[betty boop]

Thank you for posting the details of Darwin’s activities WRT abolition. The phrase “nature red in tooth and claw” was a statement that Darwin made to the Linnean Society of London, on the occasion of the presentation of his theory to that august body in 1859. Perhaps he was just being hyperbolic.

[js1138]

The phrase “nature red in tooth and claw” was a statement that Darwin made to the Linnean Society of London, on the occasion of the presentation of his theory to that august body in 1859. Perhaps he was just being hyperbolic.

Or maybe he was just quoting a recent and famous poem by Tennyson.

[Stultis]

The phrase “nature red in tooth and claw” was a statement that Darwin made to the Linnean Society of London, on the occasion of the presentation of his theory to that august body in 1859. Perhaps he was just being hyperbolic.

Darwin presented his theory to the Linnean in 1858, not '59, in joint papers with Alfred Russell Wallace, and did not make any "statement" because he wasn't there in person. Nor does the phrase from Tennyson appear anywhere in the Darwin-Wallace papers, the complete text of which is available here.