Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809–19 April 1882) was a British naturalist who achieved lasting fame as originator of the theory of evolution through natural and sexual selection.

Biography

Early life

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on 12 February 1809 at the family home, The Mount House. He was the fifth of six children of Robert and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood), and the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and of Josiah Wedgwood, both from the Darwin – Wedgwood family which supported the Unitarian church. His mother died when he was only eight. When he went to the nearby Shrewsbury School the next year he lived there as a "boarder".

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In 1825 Darwin went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but his revulsion at the brutality of surgery led him to neglect his medical studies. He studied taxidermy with a freed black slave from South America, and found his tales of the South American rainforest absorbing. In Darwin's second year he became active in student societies for naturalists. He became an avid student of Robert Edmund Grant who enthusiastically followed the theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles's grandfather Erasmus about evolution by acquired characteristics. Grant's pioneering investigations of the life cycle of marine animals on the shores of the Firth of Forth found evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals have similar organs and differ only in complexity. Darwin took part in these investigations and in March 1827 made a presentation to the Plinian society of his discovery that black spores often found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech. He also sat in on Robert Jameson's natural history course, learning about stratigraphic geology and assisting with work on the collections of the Museum of Edinburgh University, then one of the largest in Europe.

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In 1827, his father, unhappy that his younger son would not become a physician, enrolled him in a Bachelor of Arts course at Christ's College, University of Cambridge, which would qualify him to be a clergyman. This was a sensible career move at a time when Anglican parsons were provided with a comfortable income, and when most naturalists in England were clergymen who saw it as part of their duties to explore the wonders of God's creation. At Cambridge, Darwin preferred riding and shooting to studying. Along with his cousin William Darwin Fox he became engrossed in the current craze for the competitive collecting of beetles, and 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, becoming the "favourite pupil", known as "the man who walks with Henslow". When exams loomed he focused on his studies and received private tuition from Henslow, whose subjects were maths and theology. Darwin became particularly enthused by texts by William Paley which included the argument of divine design in nature. 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.

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Residential requirements now kept Darwin at Cambridge until June. In line with 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 Madeira to study natural history in the tropics with some classmates after graduation. To prepare for this project, Darwin now joined the geology course of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick, then during the summer break worked with him at mapping strata in Wales. Darwin was surveying strata in Wales on his own when his plans to visit Madeira were dashed by a message that his intended companion had died, but on his return home he received another letter. Henslow had recommended Darwin for the unpaid position of gentleman's companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle, on a two-year expedition to chart the coastline of South America which would give Darwin valuable opportunities to develop his career as a naturalist. His father objected to the voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by Josiah Wedgwood to agree to his son's participation. This voyage became a five-year expedition that would change science dramatically.

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Journey on the Beagle

Darwin's work during the Beagle expedition allowed him to study first-hand a rich variety of geological features, fossils and living organisms, and exposed him to numerous foreign cultures. He methodically collected an enormous number of specimens, many of them new to science, which established his reputation as a naturalist and made him one of the . His detailed notes formed the basis for his later work and provided social, political, and anthropological insights into the areas he visited. Darwin read Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology which explained features as the outcome of gradual processes over huge periods of time, and wrote home that he was seeing landforms "as though he had the eyes of Lyell": stepped plains of shingle and seashells in Patagonia appeared to be raised beaches; in Chile, he experienced an earthquake that raised the land, and collected seashells high in the Andes. He theorised that coral atolls form on sinking volcanic mountains, and when the Beagle reached the Cocos (Keeling) Islands its survey supported his theory.

Related Topics:
''Beagle'' - Fossil - Charles Lyell - Patagonia - Chile - Andes - Coral - Atoll - Cocos (Keeling) Islands

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In South America he discovered fossils of gigantic extinct Megatheriums and Glyptodons in strata which showed no signs of catastrophe or change in climate. At the time he thought them similar to African species, but after the voyage Richard Owen showed that the remains were of animals related to living creatures in the same area. In Argentina two species of Rheas had separate but overlapping territories. Darwin found different mockingbirds on nearby Galápagos Islands, and on returning to Britain he was shown that Galápagos tortoises and finches were also in distinct species related to islands. An Australian marsupial rat-kangaroo and a platypus were such strikingly different creatures as to cause him to remark that "An unbeliever ... might exclaim 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been work'." In the first edition of The Voyage of the Beagle, he explained species distribution in the light of Charles Lyell's ideas of 'centres of creation'; however, in later editions of this Journal he foreshadowed his use of Galápagos Islands fauna as evidence for evolution: "one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends."

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Three natives of Tierra del Fuego returning with them as missionaries had become civilised in two years, yet their relatives appeared to him savages little above animals. Within a year the missionaries had reverted to savagery, yet preferred this rather than return to civilisation. This experience and his detestation of the slavery he saw elsewhere convinced him that the widespread concept of inferior races was incorrect, and that humanity was not as far removed from animals as his clerical friends believed. While on board the ship Darwin suffered from seasickness, in October 1833 he caught a fever in Argentina, and in July 1834 returning from the Andes down to Valparaiso he fell ill and spent a month in bed.

Related Topics:
Tierra del Fuego - Valparaiso - Ill

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Career in science, inception of theory

While Darwin was still on the voyage, Henslow carefully fostered his former pupil's reputation by giving selected naturalists access to the fossil specimens and printed copies of Darwin's geological writings. When the Beagle returned on 2 October 1836, Darwin was a celebrity in scientific circles. He visited his home in Shrewsbury and his father organised investments so that Darwin could become a self-funded gentleman scientist. After visiting Cambridge and getting Henslow to agree to work on botanical descriptions of modern plants he had collected, Darwin went round the London institutions to find the best naturalists available to describe his other collections for timely publication. An eager Charles Lyell met Darwin on 29 October and introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen. After working on Darwin's collection of fossil bones at his Royal College of Surgeons, Owen caused great surprise by revealing that some were from gigantic extinct rodents and sloths. This enhanced Darwin's reputation. With Lyell's enthusiastic backing Darwin read his first paper to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837, arguing that the South American landmass was slowly rising. On the same day Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens to the Zoological Society. The Mammalia were taken on by George R. Waterhouse. Though the birds seemed almost an afterthought, the ornithologist John Gould revealed that what Darwin had taken to be wrens, blackbirds and slightly differing finches from the Galápagos were all finches, but each was a separate species. Others on the Beagle including FitzRoy had also collected these birds and had been more careful with their notes, enabling Darwin to find which island each species had come from.

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In London Charles stayed with his brother Erasmus and met inspiring savants at dinner parties. His brother's lady friend Miss Harriet Martineau was a writer whose stories promoted Malthusian Whig Poor Law reforms. Scientific circles were buzzing with ideas of Transmutation of species. Darwin preferred the respectability of his friends the Cambridge Dons, even though his ideas were pushing beyond their belief that natural history must justify religion and social order.

Related Topics:
Erasmus - Savant - Harriet Martineau - Malthusian - Whig - Poor Law - Transmutation of species

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On 17 February 1837, Lyell used his presidential address at the Geographical Society to present Owen's findings to date on Darwin's fossils, pointing out the inference that extinct species were related to current species in the same locality. At the same meeting Darwin was elected to the Council of the Society. He had already been invited by FitzRoy to contribute a Journal based on his field notes as the natural history section of the captain's account of the Beagle's voyage. He now plunged into writing a book on South American Geology. At the same time he speculated on transmutation in his Red Notebook which he had begun on the Beagle. Another project he started was getting the expert reports on his collection published as a multivolume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, and Henslow used his contacts to arrange a Treasury grant of £1,000 to sponsor this. Darwin finished writing his Journal around 20 June when King William IV died and the Victorian era began. In mid-July he began his secret "B" notebook on transmutation, and developed the hypothesis that where every island in the Galápagos Archipelago had its own kind of tortoise, these had originated from a single tortoise species and had adapted to life on the different islands in different ways.

Related Topics:
17 February - 1837 - 20 June - William IV - Victorian - Hypothesis

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Under pressure with organising Zoology and correcting proofs of his Journal, Darwin's health suffered. On 20 September 1837 he suffered "palpitations of the heart" and left for a month of recuperation in the country. He visited Maer Hall where his invalid aunt was being cared for by her spinster daughter Emma Wedgwood, and entertained his relatives with tales of his travels. 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 gave Darwin the inspiration for a talk which he gave to the Geological Society on 1 November, on the unusually mundane subject of worm casts. He had avoided taking on official posts which would take valuable time, but by March Whewell had recruited him as Secretary of the Geological Society. Illness prompted Darwin to take a break from the pressure of work and he went "geologising" in Scotland. In glorious weather he visited Glen Roy to see the phenomenon known as "roads" which he identified as raised beaches.

Related Topics:
20 September - 1837 - Maer Hall - Emma Wedgwood - Jos - Loam - 1 November - Glen Roy

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Fully recuperated, he returned home to Shrewsbury. Pondering his career and prospects he drew up a list with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Having come down in favour, he discussed it with his father then went to visit his cousin Emma on 29 July 1838. He did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice he told her of his ideas on transmutation. While his thoughts and work continued in London over the autumn he suffered repeated bouts of illness. On 11 November he returned and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, but later wrote beseeching him to read from the Gospel of St. John a section on love and following the Way which also states that "If a man abide not in me...they are burned". He sent a warm reply which eased her concern, but she would continue to worry that his lapses of faith could endanger her hope that they would meet in an afterlife.

Related Topics:
29 July - 1838 - 11 November

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Darwin considered Malthus's argument that human populations breed beyond their means and compete to survive. He related this to the findings about species relating to localities, his enquiries into animal breeding, and ideas of Natural "laws of harmony". Towards the end of November 1838 he compared breeders selecting traits to a Malthusian Nature selecting from variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practised and perfected", and thought this "the most beautiful part of my theory" of how species originated. He went house-hunting and eventually found "Macaw Cottage" in Gower Street, London, then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. He was showing the stress, 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". On 24 January 1839 he was honoured by being elected as Fellow of the Royal Society and presented his paper on the Roads of Glen Roy.

Related Topics:
Malthus - 24 January - 1839 - Royal Society

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Marriage and children

On 29 January 1839, Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to also suit the Unitarians.

Related Topics:
29 January - 1839 - Emma Wedgwood - Anglican - Unitarian

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After first living in Gower Street, London, the couple moved on 17 September 1842 to Down House in Downe (which is now open to public visits, south of Orpington). The Darwins had ten children, three of whom died early. Many of these and their grandchildren would later achieve notability themselves (see Darwin–Wedgwood family)

Related Topics:
London - 17 September - 1842 - Down House - Downe - Orpington - Darwin–Wedgwood family

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William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 1839 – 1914)
Anne Elizabeth Darwin (2 March 1841 – 22 April 1851)
Mary Eleanor Darwin (23 September 1842 – 16 October 1842)
Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin (25 September 1843 – 1929)
George Howard Darwin (9 July 1845 – 7 December 1912)
Elizabeth "Bessy" Darwin (8 July 1847 – 1926)
Francis Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925)
Leonard Darwin (15 January 1850 – 26 March 1943)
Horace Darwin (13 May 1851 – 29 September 1928)
Charles Waring Darwin (6 December 1856 – 28 June 1858).

Several of their children suffered illness or weaknesses, and Charles Darwin's fear that this might be due to the closeness of his and Emma?s lineage was expressed in his writings on the ill effects of inbreeding and advantages of crossing.

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Career and development of theory

Darwin was now an eminent geologist in the scientific élite of clerical naturalists, settled with a private income. He had a vast amount of work to do, writing up his findings and theories, and supervising the preparation of the multivolume Zoology, which would describe his collections. He was convinced by his theory of evolution, but for a long time had been aware that transmutation of species was associated with the crime of blasphemy as well as with Radical democratic agitators in Britain who were seeking to overthrow society; thus, publication risked ruining his reputation. He embarked on extensive experiments with plants and consultations with animal husbanders, including pigeon and pig breeders, trying to find soundly based answers to all the arguments he anticipated when he presented his theory in public.

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When FitzRoy's account was published in May 1839, Darwin's Journal and Remarks was a great success. Later that year it was published on its own, becoming the bestseller nowadays known as The Voyage of the Beagle. In December 1839, as Emma's first pregnancy progressed, Darwin suffered more illness and accomplished little during the following year.

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Darwin made attempts to explain his theory to close friends, but they were slow to show interest and thought that selection must need a divine selector. In 1842 the family moved to Down House to escape the pressures of London. Darwin formulated a short "Pencil Sketch" of his theory, and by 1844 had written a 240-page "Essay" that expanded his early ideas on natural selection. Darwin completed his third Geological book in 1846; assisted by his friend, the young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, he embarked on a huge study of barnacles. In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed.

Related Topics:
Down House - Joseph Dalton Hooker - Barnacles

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To try to deal with his illness, Darwin went to a spa in Malvern in 1849, and to his surprise found that the two months of water treatment helped. In his work on barnacles he found "homologies" that supported his theory by showing that slightly changed body parts could serve different functions to meet new conditions. Then his treasured daughter Annie fell ill, reawakening his fears that his illness might be hereditary. After a long series of crises, she died and Darwin lost all faith in a beneficent God. He met the young naturalist Thomas Huxley who was to become a close friend and ally, then completed his work on barnacles (Cirripedia) in 1854 and turned his attention to his theory of species.

Related Topics:
Malvern - Homologies - Thomas Huxley

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Announcement and publication of theory

In the spring of 1856, Lyell read a paper on the Introduction of species by Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in Borneo, and urged Darwin to publish his theory to establish precedence. Darwin pressed ahead despite illness, getting specimens and information from naturalists including Wallace and Asa Gray. In December 1857 as Darwin worked on his Natural Selection manuscript he received a letter from Wallace asking if it would delve into human origins. Sensitive to Lyell's fears, Darwin responded that "I think I shall avoid the whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully admit that it is the highest & most interesting problem for the naturalist". He encouraged Wallace's theorising, saying "without speculation there is no good & original observation", adding that "I go much further than you". Then on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace describing the evolutionary mechanism, with a request to send it on to Lyell. Darwin did so, shocked that he had been "forestalled" and though Wallace had not asked for publication, offering to send it to any journal that Wallace chose. He put matters in the hands of Lyell and Hooker, who agreed on a joint presentation at the Linnean Society on 1 July of On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection.

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The initial announcement of the theory gained little immediate attention. It was mentioned briefly in a few small reviews, but to most people it seemed much the same as other varieties of evolutionary thought. For the next thirteen months Darwin struggled with ill health to produce an abstract of his "big book on species". Receiving constant encouragement from his scientific friends, Darwin finally finished his abstract and Lyell arranged to have it published by John Murray. The title was agreed as On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, and when the book went on sale to the trade on 22 November 1859, the stock of 1,250 copies was oversubscribed. At the time "Evolutionism" implied creation without divine intervention, and Darwin avoided using the words "evolution" or "evolve", though the book ends by stating that "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved". The book only briefly alluded to the idea that man, too, would evolve in the same way as other organisms. Darwin wrote in deliberate understatement that "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history".

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Reaction

Darwin's book set off a public controversy which he monitored closely, keeping press cuttings of thousands of reviews, articles, satires, parodies and caricatures. Reviewers were quick to pick out the unstated implications of "men from monkeys", though a Unitarian review was favourable and The Times published a glowing review by Huxley which included swipes at Richard Owen, leader of the scientific establishment Huxley was trying to overthrow. Owen initially appeared neutral, but then wrote a review condemning the book. The Church of England scientific establishment reacted against the book, and Darwin's old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow expressed their disappointment in him. Then Essays and Reviews by seven liberal Anglican theologians declared that miracles were irrational (and supported the Origin), distracting attention away from Darwin.

Related Topics:
Unitarian - The Times - Richard Owen - Church of England - Sedgwick - Henslow - Essays and Reviews - Anglican

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The most famous confrontation took place at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford. Professor John William Draper made a boring speech on Darwin and social progress, then 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, argued against Darwin. In the ensuing debate Thomas Huxley established himself as "Darwin's bulldog" – the fiercest defender of evolutionary theory on the Victorian stage. On being asked by Wilberforce whether he was descended from monkeys on his grandfather's side or his grandmother's side, Huxley apparently muttered to himself: "The Lord has delivered him into my hands" and replied that he "would rather be descended from an ape than from a cultivated man who used his gifts of culture and eloquence in the service of prejudice and falsehood" (there are several alternative versions of this story, see Wilberforce and Huxley: A Legendary Encounter). The story spread around the country: Huxley had said he would rather be an ape than a Bishop.

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Many people felt that Darwin's view of nature destroyed the important distinction between man and beast. Darwin himself did not personally defend his theories in public, though he read eagerly about the continuing debates. He was frequently very ill, and mustered support through letters and correspondence. A core circle of scientific friends – Huxley, Charles Lyell, Joseph Dalton Hooker, and Asa Gray – actively pushed his work to the fore of the scientific and public stage, defending him against his many critics in this key scientific controversy of the era. Darwin's theory also resonated with various movements at the time and became a key fixture of popular culture. The book was translated into many languages and went through numerous reprints. It became a staple scientific text accessible both to a newly curious middle class and to "working men", hailed as the most controversial and discussed scientific book ever written.

Related Topics:
Letters and correspondence - Charles Lyell - Joseph Dalton Hooker - Asa Gray

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Orchids, Variation, Descent of Man and Worms

Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last twenty-two years of his life Darwin pressed on with his work. He had published an abstract of his theory, but more controversial aspects of his "big book" were still incomplete; mankind's descent from earlier animals, and the mechanism of sexual selection which could explain features with no obvious utility other than decorative beauty as well as suggesting possible causes underlying the development of society and of human mental abilities. His experiments, research and writing continued. For a more detailed account of his biography during this period see Darwin from Orchids to Variation, Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions and Darwin from Insectiverous plants to Worms.

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When Darwin's daughter fell ill he set aside his experiments with seedlings and domestic animals to go with her to a seaside resort where he became interested in wild orchids. This developed into an innovative study of how their beautiful flowers served to control insect pollination and ensure cross fertilisation. As with the barnacles, homologous parts served different functions in different species. Back at home he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with experiments on climbing plants. He was visited by a reverent Ernst Haeckel who had spread the gospel of Darwinismus in Germany. Even at Cambridge, students now supported his ideas. Huxley gave "working-men's lectures" to widen the audience, and Wallace remained a supporter but increasingly turned to spiritualism. Variation grew to two huge volumes, forcing him to leave out man and sexual selection, but when printed was in huge demand.

Related Topics:
Orchid - Ernst Haeckel - Germany - Spiritualism

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New fossil evidence proved the antiquity of man, but other writers failed to fully tackle human evolution. Opponents claimed that the beauty of birds demonstrated divine guidance. These two subjects were tackled in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex which he followed up with The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin produced practical explanations for the differences between males and females, and between different races and cultures. He also developed his ideas that the human mind and cultures were developed by natural and sexual selection, an approach which still persists in evolutionary psychology. His evolution-related experiments and investigations culminated in five books on plants, and then his last book returned to the effect worms have on soil levels.

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Darwin died in Downe, Kent, England, on 19 April 1882. He had expected to be buried in St. Mary's churchyard at Downe, but at the request of Darwin's colleagues William Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society, arranged for Darwin to be given a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Related Topics:
Kent - 19 April - 1882 - William Spottiswoode - President - Royal Society - Westminster Abbey

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◄ Charles Darwin: Introduction

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