.

Philosophietexte im Internet. A collection of texts by German philosophers and scientists of the nineteenth century (including Helmholtz and Wundt).

19th Century Scientific American Online.

Townsend, L. T. The Bible and other ancient literature in the nineteenth century. 1889.

Alfred Russel Wallace by Charles H. Smith.

Internet History of Science Sourcebook by Paul Halsall. Many unique primary text extracts.

Project Gutenberg. Still the most extensive on-line text collection, although unfortunately opposed to preserving any bibliographical information.

Projekt Gutenberg-DE Thousands of German texts.


Last modified 24 March 2023