Vickipedia

DARWIN, CHARLES, F.R.S., an English naturalist of the highest eminence, was born at Shrewsbury, February 1.2, 1809. He was the son of Dr. Robert W. Darwin, F.R.S., and grandson of Erasmus Darwin (q. v.). His mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous manufacturer of pottery. After attending a public school at Shrewsbury, he studied at Edinburgh University for two sessions, and thence proceeded to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1831.

He now volunteered to go as naturalist in H.M.S. Beagle, commanded by Captain Fitzroy, R. N-, and started for a survey of South America, and a circumnavigation of the globe, Dec. 27, 1831, returning to England Oct. 2, 1836. His entire life, so far as his health permitted, was afterwards devoted to scientific researches. D., who was a fellow of the principal scientific societies, obtained the Royal Society’s medal, and the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society.—His earliest well-known work, The Voyage of a Naturalist (2d ed. 1845), is a most interesting and beautifully written work. In 1839 was published his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle; in 1840—1843, the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, published by government, to which D. contributed the introduction and many of the notes; in 1842, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Beefs; in 1844, Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands; and in 1846, his Geological Observations on South America. He also wrote many papers in the Transactions of the Geological Society. In 1851—1853, appeared his valuable Monograph of the Cirripedia; and in 1859, D.’s name became ‘ familiar as a household word ‘ to the mass of educated and semi-educated Englishmen, through the publication of his work, The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle of Life- In the Origin of Species, D. contends that the various species of plants and animals, instead of being each specially created and immutable, are continually suffering change through a process of adaptation, by which those varieties of a species that are in any way better fitted for the conditions of their life survive and multiply at the expense of others. So potent and universal does this process of natural selection seem to be, that D. considers it capable, with other less important causes, of explaining how all existing species may have descended from one or a very few low forms of life. This theory excited fierce controversies, but it has been embraced by many of the ablest naturalists, and has induced great changes in the method of biology and kindred sciences. See DARWINIAN THEORY; also SPECIES. Other works are : Fertilization of Orchids (1862); Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication (1867); The Descent of Man and Selection in relation to Sex (1871); Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1873); Insectivorous Plants (1875); Climbing Plants (1875); The Effects of Cross and Self-fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876); Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the same Species (1877); The Power of Movement in Plants (1880), a work in which it was proved that every growing part of every plant is always moving round or ‘ circumnutating,’ as D. calls it: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881). The latter work, which excited great popular interest, showed that part of the mould which covers the globe is the work of earth-worms, having been voided by them as worm castings. D.’s knowledge was not less remark^ able than his caution’ in statement. He received many high distinctions, such as the Prussian order Pour le Merite (1871), degrees from Leyden and Cambridge, and the membership of the French Academy (1878). He died April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.