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Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin
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  • Born: 12 February 1809
  • Birthplace: Shrewsbury, England
  • Died: 19 April 1882 (heart attack)
  • Best Known As: The naturalist who came up with the theory of evolution

Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species was a scientific bombshell in its day and remains a much-discussed work 150 years later. Darwin was the official naturalist aboard the British ship H.M.S. Beagle during its world voyage of 1831-36. His observations during the journey led him to develop a theory of evolution: the notion that species evolve as the fittest members survive and pass their traits on to future generations. Darwin announced his initial ideas of natural selection in 1858, and in 1859 he formally published The Origin of Species. The book was both popular and controversial: although Darwin was a religious man himself and once considered a career in the church, his theory of evolution was attacked by those who felt it was contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Today Darwin's theories are embraced by nearly all scientists and his theories are the starting point for the modern study of evolutionary biology, even as the religious arguments continue. Darwin published many other books and pamphlets on the topic in later years, most notably The Descent of Man (1871).

The full title and subtitle of Darwin's famous book was, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life... Darwin was born on the same day as U.S. president Abraham Lincoln... Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.

 
 
Scientist: Charles Robert Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin
Library of Congress

[b. Shrewsbury, England, February 12, 1809, d. Down, Kent, England, April 19, 1882]

The 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, in which Darwin demonstrated that all living things evolved from earlier forms of life by the process of natural selection, revolutionized human thought. Although initially controversial, Darwin's theory of evolution, which also was set forth by Alfred Wallace, became accepted as one of the foundations of modern biology. Darwin originally believed in the orthodox theory of his time: that each species had been created individually and had remained unchanged since Earth's beginning. But his observations of fossils and living organisms during a five-year voyage around the world aboard H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36) led to his conclusion that new species arose as existing species gradually changed in response to environmental conditions. Among his best-known evidence was the adaptive radiation of finches he studied on the Galapagos Islands.


 
Encyclopedia of Public Health: Charles Robert Darwin

Now recognized as a towering figure in the study of biology, Charles Darwin had an undistinguished academic career during his own lifetime. Though he barely scraped through his degree at Cambridge, Darwin was interested in natural history from early childhood. From 1831 to 1836, he served as naturalist on HMS Beagle, a small ship that circumnavigated the world, surveying to enhance the quality of navigational charts and gathering scientific specimens for the advancement of natural history. Darwin's account of the voyage of the Beagle was a literary success but contained little hint of the paradigm shift in biological thought for which Darwin soon became notorious. Darwin reflected for over twenty years after returning from his travels, and before publishing On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). In this and later works, Darwin developed his theory of evolution by drawing upon his empirical observations of wildlife, fossils, and the complex relationships of localized variations in the anatomy of birds, butterflies, lizards, and other animals to their environment. Darwin's theory outraged orthodox religious beliefs in the creation (based on the myths described in Genesis that God had created the world and all that lived in it in seven days). For a time, he was reviled by a large proportion of the British establishment, but his supporters, including the eminent physician and biologist Thomas Huxley (1825–1895), encouraged him and scientific evidence eventually prevailed. Much further support for Darwin's theory of evolution is contained in his prolific writings after the Origin of Species. Evolution can no longer be described as a mere theory. There is such a huge body of hard scientific evidence, including much recently acquired support from molecular genetics, that evolution may be considered a fundamental fact of life.

— JOHN M. LAST



 
Biography: Charles Robert Darwin

The English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) discovered that natural selection was the agent for the transmutation of organisms during evolution, as did Alfred Russel Wallace independently. Darwin presented his theory in "Origin of Species."

The concept of evolution by descent dates at least from classical Greek philosophers. In the 18th century Carl Linnaeus postulated limited mutability of species by descent and hybridization. Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, and the Chevalier de Lamarck were the chief proponents of evolution about 1800. Such advocacy had little impact on the majority of naturalists, concerned to identify species, the stability of which was considered essential for their work. Natural theology regarded the perfection of adaptation between structure and mode of life in organisms as evidence for a beneficent, all-seeing, all-planning Creator. Organic structure, planned in advance for a preordained niche, was unchanged from the moment of creation. Variations in structure in these earthly imperfect versions of the Creator's idea were minor and impermanent.

In 1815 William Smith had demonstrated a sequence of fossil populations in time. Charles Lyell, adopting James Hutton's uniformitarian view that present conditions and processes were clues to the past history of the earth, wrote his Principles of Geology (1830-1833), which Darwin on his Beagle circumnavigation found most apt for his own geological observations. Fossils in South America and apparent anomalies of animal distribution triggered the task for Darwin of assembling a vast range of material. A reading of Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population in 1838 completed Darwin's conceptual scheme.

Critics, for whom the Origin is paramount among Darwin's considerable output, have accused him of vacillation and procrastination. But recent study of unpublished manuscripts and his entire works reveal a continuity of purpose and integrity of effort to establish the high probability of the genetic relationship through descent in all forms of life. Man is dethroned as the summit of creation and as the especial concern of the Creator. This revolution in thought has had an effect on every kind of human activity.

Darwin was born on Feb. 12, 1809, at Shrewsbury, the fifth child of Robert and Susannah Darwin. His mother, who was the daughter of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood, died when Charles was 8, and he was reared by his sisters. At the age of 9 Charles entered Shrewsbury School. His record was not outstanding, but he did learn to use English with precision and to delight in Shakespeare and Milton.

In 1825 Darwin went to Edinburgh University to study medicine. He found anatomy and materia medica dull and surgery unendurable. In 1828 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, with the idea of taking Anglican orders. He attended John Stevens Henslow's course in botany, started a collection of beetles that became famous, and read widely. William Paley's Natural Theology (1802) delighted Darwin by its clear logical presentation, and he later regarded this study as the most worthwhile benefit from Cambridge. He received his bachelor's degree in 1831.

Voyage of the Beagle

On Henslow's recommendation Darwin was offered the position of naturalist for the second voyage of H. M. S. Beagle to survey the coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and complete observations of longitude by circumnavigation with a formidable array of chronometers. The Beagle left on Dec. 27, 1831, and returned on Oct. 2, 1836. During the voyage Darwin spent 535 days at sea and roughly 1200 on land. Enough identification of strata could be done on the spot, but sufficiently accurate identification of living organisms required systematists accessible only in London and Paris.

Darwin kept his field observations in notebooks with the specimens listed serially and their place and time of collection documented. On July 24, 1834, he wrote: "My notes are becoming bulky. I have about 600 small quarto pages full; about half of this is Geology the other imperfect descriptions of animals; with the latter I make it a rule to describe those parts which cannot be seen in specimens in spirits. I keep my private Journal distinct from the above." Toward the end of the voyage, when sea passages were long, he copied his notes and arranged them to accord with systematics, concentrating on range and habits. Geology was prepared with fewer inhibitions; he wrote from Mauritius in April 1836: "It is a rare piece of good fortune for me that of the many errant (in ships) Naturalists there have been few, or rather no, Geologists. I shall enter the field unopposed."

During the trip Darwin discovered the relevance of Lyell's uniformitarian views to the structure of St. Jago (Cape Verde Islands). He found that small locally living forms closely resembled large terrestrial fossil mammals embedded between marine shell layers and that the local sea was populated with living occupants of similar shells. He also observed the overlapping distribution on the continuous Patagonian plain of two closely related but distinct species of ostrich. An excursion along the Santa Cruz river revealed a section of strata across South America. He observed the differences between species of birds and animals on the Galápagos Islands.

Publications Resulting from Voyage

Darwin's Journal of Researches was published in 1839. With the help of a government grant toward the cost of the illustrations, the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle was published, in five quarto volumes, from 1839 to 1843. Specialist systematists wrote on fossil and living mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles. Darwin edited the work and contributed habits and ranges of the animals and geological notes on the fossils. Two themes run through his valuable and mostly neglected notes: distribution in space and time and observations of behavior as an aid to species diagnosis. He also published The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842); he had studied the coral reefs in the Cocos Islands during the Beagle voyage.

Darwin abandoned the idea of fixity of species in 1837 while writing his Journal. A second edition, in 1845, had a stronger tinge of transmutation, but there was still no public avowal of the new faith. This delightful volume is his most popular and accessible work.

Darwin's Transmutation (Species) Notebooks (1837-1839) have recently been reconstructed. The notion of "selection owing to struggle" derived from his reading of Malthus in 1838. Earlier Darwin had read Pyrame de Candolle's works on plant geography, so his mind was receptive. The breadth of interest and profusion of hypotheses characteristic of Darwin, who could carry several topics in his mind at the same time, inform the whole. From this medley of facts allegedly assembled on Baconian principles all his later works derive.

It was not until Darwin's geological observations of South America were published in 1846 that he started a paper on his "first Cirripede," a shell-boring aberrant barnacle, no bigger than a pin's head, he had found at Chonos Island in 1835. This was watched while living, then dissected, and drawn while the Beagle sheltered from a week of severe storms. The working out of the relationship to other barnacles forced him to study all barnacles, a task that occupied him until 1854 and resulted in two volumes on living forms and two on fossil forms.

Darwin married Emma Wedgwood, his first cousin, in 1839. They lived in London until 1842, when ill health drove him to Down House, where he passed the rest of his life in seclusion. Four of their sons became prominent scientists: George was an astronomer and mathematician, Francis a botanist, Leonard a eugenist, and Horace a civil engineer.

Development of Ideas on Evolution

In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote short accounts of his transmutation views. The 1844 sketch in corrected fair copy was a testament accompanied by a letter to his wife to secure publication should he die. Late in 1844 Robert Chambers's Vestiges of Creation appeared advocating universal development by descent. A great scandal ensued, and criticism of the amateur pretensions of the author was savage. Darwin decided to bide his time and become more proficient as a biologist.

In 1855 Darwin began to study the practices of poultry and pigeon fanciers and worldwide domesticated breeds, conducted experiments on plant and animal variation and its hereditary transmission, and worried about the problem of plant and animal transport across land and water barriers, for he was persuaded of the importance of isolation for speciation. The last step in his conceptual scheme had already occurred to him in 1852 while pondering Henri Milne-Edwards's concept of diversification into specialized organs for separation of physiological functions in higher organisms and the relevance of these considerations for classification when related to the facts of embryological development. Darwin's "principle of divergence" recognizes that the dominant species must make more effective use of the territory it invades than a competing species and accordingly it becomes adapted to more diversified environments.

In May 1856 Lyell heard of Darwin's transmutation hypothesis and urged him to write an account with full references. Darwin sent the chapter on distribution to Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, who were deeply impressed. Darwin continued his writing, and on June 14, 1858, when he was halfway through, he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace containing the theory of evolution by natural selection - the same theory Darwin was working on. Lyell and Hooker arranged for a reading of a joint paper by Wallace and Darwin, and it was presented at a meeting of the Linnaean Society on July 1. The paper had little effect.

Origin of Species

On Nov. 24, 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. The analogy of natural selection was prone to misunderstanding by readers, since it carried for them an implied purpose on the part of a "deified" Nature. Herbert Spencer's phrase "survival of the fittest" was equally misleading because the essence of Darwin's theory is that, unlike natural theology, adaptation must not be too perfect and rigid. A mutable store of variation must be available to any viable population in nature.

The publication of Darwin's book secured worldwide attention for his hypothesis and aroused impassioned controversy. His main champion was T. H. Huxley. Darwin, remote in his retreat at Down House, took painstaking note of criticism and endeavored to answer points of detail in the five more editions of Origin produced during his lifetime. He avoided trouble and made several unfortunate concessions which weakened his presentation and made his views seem vague and hesitant. The first edition is easily the best.

Later Works

In On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects (1862) Darwin showed how the welfare of an organism may be hidden in apparently unimportant peculiarities. It became hard to say what is "useless" in nature. His The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868; rev. ed. 1875) expanded on a topic he had introduced in Origin. A chapter in Origin on man as the most domesticated of animals grew into the book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) developed from material squeezed out of the Descent.

Plants became an increasing preoccupation, the more so since Darwin had his son Francis as collaborator and amanuensis. Papers Darwin had published in 1864 were collected into The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875), and these ideas were further generalized on uniformitarian lines and published as The Power of Movement in Plants (1880). All plants, not merely climbing ones, were shown to execute to some degree exploratory "circumnutation" movements. Studies on fertilization of plants by insects recorded as early as 1840 led to The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876) and The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (1877). Insectivorous Plants (1873) pursued the reactions of plants to stimuli. Darwin's last work returned to observations he had made in 1837: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits (1881). He died on April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Further Reading

Primary sources on Darwin include The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin (3 vols., 1887), which has an autobiographical chapter; More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin and A. C. Seward (1903); and his Autobiography, edited with appendix and notes by his granddaughter, Nora Barlow (1958; repr. 1969). An excellent, nontechnical account of Darwin's life and work is Sir Gavin de Beer, Charles Darwin: Evolution by Natural Selection (1964). Other biographical studies are Paul B. Sears, Charles Darwin: The Naturalist as a Cultural Force (1950), and Gerhard Wichler, Charles Darwin: The Founder of the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection (1961). Gertrude Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (1959), offers a provocative reinterpretation of the man and his impact.

A dramatic pictorial account of Darwin's trip around the world in the Beagle is Alan Moorehead, Darwin and the Beagle (1969), which incorporates excerpts from Darwin's autobiography, journal, and letters. Parts of Darwin's work are examined in P. R. Bell, ed., Darwin's Biological Work: Some Aspects Reconsidered (1959), and Darwin's vast influence is assessed in Michael T. Ghiselin, The Triumph of the Darwinian Method (1969). A good, succinct presentation of the essence of Darwin's ideas is Benjamin Farrington, What Darwin Really Said (1967), which can serve as a review of the major problems raised by Darwin's theories.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Charles Robert Darwin

(born Feb. 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng. — died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent) British naturalist. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831 – 36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual bird, for example, with the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce and that if such traits were passed on to new generations, they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared. He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin's intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin's ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man… (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See also Darwinism.

For more information on Charles Robert Darwin, visit Britannica.com.

 
British History: Charles Darwin

Darwin, Charles (1809-82). Intended for medicine, Darwin took courses at Edinburgh, but dropped out unable to bear surgery. He went on to Christ's College, Cambridge, took a pass degree, and became a clergyman. In 1831 he was offered a place as companion to the captain on HMS Beagle surveying Cape Horn. On the five-year voyage round the world, Darwin became a great descriptive scientist and collector. Thinking about nature's diversity, he hit upon the idea of natural selection. Animals and plants produced more young than could survive: those better adapted to their surroundings would be ‘selected’ by nature and their offspring would diverge, inheriting characteristics. Darwin spent over 20 years collecting and marshalling evidence before publishing the Origin of Species in 1859. Despite furious controversy, his theory prevailed, and by the end of his life he was universally recognized.

 
Philosophy Dictionary: Charles Robert Darwin

Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-82) English naturalist. Darwin was born in Shrewsbury and studied medicine at Edinburgh, then Cambridge. His naturalistic observations came to maturity on the famous voyage of the Beagle (1831-6). During the subsequent twenty years Darwin consolidated his scientific reputation while living the life of a country gentleman of scientific interests, breeding and observing domestic animals, especially pigeons, and working out the details of the theory of evolution. It was only in 1858 that, prodded by reading the essay On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type sent to him by Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913), he prepared a joint paper with Wallace, to be read to the Linnaean Society. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection followed in 1859. Darwin's work is the foundation of modern biology. In itself it affords a rich field not only for philosophers of science interested, for example, in the relationship between theory and observation, or in the place of falsification in science, but also to those interested in the sociology of paradigms, and the various factors that affect the climate of ideas. Darwin's other claim to philosophical attention arises from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

 
Archaeology Dictionary: Charles Robert Darwin

(1809–82) [Bi]

British biologist and naturalist who developed and expounded the theory of evolution by natural selection and the survival of the fittest. After two years as a medical student in Edinburgh he earned a BA degree at Cambridge University in 1831. Here he met Adam Sedgwick and John Henslow, the latter of whom recommended him for the post of naturalist on the expedition ship The Beagle. Darwin used the trip, between c.1831 and 1836 bc, to make observations on biology and geology that would last him his entire career. Between c.1846 and 1854 bc he spent much time researching the classification, variation, and origins of animal species. After the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace sent Darwin a manuscript outlining similar evolutionary thinking, he published his abstract On the origin of species (1859, London), documenting his evidence for the operation of biological evolution. He later became interested in the early history of humans and developed his thinking on human evolution as The descent of man and selection in relation to sex (1871, London). His interest in soils and their formation led him to consider the work and role of the earthworm, published as The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms (1888, London), which provided one of the first scientific considerations of how archaeological remains are buried.

[Bio.: J. Bowlby, 1991, Charles Darwin: a biography. London: Pimlico]

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Darwin, Charles Robert,
1809–82, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood. He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and for the ministry at Cambridge but lost interest in both professions during the training. His interest in natural history led to his friendship with the botanist J. S. Henslow; through him came the opportunity to make a five-year cruise (1831–36) as official naturalist aboard the Beagle. This started Darwin on a career of accumulating and assimilating data that resulted in the formulation of his concept of evolution and his explication of natural and sexual selection. He spent the remainder of his life carefully and methodically working over the information from his copious notes and from every other available source.

Independently, the naturalist A. R. Wallace had worked out a concept of evolution similar to Darwin's. Wallace sent a paper outlining his theory to Darwin in 1858, and its striking coincidences with Darwin's work led Darwin's friends to move to assure that the more cautious Darwin, who had been slow to publish, would receive credit for the independence and priority of his ideas. The next year Darwin set forth the structure of his theory and massive support for it in the superbly organized On the Origin of Species, supplemented and elaborated in his many later books, notably The Descent of Man (1871). He also formulated a theory of the origin of coral reefs.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (ed. by N. Barlow, 1958) and Life and Letters (ed. by F. Darwin, 1887; repr. with intro. by G. G. Simpson, 1962); letters of Darwin and Henslow, ed. by N. Barlow (1967); The Corespondence of Charles Darwin ed. by F. Burkhardt et al. (10 vol., 1987–97); J. Barzun, Darwin, Marx, Wagner (rev. ed. 1958); G. Wichler, Charles Darwin: The Founder of the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection (tr. 1961); A. Moorehead, Darwin and the Beagle (1969, rev. ed. 1979); P. Appleman, ed., Darwin (1970, repr. 1983); D. L Hull, Darwin and His Critics (1983); R. J. Richards, Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (1989); R. Dawkins, River Out of Eden (1995); D. C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995); N. Eldredge, Reinventing Darwin (1995); S. Jones, Darwin's Ghost: “The Origin of Species” Updated (2000); J. Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging (1995) and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (2002).

 
Science Dictionary: Charles Darwin

A British naturalist of the nineteenth century. He and others developed the theory of evolution. This theory forms the basis for the modern life sciences. Darwin's most famous books are The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.

  • Darwin's ideas were later misrepresented by some social theorists, who developed the notion of Social Darwinism to justify practices such as child labor in nineteenth-century England.
  •  
    Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
    Charles Robert Darwin
    Charles_Darwin_aged_51.jpg
    At the age of 51, Charles Darwin had just published
    On the Origin of Species.
    Born 12 February 1809(1809--)
    Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
    Died 19 April 1882 (aged 73)
    Down House, Kent, England
    Residence England
    Nationality British
    Field Naturalist
    Institutions Royal Geographical Society
    Alma mater University of Edinburgh
    University of Cambridge
    Academic advisor   Adam Sedgwick
    Known for The Origin of Species
    Natural selection
    Notable prizes Royal Medal (1853)
    Wollaston Medal (1859)
    Copley Medal (1864)
    Religion Church of England, though Unitarian family background, Agnostic after 1851.

    Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 180919 April 1882) was an English naturalist.[I] After becoming eminent among scientists for his field work and inquiries into geology, he proposed and provided scientific evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from one or a few common ancestors through the process of natural selection.[1] The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s,[1] and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.[2]

    Darwin developed his interest in natural history while studying first medicine at Edinburgh University, then theology at Cambridge.[3] His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. Having seen others attacked as heretics for such ideas, he confided only in his closest friends and continued his extensive research to meet anticipated objections.[4] In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay describing a similar theory, causing the two to publish their theories early in a joint publication.[5]

    His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.[6]

    In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.[7]

    Biography

    Early life

    For more details on this topic, see Charles Darwin's education.
    The seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816, one year before his mother's death.
    Enlarge
    The seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816, one year before his mother's death.

    Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on 12 February 1809 at his family home, the Mount.[8] He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin, and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father's side, and of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side. Both families were largely Unitarian, though the Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism. Robert Darwin, himself quietly a freethinker, made a nod toward convention by having baby Charles baptised in the Anglican Church. Nonetheless, Charles and his siblings attended the Unitarian chapel with their mother, and in 1817, Charles joined the day school, run by its preacher. In July of that year, when Charles was eight years old, his mother died. From September 1818, he attended the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder.[9]

    Darwin spent the summer of 1825 helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire as an apprentice doctor. In the autumn, he went to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, to study medicine, but he was revolted by the brutality of surgery and neglected his medical studies. He learned taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a freed black slave who told him exciting tales of the South American rainforest. Later, in The Descent of Man, he used this experience as evidence that "Negroes and Europeans" were closely related despite superficial differences in appearance.[10]

    In Darwin's second year, he joined the Plinian Society, a student group interested in natural history.[11] He became a keen pupil of Robert Edmund Grant, a proponent of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's theory of evolution by acquired characteristics, which Charles's grandfather Erasmus had also advocated. On the shores of the Firth of Forth, Darwin joined in Grant's investigations of the life cycle of marine animals. These studies found evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals have similar organs which differ only in complexity, thus showing common descent.[12] In March 1827, Darwin made a presentation to the Plinian of his own discovery that the black spores often found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech.[13] He also sat in on Robert Jameson's natural history course, learning about stratigraphic geology, receiving training in classifying plants, and assisting with work on the extensive collections of the University Museum, one of the largest museums in Europe at the time.[14]

    In 1827, his father, unhappy at his younger son's lack of progress, shrewdly enrolled him in a Bachelor of Arts course at Christ's College, Cambridge to qualify as a clergyman, expecting him to get a good income as an Anglican parson.[15] However, Darwin preferred riding and shooting to studying.[16] Along with his cousin William Darwin Fox, he became engrossed in the craze at the time for the competitive collecting of beetles.[17] Fox introduced him to the Reverend John Stevens Henslow, professor of botany, for expert advice on beetles. Darwin subsequently joined Henslow's natural history course and became his favourite pupil, known to the dons as "the man who walks with Henslow".[18][19] When exams drew near, Darwin focused on his studies and received private instruction from Henslow. Darwin was particularly enthusiastic about the writings of William Paley, including the argument for divine design in nature.[20] It has been argued that Darwin's enthusiasm for Paley's religious adaptationism paradoxically played a role even later, when Darwin formulated his theory of natural selection.[21] In his finals in January 1831, he performed well in theology and, having scraped through in classics, mathematics and physics, came tenth out of a pass list of 178.[22]

    Residential requirements kept Darwin at Cambridge until June. Following Henslow's example and advice, he was in no rush to take Holy Orders. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative, he planned to visit the Madeira Islands with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics. To prepare himself, Darwin joined the geology course of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick and, in the summer, went with him to assist in mapping strata in Wales.[23] After a fortnight with student friends at Barmouth, he returned home to find a letter from Henslow recommending Darwin as a suitable (if unfinished) naturalist for the unpaid position of gentleman's companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle, which was to leave in four weeks on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America. His father objected to the planned two-year voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, to agree to his son's participation.[24]

    Journey of the Beagle

    For more details on this topic, see Second voyage of HMS Beagle.
    The voyage of the Beagle.
    Enlarge
    The voyage of the Beagle.

    The Beagle survey took five years, two-thirds of which Darwin spent on land. He carefully noted a rich variety of geological features, fossils and living organisms, and methodically collected an enormous number of specimens, many of them new to science.[1] At intervals during the voyage he sent specimens to Cambridge together with letters about his findings, and these established his reputation as a naturalist. His extensive detailed notes showed his gift for theorising and formed the basis for his later work. The journal he originally wrote for his family, published as The Voyage of the Beagle, summarises his findings and provides social, political and anthropological insights into the wide range of people he met, both native and colonial.[25]

    While on board the ship, Darwin suffered badly from seasickness.[26] In October 1833 he caught a fever in Argentina, and in July 1834, while returning from the Andes down to Valparaíso, he fell ill and spent a month in bed.[27]

    Before they set out, FitzRoy gave Darwin the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which explained landforms as the outcome of gradual processes over huge periods of time.[II] On their first stop ashore at St Jago, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs consisted of baked coral fragments and shells. This matched Lyell's concept of land slowly rising or falling, giving Darwin a new insight into the geological history of the island which inspired him to think of writing a book on geology.[28] He went on to make many more discoveries, some of them particularly dramatic.[1] He saw stepped plains of shingle and seashells in Patagonia as raised beaches, and after experiencing an earthquake in Chile saw mussel-beds stranded above high tide showing that the land had just been raised. High in the Andes he saw several fossil trees that had grown on a sand beach, with seashells nearby. He theorised that coral atolls form on sinking volcanic mountains, and confirmed this when the Beagle surveyed the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.[29]

    In South America, Darwin found and excavated rare fossils of gigantic extinct mammals in strata with modern seashells, indicating recent extinction and no change in climate or signs of catastrophe. Though he correctly identified one as a Megatherium and fragments of armour reminded him of the local armadillo, he assumed his finds were related to African or European species and it was a revelation to him after the voyage when Richard Owen showed that they were closely related to living creatures exclusively found in the Americas.[30]

    As HMS Beagle surveyed the coasts of South America, Darwin began to theorise about the wonders of nature around him.
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    As HMS Beagle surveyed the coasts of South America, Darwin began to theorise about the wonders of nature around him.

    Lyell's second volume, which argued against evolutionism and explained species distribution by "centres of creation", was sent out to Darwin. He puzzled over all he saw, and his ideas went beyond Lyell.[31] In Argentina, he found that two types of rhea had separate but overlapping territories. On the Galápagos Islands, he collected mockingbirds and noted that they were different depending on which island they came from. He also heard that local Spaniards could tell from their appearance on which island tortoises originated, but thought the creatures had been imported by buccaneers.[32] In Australia, the marsupial rat-kangaroo and the platypus seemed so unusual that Darwin thought it was almost as though two distinct Creators had been at work.[33]

    In Cape Town he and FitzRoy met John Herschel, who had recently written to Lyell about that "mystery of mysteries", the origin of species. When organising his notes on the return journey, Darwin wrote that if his growing suspicions about the mockingbirds and tortoises were correct, "such facts undermine the stability of Species", then cautiously added "would" before "undermine".[34] He later wrote that such facts "seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species".[35]

    Three natives who had been taken from Tierra del Fuego on the Beagle's previous voyage were taken back there to become missionaries. They had become "civilised" in England over the previous two years, yet their relatives appeared to Darwin to be "miserable, degraded savages".[36] A year on, the mission had been abandoned and only Jemmy Button spoke with them to say he preferred his harsh previous way of life and did not want to return to England. Because of this experience, Darwin came to think that humans were not as far removed from animals as his friends then believed, and saw differences as relating to cultural advances towards civilisation rather than being racial. He detested the slavery he saw elsewhere in South America, and was saddened by the effects of European settlement on Aborigines in Australia and Maori in New Zealand.[37]

    Captain FitzRoy was committed to writing the official Narrative of the Beagle voyages, and near the end of the voyage, he read Darwin's diary and asked him to rewrite this Journal to provide the third volume, on natural history.[38]

    Inception of Darwin's evolutionary theory

    For more details on this topic, see Inception of Darwin's theory.
    While still a young man, Charles Darwin joined the scientific élite.
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    While still a young man, Charles Darwin joined the scientific élite.

    While Darwin was still on the voyage, Henslow fostered his former pupil's reputation by giving selected naturalists access to the fossil specimens and a pamphlet of Darwin's geological letters.[39] When the Beagle returned on 2 October 1836, Darwin was a celebrity in scientific circles. After visiting his home in Shrewsbury and seeing relatives, Darwin hurried to Cambridge to see Henslow, who advised on finding naturalists available to describe and catalogue the collections, and agreed to take on the botanical specimens. Darwin's father organised investments, enabling his son to be a self-funded gentleman scientist, and an excited Darwin went round the London institutions being fêted and seeking experts to describe the collections. Zoologists had a huge backlog of work, and there was a danger of specimens just being left in storage.[40]

    An eager Charles Lyell met Darwin for the first time on 29 October and soon introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen, who had the facilities of the Royal College of Surgeons at his disposal to work on the fossil bones collected by Darwin. Owen's surprising results included gigantic sloths, a hippopotamus-like skull from the extinct rodent Toxodon, and armour fragments from a huge extinct armadillo (Glyptodon), as Darwin had initially surmised.[41] The fossil creatures were unrelated to African animals, but closely related to living species in South America.[42]

    In mid-December, Darwin moved to Cambridge to organise work on his collections and rewrite his Journal.[43] He wrote his first paper, showing that the South American landmass was slowly rising, and with Lyell's enthusiastic backing read it to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837. On the same day, he presented his mammal and bird specimens to the Zoological Society. The ornithologist John Gould soon revealed that the Galapagos birds that Darwin had thought a mixture of blackbirds, "gross-beaks" and finches, were, in fact, twelve separate species of finches. On 17 February 1837, Darwin was elected to the Council of the Geographical Society, and in his presidential address, Lyell presented Owen's findings on Darwin's fossils, stressing geographical continuity of species as supporting his uniformitarian ideas.[44]

    Darwin's first sketch of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837)
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    Darwin's first sketch of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837)

    On 6 March 1837, Darwin moved to London to be close to this work, and joined the social whirl around scientists and savants such as Charles Babbage, who thought that God preordained life by natural laws rather than ad hoc miraculous creations. Darwin lived near his freethinking brother Erasmus, who was part of this Whig circle and whose close friend the writer Harriet Martineau promoted the ideas of Thomas Malthus underlying the Whig "Poor Law reforms" aimed at discouraging the poor from breeding beyond available food supplies. John Herschel's question on the origin of species was widely discussed. Medical men including Dr. Gully even joined Grant in endorsing transmutation of species, but to Darwin's scientist friends such radical heresy attacked the divine basis of the social order already under threat from recession and riots.[45]

    Gould now revealed that the Galapagos mockingbirds from different islands were separate species, not just varieties, and the "wrens" were yet another species of finches. Darwin had not kept track of which islands the finch specimens were from, but found information from the notes of others on the Beagle, including FitzRoy, who had more carefully recorded their own collections. The zoologist Thomas Bell showed that the Galápagos tortoises were native to the islands. By mid-March, Darwin was convinced that creatures arriving in the islands had become altered in some way to form new species on the different islands, and investigated transmutation while noting his speculations in his "Red Notebook" which he had begun on the Beagle. In mid-July, he began his secret "B" notebook on transmutation, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first sketch of an evolutionary tree.[46]

    Overwork, illness, and marriage

    As well as launching into this intensive study of transmutation, Darwin became mired in more work. While still rewriting his Journal, he took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained a Treasury grant of £1,000 to sponsor this multi-volume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. He agreed to unrealistic dates for this and for a book on South American Geology supporting Lyell's ideas. Darwin finished writing his Journal around 20 June 1837 just as Queen Victoria came to the throne, but then had its proofs to correct.[47]

    Darwin's health suffered from the pressure. On 20 September 1837, he had "palpitations of the heart". On doctor's advice that a month of recuperation was needed, he went to Shrewsbury then on to visit his Wedgwood relatives at Maer Hall, but found them too eager for tales of his travels to give him much rest. His charming, intelligent, and cultured cousin Emma Wedgwood, nine months older than Darwin, was nursing his invalid aunt. His uncle Jos pointed out an area of ground where cinders had disappeared under loam and suggested that this might have been the work of earthworms. This inspired a talk which Darwin gave to the Geological Society on 1 November, the first demonstration of the role of earthworms in soil formation.[48]

    William Whewell pushed Darwin to take on the duties of Secretary of the Geological Society. After first declining this extra work, he accepted the post in March 1838.[49] Despite the grind of writing and editing, remarkable progress was made on transmutation. While keeping his developing ideas secret, Darwin took every opportunity to question expert naturalists and, unconventionally, people with practical experience such as farmers and pigeon fanciers.[1][50] Over time his research drew on information from his relatives and children, the family butler, neighbours, colonists and former shipmates.[51] He included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an ape in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its child-like behaviour.[52]

    The strain took its toll, and by June he was being laid up for days on end with stomach problems, headaches and heart symptoms.[53] For the rest of his life, he was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe boils, palpitations, trembling and other symptoms, particularly during times of stress, such as when attending meetings or dealing with controversy over his theory. The cause of Darwin's illness was unknown during his lifetime, and attempts at treatment had little success. Recent attempts at diagnosis have suggested Chagas disease caught from insect bites in South America, Ménière's disease, or various psychological illnesses as possible causes, without any conclusive results.[54]

    On 23 June 1838, he took a break from the pressure of work and went "geologising" in Scotland. He visited Glen Roy in glorious weather to see the parallel "roads", horizontal ledges cut into the hillsides. He thought that these were raised beaches: they were later shown to have been shorelines of a glacial lake.[55]

    Charles chose to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.
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    Charles chose to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.

    Fully recuperated, he returned to Shrewsbury in July. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts about career and prospects on two scraps of paper, one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Advantages included "constant companion and a friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time."[56] Having decided in favour, he discussed it with his father, then went to visit Emma on 29 July 1838. He did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice he mentioned his ideas on transmutation.[57]

    Continuing his research in London, Darwin's wide reading now included "for amusement" the 6th edition of Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population which calculates from the birth rate that human population could double every 25 years, but in practice growth is kept in check by death, disease, wars and famine.[1][58] Darwin was well prepared to see at once that this also applied to de Candolle's "warring of the species" of plants and the struggle for existence among wildlife, explaining how numbers of a species kept roughly stable. As species always breed beyond available resources, favourable variations would make organisms better at surviving and passing the variations on to their offspring, while unfavourable variations would be lost. This would result in the formation of new species.[59] On 28 September 1838 he noted this insight, describing it as a kind of wedging, forcing adapted structures into gaps in the economy of nature as weaker structures were thrust out.[1] He now had a theory by which to work, and over the following months compared farmers picking the best breeding stock to a Malthusian Nature selecting from variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of [every] newly acquired structure is fully practised and perfected", and thought this analogy "the most beautiful part of my theory".[60]

    On 11 November, he returned to Maer and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, then in exchanges of loving letters she showed how she valued his openness, but her upbringing as a very devout Anglican led her to express fears that his lapses of faith could endanger her hopes to meet in the afterlife.[61] While he was house-hunting in London, bouts of illness continued and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." He found what they called "Macaw Cottage" (because of its gaudy interiors) in Gower Street, then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. The marriage was arranged for 24 January 1839, but the Wedgwoods set the date back. On the 24th, Darwin was honoured by being elected as Fellow of the Royal Society.[62]

    On 29 January 1839, Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were married at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to suit the Unitarians, then immediately caught the train to London and their new home.[63]

    Preparing the theory of natural selection for publication

    For more details on this topic, see Development of Darwin's theory.

    Darwin had found the basis of his theory of natural selection, but was aware of how much work remained to make it credible to his fiercely critical scientific colleagues. As Secretary of the Geological Society at its meeting on 19 December 1838, he saw Owen and Buckland display their hatred of evolution when destroying the reputation of his old Lamarckian teacher