The man known to history as Charles Darwin
was born on the 12th of February 1809, in Shrewsbury, the county town of
Shropshire, in the West of England. His father was Robert Waring Darwin, a
physician, who was remembered in part for his towering stature and imposing
frame, at over six feet in height, and weighing twenty-four stone; Darwin
later recalled that his father was ‘the largest man’ he had ever seen and noted the
conversations that he would have with his father, who assumed that his son would follow him into the
medical profession. Charles Darwin’s mother was Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood), who died suddenly
when Charles was aged eight, of either a severe ulcer or stomach cancer; he later recalled that
he could “remember hardly anything about her, except her death-bed, her black velvet gown
and her curiously-constructed worktable”. Charles’ grandfather on his father’s side
was Erasmus Darwin, a noted scientist who had mooted a theory of evolution in his poem,
The Loves of the Plants, written in 1789, in which he referenced vestigial organs in plants,
flies and humans, noting, for instance, the fact that human males had nipples, and flies unused
fourth wings; he also created designs for a rocket engine which would be powered by hydrogen and
oxygen, a canal bridge which would lift barges, and a copying machine, many of which were
not realised in practice until long after his death. Erasmus Darwin was a notable writer,
and an accomplished man of science, who turned down an offer from George III to become his royal
physician, and instead directed his attention to the writing of poetry, and the management of
a new club: the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which was devoted to philosophical discussion
between industrialists, scientists and poets to name a few. The relationship between Erasmus
and his son, Robert was strained, leading Charles to have little contact with his grandfather’s
theories and writings – these were not treasured by Robert, who instead attempted to encourage
the young Charles to become a man of medicine. The Darwin family also included several
other children, including one younger and three older sisters, as well as a single brother
– Erasmus, who was five years older than Charles; his sister, Caroline, provided
Charles with his first education, despite being only nine years older than him.
Having been educated for a time by Caroline, Charles later became a student of the Reverend G.
Case, a Unitarian minister, who noted that Charles had a passion for collecting various ephemera
from the natural world, including seashells, minerals and stones. When aged nine, Charles was
enrolled at Dr Butler’s school in Shrewsbury, where he boarded, despite only living a
mile away; he recalled later that he would often run home before the school was closed
for the night in order to see his family, which he argued was absolutely essential in
maintaining his mental health and wellbeing. Darwin spent much of his free time reading and was
deeply interested in the poetic works of Byron and the writings of Shakespeare, although he later
lost interest in them; he was also fascinated by the idea of travel, and enjoyed reading works
which depicted adventure and foreign lands. Charles’ interest in science stemmed
both from his readings, and from the activities of family members; his brother’s
interest in chemistry led him to construct a makeshift lab in their garden shed, and his
uncle excitedly instructed Charles on the operation of a barometer. His fascination
with fauna was augmented on family trips, such as those which the Darwins made to the
Welsh coast, in which Charles noted that the insects and flowers to be found there were not
always the same as in his home county. Charles performed with average success at school and
entered the University of Edinburgh when he was aged sixteen, although it was noted by
his father that a significant reason for his leaving school early was because he lacked
any great progress in his studies there. Charles was emotionally healthy, from what
we can gather from contemporary reports and autobiographical statements, although he recalled
that he had once kicked his puppy for the sense of power that it afforded him, and that he was
sometimes frustrated by the social standing of the sciences, which were often regarded as beneath a
gentleman. Entrance to the University of Edinburgh was encouraged by Charles’ father on the basis
that this would lead to his inevitable medical career – the University was a renowned centre for
medical learning, and counted amongst its alumni, Charles Bell – the discoverer of Bell’s
Palsy as well as the functions of the root of spinal nerves, William Hewson – the ‘father
of haematology’ and James Lind – who discovered cures for scurvy and typhus, as well as the model
for the first clinical trial. Charles entered the University with some misgivings about his own
enthusiasm for the course and was not helped by the poor teaching standards he found there, later
recalling the boredom he had felt in lectures, and bemoaning the lack of hands-on experience which
his teachers afforded him and his classmates. University had nonetheless given Charles some
experience which he would later come to rely upon – he presented his first academic paper
to the Plinian Society whilst studying there, and had met an academic who would later come to
support his Theory of Evolution, one Dr Grant. After two years at Edinburgh, Charles
had decided that he no longer wished to study medicine, ; indeed, this was already
the determined conclusionfollowing in the footsteps of his brother, who had already
quit his medical course at Edinburgh, and his father decided instead that he
should enter the clergy as an alternative. Such was this, that Charles was entered
at Christ’s College, at the University of Cambridge, when aged nineteen. H;
he once again, by his own admission, wasted his student days by becoming involved
with a group of fellow students who preferred the shooting field to the library, and
he gained a pass mark in his final exams. The University had been invaluable
to Charles as a means of introducing him to academics who would be come important
and formative in his own pursuit of science; JS Henslow and Adam Sedgwick both influenced
Charles as a student, and later in his life. Henslow was the man who would arrange Charles’
journey on the Beagle, and often met with him for walks and discussions about science and art, and
several others were to become friends with him, including . Darwin also befriended H.
Thompson, later an MP, and Dr William Whewell, who was to become the Master of Trinity
College, and later the Dean of Hereford. Darwin left Christ’s college in 1831 and
joined Sedgwick on an excursion the same year to North Wales, where he was taught
in the theory and method of geology. and was given an opportunity to apply his newfound
skills as part of an academic investigation. In August 1831, Henslow wrote to Darwin
and informed him of an expedition planned aboard the Beagle, a Cherokee-class 10-gun
brig-sloop of the Royal Navy; her captain, Robert FitzRoy, had written to Henslow,
and had stated that he would welcome a naturalist on his voyage, given that they
would undertake the journey without pay. Darwin was delighted at the chance to undertake
a voyage as a naturalist aboard a Royal Naval vessel, although his father was angered that he
was yet again stepping further from a career as a doctor or a clergyman; Charles implored his uncle
to speak to his father, and, after a discussion between Josiah Wedgewood and his brother-in-law,
Robert agreed to let Charles embark on the Beagle. On the 27th of December 1831, the HMS
Beagle departed from Devonport; Charles, with a degree in Theology and Classics, was
her resident naturalist – scientifically, he was alone, and had no one of
comparable experience or expertise, even though he lacked an academic background in
the discipline which underpinned his vocation. Charles spent his first day aboard the Beagle
in constructing a timetable for himself, which would allow him to become acquainted more
intimately with the subjects of Meteorology, Mathematics, and Biology, as well
as other subjects such as French, and the Greek New Testament, which he decided
would form the basis of his reading on Sundays; he also had copies of Paradise Lost,
and Humboldt’s Personal Narrative, in which the scientist and explorer Alexander von
Humboldt detailed his adventures to the Americas. Darwin noted in letters home that he had
a difficult relationship with the captain, FitzRoy, as did many other members of the
crew; FitzRoy was a member of the aristocracy, and an illegitimate descendent of Charles
II, with a wicked temper , which would flare erratically. , and remain fixed for hours on
end; Darwin also recounted an event in which he argued with FitzRoy on the subject of slavery,
which the latter supported; Darwin wrote that the argument had been so fierce, that he had
pondered leaving the Beagle altogether. Darwin shared his lodgings aboard
the Beagle with Augustus Earle, a draughtsman, and became friendly
with several other members of the crew, including John Stokes and Charles
Musters, a first-class volunteer; another, Simms Covington, was a cabin boy who was
later to become a personal assistant to Darwin. Over the course of the voyage, Darwin’s notes
show a man becoming ever-more convinced of the potency of natural selection, as well as his
conviction that fossils were the remnants of lifeforms which had existed before humans
had appeared, all of which he formulated during his first few weeks at sea, as he
studied aboard the vessel in his cabin; he concurrently battled seasickness, and wrote,
simply, that the Bay of Biscay was “hell”. During the first weeks of 1832, Darwin
commenced practical studies, and developed a net for collecting plankton, which he studied
and wrote about emphatically in his diaries, noting the vast array of colours and
forms which these creatures took. On the 16th of January, the Beagle made landfall
on St Jago, a component ofin the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of modern-day Mauritania;
he recalled that upon setting foot on the island, he was entranced by the volcanic
rocks, the song of strange birds, and the vast array of flora and fauna
which reached his eyes.that he saw. During his time in the Cape Verde islands,
Darwin developed a theory that hard white rocks, which littered the islands, were
formerly molten lava flows which had flown over the seabed, and contained
imprints from shells and coral reefs. On the 28th of February, the crew of the
Beagle alighted on the shores of Bahia, now a state of Brazil, and home to the city
of Salvadore; he wrote that “[this] land is a chaos of delight”, and his time in Brazil was
to have a great impact on him and his work. He wrote of the beauty of the wildlife and
of the nature in Brazil and argued that this was “nature in its grandest form”;
he also stated that, to a naturalist, there was a “pleasant nuisance” in having to stop
every few yards to study a new creature or flower. Darwin also encountered much slavery in Brazil, which was the last country in the
western world to abolish the practice, which it eventually did in 1888; he was deeply
disturbed by what he saw, and wrote that “I hope the day will come when they will assert their
own rights, and forget to avenge their wrongs”. Darwin and his companions settled at the small
village of Botafogo, which was located a short distance outside of Rio de Janeiro, situated on a
lagoon; he soon embarked on a three weekthree-week ride into the countryside from his base, during
which he travelled a distance of several hundred miles – in what would have been a dramatic and
exhaustive introduction to his new landscape. When working from his base in Botafogo,
Darwin also maintained a strict routine, and collected specimens one day, to be followed
by a day of preserving and analysing his finds on the following day, a two daytwo-day timetable
which he maintained for the duration of his stay. Darwin was able to observe dramatic and
exciting natural events in-person when in Brazil, and noted with great interest
an incident in which he had witnessed a vampire bat bite a horse, and made notes
on glow worms, butterflies and fungi. On the 5th of July 1832, the Beagle left
Rio and travelled south for Montevideo, now the capital city of Uruguay; upon their
arrival, the crew were informed that a revolution was taking place in the city – an event which
was part of a series of conflicts which had emerged in Uruguay following the Declaration of
Independence in 1828, and reflected a conflict between two political factions which
had entered the vacuum which followed. The conflict into which the Beagle had strayed was
a rebellion by the Montevideo garrison in support of Juan Lavalleja, the leader of the Thirty-Three
Orientals, a revolutionary faction, which opposed the presidency of Fructuoso Rivera, a veteran
military commander, who was the incumbent leader. FitzRoy made the decision
not to land in Montevideo, and instead proceeded to Buenos Aires,
whereupon they were fired at by an Argentine naval vessel – a problem which was
later rectified by the Governor; after this, the Beagle returned again to Montevideo, and
FitzRoy requested to land at a private mooring. After this stop, the Beagle continued south,
hugging the coastline in order to observe it; it was during this stretch of the journey
that Darwin was marooned for a single night, this was due to bad weather, which meant
that the Beagle was unable to come and pick him up from the island at which he
had stopped in order to take samples; he would later write that he never knew such cold,
although the experience allowed him to come across samples of fascinating fossils, such as that of
the extinct giant armadillo, and the giant sloth. The ship continued to pace back and forth
between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, allowing the crew to send and receive mail, and
Darwin to ship off his specimens home; FitzRoy, the captain of the Beagle, was also able to
undertake a disturbing practice, when he released three Fuegian prisoners that he had attempted to
“westernise” from a previous voyage – sending them back to their communities with a bizarre
assortment of items, such as cabbages, tea trays, cutlery and wine glasses; this was an incident
however, which Darwin expressed his opposition to. The next few weeks were spent by Darwin
undertaking riding expeditions around Buenos Aires and Patagonia, during which he reported
to have felt the extremes of human comfort, writing that he often suffered from a great
thirst, and that the seemingly endless riding had caused him to feel incredibly tired; he
was also plagued by mosquitos, and reported that the jaguars which inhabited the surrounding
forests had caused great fear amongst his guides. On returning from an expedition, back to Buenos
Aires, Darwin found himself unable to enter the city on account of another revolution, and instead
was forced to remain outside the city proper for a great period of time – he was unable to
reach the Beagle until the 4th of November, after which the vessel sailed, eventually
calling into the Rio de Santa Cruz in Venezuela. The Beagle had been damaged over the course of her
voyage and required repairs, which were undertaken at the mouth of the River; meanwhile, FitzRoy
had planned an expedition to the Cordillera de la Costa mountain range, which would require
the crew to embark on a 245-mile trip upstream, a journey which was spread over thirteen days,
and which the captain ultimately deemed a failure. On the 12th of May 1834, the Beagle
set out on her final trip south, and crossed into the Pacific Ocean on
the 9th of June, eventually reaching Valparaíso in Chile at the end of July;
from here, Darwin trekked the Andes, and was able to observe the differences in flora
and fauna which correlated with their altitude. Darwin then contracted an illness,
likely to be Chagas’ Disease, which caused him to experience fever,
swollen lymph nodes and headaches, and to which was blamed by some historians
on attributed his later poor health, such as his lethargy and heart problems; he
reported at the time in his letters home that he had experienced great periods of tiredness, and
that he had suffered from blackouts and confusion. From Valparaiso, Darwin made one of his
most important geological expeditions, and ascended 10,000 feet into the Andes in order
to observe the segmentation of the earth from the sides of the mountains which surrounded him;
he commented that “it was the first view I ever saw which really resembled those pretty sections
which geologists make of the inside of the earth”. Darwin also advanced on one
of his longest expeditions, travelling some 450 miles to the north,
during which he collected well over a hundred geological specimens, which he
labelled and recorded; by this time, he had been away from home for over three
and a half years, and his letters, despite showing his excitement at his work, reflected
an ardent desire to return to England. On the 7th of September 1835, the Beagle
sailed for the Galápagos Islands, which were to become synonymous with Darwin’s work;
as soon as the ship anchored off the islands, the focus of Darwin’s work switched from
geology to biology, and he noted eagerly that the flora and fauna of the Islands
closely reflected those of South America. Darwin’s observation of tortoises and birds on
the Islands stemmed from his interest in the fact that locals were able to identify which island an
animal came from on the basis of their appearance, such was the localisation of their variance; he
realised that finches on the various islands had differences in their appearance, which correlated
with the island from which they had originated. The beaks of the Galapagos finches were of
particular interest to Darwin, and he noted that some were better suited to the consumption
of insects, and some seeds,; this was a biological niche which suggesting they wereed a form of
adaptions based on anto specific environments. However, his notes at the time suggest that he did
not realise the implications of his observation, writing that “when I see these Islands
in sight of each other and possessed of but a scanty stock of animals, tenanted
by these birds but slightly different in structure and filling the same place in nature,
I must suspect that they are only varieties”. The Beagle remained in the Galápagos
archipelago for a further four weeks, from which it sailed south over the Pacific,
spending Christmas Day of 1835 in New Zealand; while there, he commended the work that was
being performed by missionaries in the region; and indeed, one of his first published reports
from the voyage was included in an edition of the South African Christian Recorder, in which
he wrote “[missionaries] thoroughly deserve the warmest support not only of individuals, but of
the British government”; such was his interest in the work of these organisations, Darwin co-signed
this statement with the Beagle’s Captain, FitzRoy. On the 12th of January 1836, the Beagle landed
in Australia, in what was the fifth year of her expedition; he noted in his diary that he was
pleased to have a level of immunity to European diseases, such was the suffering of native
communities with illnesses such as measles. In Australia, Darwin also noted the similarities
between different species of mammal, and noted their development had occurred
in tandem with those of other continents; he stated in his notes that he was
surprised that such similarities had developed through such a varied
pathway, noting that it seemed as if two creators had come by the same product
through an entirely different process. The Beagle soon set sail for home, and made
an unexpected stop in Bahia, where the ship had landed four and a half years before; Darwin
was exhausted, and craved a return to England, writing “[we have now] steered, thanks
to God, a direct course for England”. Darwin, on the return voyage, reflected on
the majesty of the untouched natural world which he had been able to encounter through
his journey, and the power of nature, which he had been able to discover “un-defaced”; this,
he referred to as an almost religious experience, writing that it inspired a feeling “that there is
more to man than the mere breadth of his body”. On the 2nd of October 1836, the Beagle landed
at Falmouth in Cornwall, and two days later, Darwin had returned to his home in Shrewsbury
for the first time in over five years; he found that his family welcomed him
home with open arms, and his father, impressed with his discoveries, accepted
his choice of career as a naturalist. Once he had returned home, Darwin
went to Cambridge, and then to London, in order to arrange and edit the official
Zoology of the Voyage of the ‘Beagle’, in which he wrote extensively about the journey,
as well as his discoveries and ideas; Humboldt, his hero, was impressed with Darwin’s work, and
praised his writing on travels in the tropics. Over the course of the 1840s, Darwin
published further works which stemmed from research which he had conducted
on the Beagle, including Coral Reefs, Volcanic Islands and Geological Observations
on South America, during which heand was able to encounter various great scientists, such
as Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker. Lyell was a prominent scientist and proponent
of the theory of uniformitarianism, in which he arguedthe idea that present-day natural laws and
processes exist not just here today, but through space and timehad contributed to the development
of modern effects in geology; Darwin adopted this theory, and argued further that it was a dynamic
process, which had a continued effect in the present, and could be used to explain a continuous
process of reform and change in organisms. Hooker was a young man, and shared a
great love of naturalism with Darwin; the two became firm friends, and it was to
Hooker that Darwin confined his theory of natural selection, which remained a secret
between the two for a number of years. By the time that he had returned from his
voyage, Darwin was convinced that organisms underwent a process of change and adaption;
he further theorised that this could be the case on a grand scale, and that the change which
occurred within a species could be responsible for wholesale and dramatic changes both in their
appearance, as well as their mode of life. In July 1837, Darwin commenced work on a new text,
which he called The Transformation of Species, and, only just over a year later,
he had recorded what we now called the Theory of Natural Selection, which remains a
fundamental basis on which modern science rests.. Darwin developed documented the
thought process that led to this theory theory through a thought process which
is evident fromin his notebooks; he began from an observation that sexual reproduction leads to
greater variation in a species than does asexual or parthenogenic reproduction, and which could
be highly varied in its extent and nature. . Darwin noted that, through reproduction, offspring
within a species had differences from one another, and from their parents – which can
be referred to as ‘random variation’; these differences themselves did
not appear to be directed toward any environmental advantage or design,
and were random – sometimes inhibiting the capacity of the genotype organism
to live, and other times enhancing it. This process of randomA variation cwould, over
a period of time, become ubiquitous amongst a population of offspring in whomif the varianceit
provided was an advantage into life – those within a species who were better suited to a
certain environment would live, and pass these characteristics on to their own offspring, leading
an entire population of a species within a certain area to bear these particular variations.;
this is sometimes termed as adaptive niches. Much of Darwin’s theory was also
based on establishing a common ancestor tof members of a species whicho
had diverged from one another in present characteristics, which he did through an
examination of fossils – demonstrating that species who shared relatively few characteristics
with one another had in fact stemmed from the same ancestor, and that they had diverged
from one another through these adapting to particular environmentsve niches; Darwin noted
this point in his writing, briefly, stating that “in South America parent of all Armadillos
might be brother to Megatherium, now dead”. The level of variation in nature had
been well covered in previous works; the archdeacon William Paley – often credited with
articulating an argument for the existence of God from design through an analogy involving a watch
– had himself written of the great differences present amongst animals and plants, which he had
presented in his work Evidence for Christianity. Darwin was puzzled by the potency of
seemingly designed adaptations amongst species which had evidently
undergone random variation; this evidently frustrated him, and he wrote
later that “how selection could be applied to organisms living in a state of nature
remained for some time, a mystery to me”. It was whilst reading Thomas Robert Malthus’
work on population on the 3rd of October 1837, that Darwin finally cracked the mystery of
selection – explaining the preservation of useful variation, and the disappearance
of unhelpful or inhibiting variation. Much of the remainder of Darwin’s professional
life was defined from this point – he was committed to demonstrating the potency of natural
selection as an explanative explanatory theory for the modern natural world, and worked
hard to trace document it in nature. Darwin also had other matters on his mind in 1837;
the latter part of the year saw him construct a document in which he debated the various pros and
cons of getting married, in which he weighed a fear that he would be unable to travel and would
have greater financial commitments to “a constant companion, charms of music and female chitchat…”;
he eventually erred on the side of marriage, and entertained the joys which would come with
it, before concluding “marry, marry, marry – QED”. Darwin evidently also had a “constant
companion” in mind when he wrote his list, and proposed to Emma Wedgwood
soon afterwards – and, on the 11th of November 1838, the
two were engaged to be married. Darwin and Emma departed on a weeks’ holiday from
London, after which they moved in to a town house at 12 Upper Gower Street, on New Year’s Day, 1839;
indeed, 1839 started well for Darwin, and he was appointed a member of the Royal Society on the
24th of January, five days before his wedding. The couple remained in London for a time, although increasingly poor health
had motivated them to make a change; Darwin and Emma moved to a country home named
Down House, in the Kentish village of Downe. Hooker and TH Huxley, a fellow biologist,
were regular guests at Down House, and Darwin wrote lovingly of the rural isolation
of the place, and the solace which it afforded him to conduct experiments, read, and spend
time with his family and close friends. On the 27th of December 1839, William, the first
of ten Darwin children, was born; William was of great interest to his father in many ways,
including scientific – and he kept a detailed record of his son and his activities, including
the ways in which he developed and ‘adapted’. Darwin was, by all accounts, a loving and devoted
father, who dedicated time in playing with and helping his children; he was very concerned with
their health, but afforded them great freedom. Down House was a perfect environment in
which Darwin could continue his researches, and he stored vast amounts of information
from his studies there – specimens and notes, as well as letters and documents that
he had received from around the world, with information from experts
and naturalists across the globe. Despite the joys of family, Down House
and his advancing scientific work, Darwin was plagued by illness from 1837
until the time that he died in 1882; when his father died, he was too ill
to attend the funeral procession, and a dinner held after a scientific presentation
could rob him of strength for a number of days. Darwin also suffered from a great deal
of self-doubt, which he had surrounding the potency of his own theory of evolution;
he refusinged to publish his findings until he had collected a wealth of evidence which he
could use to overwhelm any potential critics. Originally intended to be a short essay, Darwin
produced a draft for a 230-page long work in which he outlined his theory, and provided
an incredible barrage of evidence for it; he had intended to keep the work to himself,
although was encouraged by Hooker and Lyell, who were impressed, and urged
him to make his findings public. One of the major motives for Darwin’s
eventual decision to go public with his findings was the receipt of a
letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, in which Wallace posited precisely the theory that
Darwin had developed, and asked him for a comment. Darwin did not wish to rob
Wallace of what was a perfectly legitimate although nearly timedindependent
discovery, and arranged to have his findings published alongside Wallace’s in a joint paper; it
was this product which that was presented before the Linnaean Society on the 1st of July 1858,
and later published in the Society journal. After this presentation, Darwin was motivated to
more fully explain his own theory and findings, and did so in the form of the Origin of
Species, which he managed to complete in the remarkably short period of thirteen months;
he would go on to write ten further books, all of which laidying out and evidencing his
position and provided evidence, and and in doing so he changed mankind’s perception
of the natural world in a profound manner. There are several reasons why Darwin waited such
a long time to formally present his findings: he was greatly concerned with ensuring
that he provided a mass of evidence to back up his claims, and was side tracked
somewhat by his work with barnacles, work which led him to investigate
their reproductive processes, and which showed him the significant
variance in the phenotypes which developed. One of the major forces which that influenced
Darwin to produce and publish his Origin of Species was undoubtedly the influence of Wallace,
and it is important that his work and research be remembered alongside that of Darwin as
research which revolutionised biology. Once it had been produced and published,
the Origin of Species was a hit; the first edition sold out on day one, and the subsequent
editions which were drafted and produced were in great demand; the book itself was thoughtful
and well organised, presenting the basis of the theory of evolution alongside a wealth of evidence
which covered all major areas of known biology. Darwin also tracked the evolutionary
development of several organisms, and investigated how organs had
become specialised to their roles, how some species had become extinct, and
forecasted the explosion of the human population. One of the reasons for the success of the
work was the review it received from the noted zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley, who praised
the work, and exclaimed “how extremely stupid not to have thought of that!”; several other highly
influential scientists endorsed Darwin’s work, including Hooker, Lyell and Canon
Tristram, the zoologist of the Bible. However Darwin encountered much criticism
as well as praise for his work, and was roundly attacked by writers such as Philip
Gosse, who asserted, in his book Omphalos, that the world had been created by God in the
way that it now appeared – in other words, that nothing had changed since the world
had been created; his book fell flat. Other more articulate critics attacked Darwin on
a scientific basis; Adam Sedgwick argued that he had abandoned the accepted scientific method
as it had been formed under Francis Bacon, and another dangerous opponent was
presented in the form of Richard Owen, an anatomist and palaeontologist, who attacked
the Origin of Species in a lengthy review, which Darwin himself stated
was “malignant and clever”. Religious opposition to Darwin was furious, and
he was accused by Henry Trimen, the botanist, that the threat he had posed to the
doctrine of the Creation was so powerful, that the Origin of Species had made Darwin the
‘most dangerous man in England’; tensions on this matter came to a head during a notable
debate at the British Association in Oxford, during which Bishop Wilberforce
attacked the theory of evolution, which was successfully and effectively defended
by Huxley, who was at the height of his power. Indeed, Huxley remained a staunch defender of
Darwin, and at a later public encounter with Bishop Wilberforce was reported to have informed
the Bishop that he would rather have an ape for an ancestor, than a man who used his reason and
intellect to attack those seeking the truth; the incident apparently caused an audience
member to faint, and Huxley’s following scientific arguments, combined with
this comment led Wilberforce to silence; Darwin later jested to Huxley, ‘how durst
you attack a live bishop in that fashion?’. Similar battles were fought between
scientists and preachers across the world: in the US, Germany and Russia, exchanges were held
publicly between scientists and their opponents, bringing academics such as Ernst Haeckel to the
fore, in a position similar to that of Huxley. Darwin attracted political as well as scientific
attention; Karl Marx repeatedly tried to dedicate his book Das Kapital to Darwin, although
this was rejected on numerous occasions; Darwin was later honoured with
a statue in the Soviet Union, which was used in part to spearhead
a rejection of religious ideology. After 1859, Darwin published ten biological
works; six of which were engaged with particular botanical problems, dealing with questions
concerning devices for securing cross-pollination, as well as the operation of climbing plants;
one concerned earthworms and their effect on the natural environment, and the other three
concerned themselves with evolutionary biology. Many of these later works were designed to augment
and complement the theory that he had presented in the Origin of Species, although they also
contained some odd digressions into theories of sexual selection; the first of these was
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, which argued that variation
was the basis of evolutionary development, and that variation within a population
was the foundation of development, much of which was evidenced by research
that he had done with pigeons. In this work Darwin turned his attention to the significant
variation which existed amongst domestic animals, and included dogs, cats and foals, in his study,
examining and analysing the variation which they exhibited; he maintained from this his original
conclusion that evolution was a slow process, which relied not upon sharp variance between
members of a population, but on small, incremental differences which became increasingly
potent in a species over a long period of time. Later in his life, Darwin presented the theory of
pangenesis, which was his attempt to examine and explain the ways through which characteristics
were transferred between members of a species; he posited that something called ‘gemmules’
were transferred between beings through sexual reproduction – a theory which was of
course erroneous, but which was nonetheless a valiant attempt to account for inheritance
in the absence of any knowledge of DNA. Following his Variations, Darwin worked on
a new book, The Descent of Man, in which he sought to powerfully reject the idea that man had
descended from Adam and Eve, and posited rather that they had developed over a great period of
time through the process of natural selection. Darwin asserted that humans had descended
from a form of ape-like primate which may have originated in Africa, a theory which
remains highly supported by more recent research conducted by academics such as Broom,
and Dart and Leakey; many critics at the time were outraged at what they saw as his assertion
that humans had monkeys as their ancestors, which was of course not at all whatnot in fact
what he was arguing, since monkeys were the product of a period of evolutionary development
which had been concurrent to that of humans. Darwin led his investigation with an examination
of the similarities of humans and apes, and noted the similaritysameness of the formation
and operation of some organs and musculature between them, as well as the similarities
in brain structure; he also noted several vestigial characteristics in humans, such as
the embryonic formation of a vestigial tail, and that some humans possessed what
later became known as ‘Darwin’s Point’, which manifests as a thickening of
the helix at the tip of the human ear: an inversion ofevolutionary trait connected
to the pointed ear tips of several primates. Darwin also emphasised that humans and primates
shared not only physical, but also emotional characteristics; he argued that apes demonstrated
an advanced emotional maturity, which manifested itself in reason, imagination and sense of
morality, although he emphasised that whilst recognisable as a distant embodiment of human-like
intellect, that of mankind was doubtless greater. Darwin also dedicated a great deal of The
Descent of Man to the topic of sexual selection, and argued that much of the struggle in nature
was in this regard was that for reproduction; mammals attempted to win out over one another
for sexual engagement through physical combat, which enabled them to reflect shows of strength;
he argued as well, that for many species, the size of the male was an important determining
factor in the sexual freedoms it could enjoy, and noted this as a significant
factor in the mating behaviour of animals such as the sea-elephant,
sometimes called the Elephant Seal. In birds, Darwin argued, sexual preferences
and choices for members of a given species were more often determined by visual displays; male
members of many avian species were more brightly coloured than females, and their mating behaviour
often commenced with a dance or visual ritual, which enabled the male to display their
feathers and plumes to a female; Darwin noted this behaviour was particularly significant
for birds of paradise, and hummingbirds. Some of these ideas have since been discredited,
such as Darwin’s general assertion that animals were polygamous – we now know that many
birds engage in monogamous relationships, and there have since been biological distinctions
made between social and sexual monogamy, which Darwin confused with one another;
indeed, we now also know that coloured plumage on birds often acts to defend
territory and intimidate attackers, as much as if not to a greater extent than it
serves in determining sexual relationships. These omissions informed Darwin’s further
general assertion that sexual reproduction within a species was almost solely determined
by the choice of the female in sexual partners; this view has since been discredited, and
we now know that many of these rituals are in fact mutual in allowing
both partners to make a decision. In the final chapter of his book, Darwin turned to
the sexually selective practices of humanity, and asserted that in this case, selection was almost
always made by men, who, he argued, would choose a female partner based on several characteristics,
such as their figure, and facial structure; he indicated that many fashions attempted to
augment desirable characteristics amongst humans, and for men, fashion reflected wealth and social
status, which informed the choice that women made. These theories are of course very
much of their time, and have been subject to countless criticisms from social
scientists, and indeed there is an obvious omission of several fundamental aspects
of human social and sexual engagement, such as the importance of the formation of
emotional bonds between sexual partners, and the fact that female choice in
human sexual preferences has been a constant throughout human history; Darwin’s
theory was important for the fact that it introduced the concept of displays as a form
of choice-information in sexual preference, although the field has advanced significantly
from his time.in the intervening years. Emotions and their development
were also of interest to Darwin, who noted that primates and humans
shared several emotions, and had a similar reaction to emotional stimulation such
as public shaming, and that both expressed more complex emotional responses, such as a
desire for deliberate revenge when wronged. He pursued this field of study with his 1872 book,
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, in which he studied how emotions were
expressed physically by certain species; he noted with interest the expressions of
emotion in cats, horses, monkeys and apes, as well as a plethora of other animals
such as porcupines, hyenas and kangaroos, leading him to conclude that emotional
expression was innate to many animals. In his pursuit of data on genuinefor emotional
expression in humans, which was unforced and genuine, Darwin focussed his attention on the
expressions of infants and inmates in asylums, obtaining photographs of facial expressions
which he labelled and analysed for commonality; concluding from this, and a study he conducted
internationally, that despite culture and region, human emotional expression was largely common
across the world, and many behaviours and modes of expression would be recognised
between humans wherever they were from. Darwin further argued that these forms of
emotional expression as they occurred in animals stemmed from a preparation for action –
swans demonstrating a state of anger with arched wings and two-footed propulsion, dogs bearing
their teeth in distress – which stemmed from an evolutionary practice of pre-preparing
for action and thus giving animals with this behaviourthese displays of emotion
an advantage in their prospects of survival. Darwin also dedicated later books to the
development of vegetables and plants, and argued against a prevalent view that
some plants engaged in self-fertilisation; the variation which existed in these
species would have to stem from some degree of cross-pollination, which
wahes wanted to further investigate. Some work had already been done on the subject,
notably by Christian Konrad Sprengel, who had advanced the theory that flowers attracted
bees and thus played a role in the process of reproduction and cross-pollination, in his
1793 book Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen, which
was groundbreaking work in the development of biological understanding but received
little acclaim during the author’s lifetime. Darwin wished to build on this
understanding through research which analysed the reproductive processes of
plants and the process of cross-pollination; he studied orchids in particular, and the ways
in which the proboscis of moths had developed to obtain the nectar contained within them; one
genus he studied was the Coryanthes orchid, which was structured in such a way that bees
would tumble into the centre of the flower, and become covered with pollen, which, once they had
crawled out, they would spread to other plants. The various and ingenious ways in which plants
were adapted to the process of cross-pollination was a source of immense interest to Darwin
and led him to describe them as “beautiful adaptions… [which could] transcend in an
incomparable manner the contrivances and adaptations of which the most fertile
imagination of man could invent”. Darwin examined these processes further
in his later book Effects of Cross- and Self-Pollenisation in the Vegetable Kingdom,
which argued that there must be some innate value in the cross pollenation of vegetables,
and that over time, plants and pollenators, such as bees, become suited to one another,
through features such as the development of an elongated proboscis or a flower which
allowed access to a certain species of bee. Darwin also advanced theories on the growth
of plants, and indicated that stems had the capacity to bend as they grew through the process
of asymmetrical growth on one side of a stem, overtaking the rate of growth on the other
side and thus pulling the plant around a curve on the axis provided by the slowly-growing
side; this process was often seen in plants which adapted themselves to make best-use of light
conditions, although it was a process which also took place at night, indicating that
some residual hormone caused bymechanisms beyond the reflexive response to the
imprint of light must play a role. Darwin’s last book was produced
in 1881, and concerned earthworms; he conducted much of this research in his home
in Down House, and erected a ‘Worm Stone’, so that he might record the rate at which
the stone descended into the earth, and thus how potent the influence of earthworms on the
structural integrity of the soil in the lawn was; he conducted further experiments which
allowed him to write about the anatomy, habits and physiology of earthworms, and even
analysed the effect that music would have on their behaviour, noting that a bass note played
on a piano would send them into their burrows. Darwin, now late into his life, demonstrated
that earthworms had caused the monoliths at Stonehenge to sink, and thus appear far
shorter than they were; he also showed that their actions were responsible for a Roman villa
sinking so deep into the earth that it was too submerged to be affected even by invasive
agricultural practises such as ploughing. This thesis, a little-known work by a man who
is best remembered for his other researches, nonetheless encapsulates the doctrine
which was central to much of his work; that small, incremental actions
and processes would, over time, come to have significant
effects on the natural world. In the winter months of 1881 to 1882,
Darwin experienced serious heart problems, and was incapacitated more completely than
he had been already; in February 1882, he wrote in a letter to a friend that
he believed his “course was nearly run”, and on the 19th of April, he died, a short
time after his seventy-third birthday. Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey and
was carried to his grave by the President of the Royal Society, Huxley, Hooker and Wallace, as well as several other notable persons;
to be buried alongside Isaac Newton. Darwin was notable in his life for many
things: the fact that a man, with no formal scientific training would complete a voyage
as testing as that undertaken on the Beagle, to then introduce one of the most
powerful and influential models of biological development in human history,
as well as a wealth of other botanical, palaeontological and geological theories which
were ground-breaking in their own right was truly remarkable, and he is today celebrated
as the father of numerous scientific branches. The influence of Darwin’s central Theory
of Evolution cannot be overstated; the disruptive effect that this
had on biological, scientific, religious and social understanding remains
truly significant across the world today, and he is often celebrated as a paladin
of reason and scientific pathfinding. Darwin was characterised in great part by his
humility, his dedication to his self-appointed task of scientific advancement, and
his insatiable thirst for knowledge; we undoubtedly owe our modern understanding
of our own origins and existence to him, and he remains one of the most
celebrated scientists ever to have lived. What do you think of Charles Darwin? Does
he deserve his reputation as one of the greatest and most influential
scientists who has ever lived, or should some of the credit for the theories
of evolution and natural selection be at least in part shared with largely forgotten
figures, such as Alfred Wallace? Please let us know in the comment section and in the
meantime, thank you very much for watching.”
