Charles Darwin

For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin.

Charles Robert Darwin
File:Charles Darwin 1854.jpg Darwin in 1854, an eminent geologist and biologist privately developing his theory of evolution.
Born	12 February 1809 Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Died	19 April 1882 Down House, Kent, England
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh University of Cambridge
Known for	The Origin of Species
Awards	Royal Medal (1853) Wollaston Medal (1859) Copley Medal (1864)
Scientific career
Fields	Naturalist

Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who achieved lasting fame by producing considerable evidence that species originated through evolutionary change, at the same time proposing the scientific theory that natural selection is the mechanism by which such change occurs. This theory is now considered a cornerstone of biology, and has significantly affected other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology and anthropology.

Darwin developed his interest in natural history while studying first medicine, then theology, at university. His five-year voyage on the Beagle brought him eminence as a geologist whose work supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian theory of geology, and fame as a popular author. The wildlife distribution he saw on the voyage led him to investigate the transmutation of species and in 1838 he conceived his theory of natural selection. He had seen others attacked for such "heretical" ideas and confided only in his closest friends while carrying out extensive research so that anticipated objections were fully covered. However, Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay describing a similar theory in 1858, forcing early joint publication of the theory.

His 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (usually abbreviated to The Origin of Species) established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. Further aspects were examined in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He continued his research and wrote a series of books on plants, then one on earthworms.

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

Life

Early life

The seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816, one year before the sudden loss of his mother.

Further information: Charles Darwin's education

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on 12 February 1809 at The Mount, the house his father built in 1800 on the River Severn. 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 now adopting Anglicanism. Robert Darwin, himself quietly a freethinker, made a nod toward convention by having baby Charles baptized in the Anglican church. Nonetheless, Charles and his siblings attended the Unitarian chapel with their mother, and early in 1817 Charles joined the day school run by its preacher. In July of that year his mother died when he was still only eight. In September 1818, when he was nine, he entered the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder.

In 1825 Darwin spent the summer as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire, then in the autumn attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. However, his revulsion at the brutality of surgery led him to neglect his medical studies. He learned taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a freed black slave who told him exciting tales of the South American rainforest. (He would later, in The Descent of Man, use his experience with Edmonstone as evidence that "Negroes and Europeans" were still very closely related despite looking superficially very different from one another.) In Darwin's second year he joined the Plinian Society, a student group interested in natural history. He became an avid pupil of Robert Edmund Grant, a proponent of evolution by acquired characteristics as proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles' grandfather Erasmus. Darwin took part in Grant's investigations of the life cycle of marine animals on the shores of the Firth of Forth which found evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals have similar organs, differing only in complexity, showing common descent. 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. He also sat in on Robert Jameson's natural history course, learning about stratigraphic geology, receiving training in how to classify plants, and assisting with work on the extensive collections of the Museum of Edinburgh University, one of the largest museums in Europe at the time.

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, University of Cambridge to qualify as a clergyman, expecting a good income as an Anglican parson. However, Darwin preferred riding and shooting to studying. Along with his cousin William Darwin Fox, he became engrossed in the craze at the time for the competitive collecting of beetles, 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". When exams began to loom, Darwin focused on his studies and received private instruction from Henslow. Darwin became particularly enthused by the writings of William Paley, including 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.

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 to study natural history in the tropics with some classmates after graduation. To prepare himself, Darwin joined the geology course of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick then, in the summer, went with him to assist in mapping strata in Wales. After a fortnight with student friends at Barmouth, he returned home to find a letter from Henslow who had recommended 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.

Journey on the Beagle

Further information: Second voyage of HMS Beagle

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

The Beagle survey took five years, two-thirds of which Darwin spent on land, carefully noting a rich variety of geological features, fossils and living organisms. He methodically collected an enormous number of specimens, many of them new to science. At intervals during the voyage these were sent to Cambridge together with letters about his findings, and 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.

While on board the ship, Darwin suffered badly from seasickness. 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.

Before they set out, Fitzroy gave Darwin volume one of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which explained landforms as the outcome of gradual processes over huge periods of time. On their first stop ashore at St Jago Darwin found rock formations which, seen this way, gave him a revolutionary insight into the geological history of the island, inspiring him to think of writing a book on geology. 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 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.

In South America Darwin found and excavated rare fossils of gigantic extinct mammals, some in strata which showed no signs of catastrophe or change in climate, including a huge skull he thought was related to the African rhinoceros. At first he thought that fragments of bony armour came from a gigantic armadillo like the small creatures common in the area, but was then misled by Bory de Saint-Vincent's Dictionnaire classique into thinking they belonged to the megatherium fossils he found nearby. He was sent Lyell's second volume which decried evolutionism and explained species distribution by "centres of creation", but puzzled over all he saw and his ideas went beyond Lyell. In Argentina he found that two species of rhea had separate but overlapping territories. On the Galápagos Islands when collecting mockingbirds he noted that they were different depending on which island they came from, and also heard that local Spaniards could tell from their appearance which island tortoises originated on. In Australia the marsupial rat-kangaroo and the platypus seemed so unusual that it was almost as though two distinct Creators had been at work. When organising his notes on the return journey, Darwin wrote that if his suspicions about the mockingbirds and tortoises were correct, "such facts undermine the stability of Species", then cautiously added "would" before "undermine". He later wrote that such facts "seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species".

The voyage of the Beagle

Three native missionaries, taken from there on the Beagle's previous voyage, were returned to Tierra del Fuego. They had become "civilised" in England over the previous two years, yet their relatives appeared to Darwin to be "miserable, degraded savages". 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. Darwin now thought that humanity was not as far removed from animals as his clerical friends 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 New Zealand and Australia.

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.

Growing reputation and inception of theory

Further information: Inception of Darwin's theory

While still a young man, Charles Darwin joined the scientific élite.

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 a pamphlet of Darwin's geological letters. 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 not too busy to tackle the collections.

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 to work on the fossil bones. Owen's surprising results included gigantic sloths, a hippopotamus-like skull being from the extinct rodent toxodon, and the armour fragments being from a huge extinct armadillo (glyptodon) as Darwin had initially guessed. The fossil creatures were unrelated to African animals, but closely related to living species in South America.

In mid December Darwin moved to Cambridge as his base for organising work on his collections and pressing ahead with rewriting his Journal. 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, and on the same day presented his mammal and bird specimens to the Zoological Society. 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. The ornithologist John Gould soon revealed that the Galapagos mockingbirds were species, not just varieties, and the Galapagos birds that Darwin had thought a mixture of wrens, blackbirds and finches, were, in fact, all finches, each a separate species. Darwin had not kept track of which island his specimens were from, but found information from the notes of others on the Beagle, including FitzRoy, who had more carefully recorded their own collections.

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, joining the social whirl around scientists and savants such as Babbage, who thought that God preordained life by natural laws rather than ad hoc miraculous creations. He 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 new Poor Law reforms to discourage the poor from breeding beyond available food supply. Others including Grant and Gully even endorsed 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.

Gould's and Owen's revelations were still arriving, and the zoologist Thomas Bell showed that the Galápagos tortoises were native to the islands. By mid March Darwin was convinced that the original tortoises 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.

Illness, natural selection, 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 multivolume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. He agreed 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.

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 invalid aunt was being cared for by her unmarried daughter Emma Wedgwood. 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, inspiring a talk which Darwin gave to the Geological Society on 1 November, the first demonstration of the role of earthworms in soil formation.

William Whewell pressed Darwin to be Secretary of the Geological Society. After first declining this extra work, he succumbed and accepted the post in March 1838. 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 experts such as naturalists, but also people with practical experience such as farmers and pigeon fanciers,. who were not, at the time, generally consulted in scientific research. He included mankind in speculations, and on seeing an ape in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its child-like behaviour

The strain told and by June he was being laid up for days on end with stomach problems, headaches and heart symptoms. 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.

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 erroneously thought that these were raised beaches: later studies showed that they had been shorelines of a glacial lake.

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." Having decided 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.

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. 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 amongst wildlife, explaining how numbers of a species kept roughly stable. As species would always breed beyond available resources, favourable variations would enable organisms to better survive and pass on the variations to their offspring, while unfavourable ones would be lost, resulting in new species being formed. 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 formed as weaker ones were thrust out. 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".

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. He left to go house-hunting in London. His bouts of illness continued under 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." 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.

On 29 January 1839, Darwin and his cousin Emma Wedgwood were married at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to also suit the Unitarians, then immediately caught the train to London and their new home at "Macaw Cottage".

Preparing the theory of natural selection for publication

Further information: Development of Darwin's theory

Darwin had now found the basis of his theory of natural selection, but was well aware of how much work was needed to make it credible to his fiercely critical scientific colleagues. As Secretary of the Geological Society he had just seen Owen and Buckland display their hatred of evolution when destroying the reputation of his old Lamarckian teacher Grant at the meeting on 19 December 1838. As well as the vast amount of work to do on all his findings from the Beagle voyage, he carried out 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. When FitzRoy's account was published in May 1839, Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle formed the third volume, titled Journal and Remarks. It was a great success, and later that year was published on its own.

Early in 1842 Darwin sent a letter about his ideas to Lyell, who was dismayed that his ally now denied "seeing a beginning to each crop of species". Darwin then wrote a "pencil sketch" of his theory. To escape the pressures of London, the family moved to rural Down House in November. On 11 January 1844 Darwin wrote to his botanist friend Joseph Dalton Hooker about his theory, saying it was like confessing "a murder", but to his relief Hooker thought that "there might have been a gradual change of species" and expressed interest in Darwin's explanation. By July Darwin had expanded his "sketch" into a 230-page "Essay". His fears that his ideas would be dismissed as Lamarckian Radicalism were reawakened by controversy over the anonymous publication in October of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation which was severely attacked by establishment scientists. However, the book was a best-seller and widened middle-class interest in transmutation, paving the way for Darwin as well as reminding him of the need to answer all difficulties before making his theory public. Darwin completed his third geological book in 1846, and embarked on a huge study of barnacles with the assistance of Hooker. In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed, but would not commit himself and questioned Darwin's opposition to continuing acts of Creation.

In an attempt to improve his chronic ill health, Darwin went to a spa in Malvern in 1849. To his surprise, he found that the two months of water treatment helped. 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.

Darwin's eight years of work on barnacles (Cirripedia) found "homologies" that supported his theory by showing that slightly changed body parts could serve different functions to meet new conditions. In 1853 it earned him the Royal Society's Royal Medal, and it made his reputation as a biologist. In 1854 he resumed work on his theory of species, and in November suddenly realised that divergence in the character of descendants could be explained by them becoming adapted to "diversified places in the economy of nature".

Publication of theory

Darwin was forced into early publication of his theory of natural selection.

Further information: Publication of Darwin's theory

By the Spring of 1856 Darwin was investigating how species spread. Hooker increasingly doubted the traditional view that species were fixed, but their new ally Huxley was firmly against evolution. Lyell was intrigued by Darwin's speculations without realising their extent, and when he read a paper by Wallace on the Introduction of species, he saw similarities with Darwin's thoughts and urged him to publish to establish precedence. Though Darwin saw no threat, he began work on a short paper. He was repeatedly held up by finding answers to difficult questions such as how seeds could travel across seawater, and expanded his plans to a "big book on species" titled Natural Selection. He continued his researches, obtaining specimens and information from naturalists worldwide including Wallace who was working in Borneo. In December 1857 Darwin received a letter from Wallace asking if the book would examine human origins. He responded that he would avoid that subject, "so surrounded with prejudices", while encouraging Wallace's theorising and adding that "I go much further than you."

Darwin's book was half way when, on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace describing the evolutionary mechanism. Though shocked that he had been "forestalled", Darwin sent it on to Lyell, as requested, and, though Wallace had not asked for publication, offered to send it to any journal that Wallace chose. His family was in crisis with children in the village dying of scarlet fever, and he put matters in the hands of Lyell and Hooker. They 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; however, Darwin's baby son died of the fever and he was too overwrought to attend.

There was little immediate attention to this announcement of the theory: the president of the Linnean left the meeting lamenting that the year had not been marked by any great discoveries. Later, Darwin could only recall one review; Professor Haughton of Dublin claimed that "all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old." Darwin now struggled for thirteen months to produce an abstract of his "big book", suffering from ill health but getting constant encouragement from his scientific friends. Lyell arranged to have it published by John Murray.

On the Origin of Species proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859. Darwin now set out "one long argument" of facts, inferences and consideration of anticipated objections. His only allusion to human evolution was the understatement that "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history". He avoided the then controversial term "evolution", but at the end of the book concluded that "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." His theory is simply stated in the introduction:

"As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

Reaction to the publication

Further information: Reaction to Darwin's theory

A typical satire was the later caricature in Hornet magazine portraying Darwin with an ape body and the bushy beard he grew in 1866.

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 including Darwin's old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow reacted against the book, though it was well received by a younger generation of professional naturalists. Then Essays and Reviews by seven liberal Anglican theologians declared that miracles were irrational (and supported the Origin), distracting attention away from Darwin.

The most famous confrontation took place at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford. Professor John William Draper delivered a long lecture about Darwin and social progress, then Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, argued against Darwin. In the ensuing debate Joseph Hooker argued strongly for Darwin and Thomas Huxley established himself as "Darwin's bulldog" – the fiercest defender of evolutionary theory on the Victorian stage. The story is that on being asked by Wilberforce whether he was descended from monkeys on his grandfather's side or his grandmother's side, Huxley muttered: "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" (this is contested). The story spread around the country: Huxley had said he would rather be an ape than a Bishop.

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, Hooker, Charles Lyell 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, and helping to gain him the honour of the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1864. 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", and was hailed as the most controversial and discussed scientific book ever written.

Descent of Man, sexual selection, botany and old age

For more details, see Darwin from Orchids to Variation, Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions and Darwin from Insectivorous plants to Worms

Julia Margaret Cameron's portrait of Darwin.

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. These included explicit evidence of humankind's descent from earlier animals, and exploration of possible causes underlying the development of society and of human mental abilities. He had yet to explain features with no obvious utility other than decorative beauty. His experiments, research and writing continued.

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. Huxley gave "working-men's lectures" to widen the audience, and Wallace remained supportive, though he increasingly turned to spiritualism. Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication grew to two huge volumes, (forcing him to leave out human evolution and sexual selection), and proved very successful.

The question of human evolution had been taken up by his supporters (and detractors) shortly after the publication of The Origin of Species, but Darwin's own contribution to the subject came more than ten years later with the two-volume The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex published in 1871. In the second volume, Darwin introduced in full his concept of sexual selection to explain the evolution of human culture, the differences between the human sexes, and the differentiation of human races, as well as the beautiful (and seemingly non-adaptive) plumage of birds. A year later Darwin published his last major work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, which focused on the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with to the behaviour of animals. He developed his ideas that the human mind and cultures were developed by natural and sexual selection, an approach which has been revived in the last two decades with the emergence of evolutionary psychology. As he concluded in Descent of Man, Darwin felt that despite all of humankind's "noble qualities" and "exalted powers":

"Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."

His evolution-related experiments and investigations culminated in five books on plants, and then his last book returned to the effect earthworms have on soil levels.

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, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Darwin's children

The Darwins had ten children; two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. His concerns when they suffered illness or weaknesses led him to fear that the close family ties between him and his wife and cousin Emma Wedgwood had caused inbreeding. He examined this topic in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of crossing amongst many organisms. Despite his fears, most of the surviving children went on to have distinguished careers as notable members of the prominent Darwin — Wedgwood family.

Religious views

Further information: Charles Darwin's views on religion

As we have already seen, Charles Darwin came from a Nonconformist background. Though several members of his family were Freethinkers, openly lacking conventional religious beliefs, he did not initially doubt the literal truth of the Bible. He attended a Church of England school, then at Cambridge studied Anglican theology. He intended to become a clergyman, and was fully convinced by William Paley's teleological argument that design in nature proved the existence of God. However, his beliefs began to shift during his time on board HMS Beagle. He questioned what he saw—wondering, for example, at beautiful deep-ocean creatures created where no one could see them, and shuddering at the sight of an ichneumon wasp paralysing caterpillars as live food for its eggs — a contradiction, in his view, of Paley's vision of beneficent design. While on the Beagle Darwin was quite orthodox and would quote the Bible as an authority on morality, but had come to see the history in the Old Testament as being false and untrustworthy.

The 1851 death of Darwin's daughter, Annie, was the final step in pushing an already doubting Darwin away from the idea of a beneficent God.

Upon his return, he investigated transmutation of species. He knew that his clerical naturalist friends thought this a bestial heresy undermining miraculous justifications for the social order and knew that such revolutionary ideas were especially unwelcome at a time when the Church of England's established position was under attack from radical Dissenters and atheists. While secretly developing his theory of natural selection, Darwin even wrote of religion as a tribal survival strategy, though he still believed that God was the ultimate lawgiver. His belief continued to dwindle over the time, and with the death of his daughter Annie in 1851, Darwin finally lost all faith in Christianity. He continued to give support to the local church and help with parish work, but on Sundays would go for a walk while his family attended church. In later life, when asked about his religious views, he wrote that he had never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God, and that generally "an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind."

After Darwin's death, rumours that he had converted to Christianity ensued, most prominently the "Lady Hope Story", published in 1915 which claimed he had converted on his sickbed. Such stories have been propagated by some Christian groups, to the extent of becoming urban legends, though the claims were refuted by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians. His daughter, Henrietta, who was at his deathbed, said that he did not convert to Christianity. His last words were, in fact, directed at Emma: "Remember what a good wife you have been."

Influence

A classic image of Darwin in 1880, still researching and producing numerous books.

Darwin's fame and popularity led to his name being associated with ideas and movements which at times had only an indirect relation to his writings, and sometimes went directly against his express comments.

Eugenics

Main article: Eugenics

Following Darwin's publication of the Origin his cousin Francis Galton applied the concepts to human society, producing ideas to promote "hereditary improvement" starting in 1865 and elaborated at length in 1869. In The Descent of Man Darwin agreed that Galton had demonstrated that "talent" and "genius" in humans were probably inherited, but thought that the social changes Galton proposed were too utopian. Neither Galton nor Darwin supported government intervention and instead believed that, at most, heredity should be taken into consideration by people seeking potential mates. In 1883, after Darwin's death, Galton began calling his social philosophy Eugenics. In the twentieth century, eugenics movements gained popularity in a number of countries and became associated with reproduction control programmes such as compulsory sterilisation laws, then were stigmatised after their usage in the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in its goals of genetic "purity".

Social Darwinism

Main article: Social Darwinism

In 1944 the American historian Richard Hofstadter applied the term "Social Darwinism" to describe 19th- and 20th-century thinking developed from the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Herbert Spencer, which applied ideas of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to societies or nations competing for survival in a hostile world. These ideas became discredited by association with racism and imperialism.

The use of the phrase "Social Darwinism" to describe Malthus and Spencer's ideas is particularly disingenuous, since Malthus died in 1834 and Spencer's books on economics of 1851 and on evolution of 1855 predated Darwin's publication of the Origin in 1859. Indeed, Darwin did not believe that his scientific theory mandated any particular theory of governance or social order and thought that sympathy should be extended to all races and nations.

Commemoration

File:Charles Darwin 1881.jpg

Charles Darwin's contributions to evolutionary thought had an enormous effect on many fields of science.

During Darwin's lifetime many species and geographical features were given his name, including the Darwin Sound named by Robert FitzRoyafter Darwin's prompt action saved them from being marooned,and the nearby Mount Darwin in the Andes celebrating Darwin's 25th birthday. When the Beagle was surveying Australia in 1839, Darwin's friend John Lort Stokes sighted a natural harbour which the ship's captain Wickham named Port Darwin. The settlement of Palmerston founded there in 1869 was officially renamed Darwin in 1911 and became the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory, which also boasts Charles Darwin University and Charles Darwin National Park.

The 14 species of finches he researched in the Galápagos Islands are affectionately named "Darwin's Finches" in honour of his legacy. In 1964, Darwin College, Cambridge was founded, named in honour of the Darwin family, partially because they owned some of the land it was on. In 1992, Darwin was ranked #16 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. He was given particular recognition in 2000 when his image appeared on the Bank of England ten pound note, replacing Charles Dickens. His impressive, luxuriant beard (which was reportedly difficult to forge) was said to be a contributory factor to the bank's choice. Darwin came fourth in the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.

As a humorous celebration of evolution, the annual Darwin Award is bestowed on individuals who "improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it."

Darwin has been the subject of many exhibitions, including the "Darwin" exhibition organised by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2006 and shown in various cities in the US.

Works

Sources of free e-books online:

• Darwin Online: Table of Contents (Complete bibliography of works, including alternative editions, contributions to books & periodicals, correspondence & life) Free to read, but not Public Domain, and includes work still under Copyright.
• Project Gutenberg – major works, copyright free: List of books by Charles Darwin.

Published works

• 1835: Extracts from letters to Professor Henslow (privately printed, not for public sale)
• 1836: A LETTER, Containing Remarks on the Moral State of TAHITI, NEW ZEALAND, &c. – BY CAPT. R. FITZROY AND C. DARWIN, ESQ. OF H.M.S. 'Beagle.'
• 1839: Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)
• Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle: published between 1839 and 1843 in five volumes by various authors, Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin, who contributed sections to two of the volumes –
  • 1840: Part I. Fossil Mammalia, by Richard Owen (Darwin's introduction)
  • 1839: Part II. Mammalia, by George R. Waterhouse (Darwin on habits and ranges)
• 1842: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
• 1844: Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands
• 1846: Geological Observations on South America
• 1849: Geology from A Manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: and adapted for travellers in general., John F.W. Herschel ed.
• 1851: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of all the Species. The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes.
• 1851: A Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain
• 1854: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of all the Species. The Balanidae (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidae, etc.
• 1854: A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ of Great Britain
• 1858: On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection
• 1859: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
• 1862: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects
• 1868: Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication
• 1871: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
• 1872: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals
• 1875: Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants
• 1875: Insectivorous Plants
• 1876: The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom
• 1877: The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
• 1879: "Preface and 'a preliminary notice'" in Ernst Krause's Erasmus Darwin
• 1880: The Power of Movement in Plants
• 1881: The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms
• 1887: Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Edited by his son Francis Darwin)
• 1958: Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Barlow, unexpurgated)

Letters

• Correspondence of Charles Darwin
• 1887: Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, (ed. Francis Darwin)
• 1903: More Letters of Charles Darwin, (ed. Francis Darwin and A.C. Seward)

References

• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference
• Template:Harvard reference

Further reading

• Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks. New York, 2006.
• Richard Keynes, Fossils, Finches and Fuegians: Charles Darwin's Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle, 1832-1836. (London: HarperCollins, 2002) ISBN 0-00-710189-9.
• James Moore and Adrian Desmond, "Introduction", in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (London: Penguin Classics, 2004). (Detailed history of Darwin's views on race, sex, and class)
• Diane B. Paul, "Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics," in Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 214-239.
• The Mount Residents' Group, Darwin section. Viewed 4 Nov 2006. http://www.themountshrewsbury.com

External links

• The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
• The Friends of Charles Darwin
• Darwin's work on orchids
• Darwin Correspondence Project
• The Darwin Digital Library of Evolution
• Institut Charles Darwin International
• AboutDarwin.com
• Darwin - at the American Museum of Natural History
• Darwin's portrait on £10 note
• Twelve different portraits of Charles Darwin, National Portrait Gallery, U.K.
• BBC: "Darwin family repeat flower count"
• Mis-portrayal of Darwin as a Racist
• Digitized titles by Charles Darwin in Botanicus.org
• 1871 Caricature of Charles Darwin by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly
• Charles Darwin biography
• Charles Darwin at Curlie

See also

• Darwin Awards
• Darwin's Frog – a species of frog named after Charles Darwin.
• Descent with modification
• Evolution
• Harriet – a Galápagos tortoise, possibly collected by Darwin; died 23 June 2006 at an estimated age of 175.
• Patrick Matthew – an amateur evolutionary theorist and contemporary of Darwin.
• Randal Keynes – the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin who wrote a book about him, his daughter, and human evolution
• Shrewsbury – Birthplace of Darwin
• The Tree of Life – an excerpt from the Origin of Species