Charles Darwin

From Nwe

Charles Darwin in 1854, five years before he published The Origin of Species.

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

Considered the "father of evolutionary theory," Darwin made two contributions of enormous impact to the idea of evolution. First, Darwin marshaled substantial evidence for the theory of descent with modification, a kinematic theory that treats non-causal relations between things—it deals with the pattern of evolution. Secondly, Darwin proposed a mechanism for that observed pattern, the theory of natural selection. This is a dynamic theory that involves mechanisms and causal relationships—it deals with the process of evolution.

Darwin's interest in natural history developed at the college level, while studying first medicine, then theology. But it was his five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle that began his road to eminence. His biological observations at that time led him to study transmutation of species and develop his theory of natural selection in 1838 and the draft of a preliminary manuscript in 1842. He confided only in close friends, but in 1858 the information that Alfred Russel Wallace now had a similar theory forced early joint presentation of the theory.

Darwin's 1859 book, 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 theory of diversification in nature, and it established natural selection as a contender for explaining the diversity of life. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, continued his research, and wrote a series of books on plants and animals, including humans in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His last book was about earthworms.

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

Darwin's theory of descent with modification, which is neutral with respect to the process involved, was accepted soon after its introduction, and substantial evidence has been accumulated in its support. In contrast, Darwin's theory of modification through natural selection was, at its core, revolutionary and controversial, positing a process that went against prevailing concepts at the time. (See radical components.) It was not well accepted by the scientific community until the middle of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the theory that natural selection serves as the main directive force of large-scale evolutionary changes and new designs (macroevolution) remains controversial in various quarters today, and its evidences remain largely confined to extrapolations from evolution observed within species or populations (microevolution).

Darwin has been claimed as a "patron saint" of materialists who identify the mechanism of natural selection operating on variability as a great nail in the coffin of God and all related matters of spirit and religion. The proven efficacy of natural selection, they claim, is ample justification for disposing of any idea that a deity may have had even a small role in creating either new species, marvelous mechanisms such as the human eye, or human beings. Yet, at the same time, such views are a great affront to many religious people who have viewed the marvels of the natural world as the handiwork of a Creator God. Many religious people hold the view that the directing or creative force in the observed pattern of evolution is a Creator or God and that although natural selection may be a force for change within a species or population, it cannot be the ultimate source of major new designs or the remarkable diversity of species. However, there actually is a great diversity of religious belief regarding Darwin's theories, from those that stand in opposition to both the theory of descent with modification and the theory of natural selection (such as "young-earth" creationists), to those that accept the pattern observed in nature (theory of descent with modification) but not the process (theory of natural selection), and still others who accept natural selection as the causal agent of large-scale change.

Darwin's ideas and impact

Synopsis of Darwin's ideas

There are two major components in Darwin's theory of evolution: (1) the theory of descent with modification; and (2) the theory of modification through natural selection.

The "theory of descent with modification" (or "theory of evolution by common descent") essentially postulates that all organisms have descended from common ancestors by a continuous process of branching. In other words, all life evolved from one kind of organism or from a few simple kinds, and each species arose in a single geographic location, from another species that preceded it in time. Evolutionists have marshaled substantial evidence for the theory of descent with modification. That is, the "pattern of evolution" is documented by the fossil record, the distribution patterns of existing species, methods of dating fossils, and comparison of homologous structures, among others.

The second theory of Darwin, the "theory of modification through natural selection" (or, simply, "theory of natural selection"), holds that natural selection is the directing or creative force of evolution. It recognizes that individuals in a population are not all the same (there are variations), some of these variations are heritable, all organisms produce more offspring than can survive, and those surviving to reproduce have the best fit to the environment, such that favorable traits will accumulate and unfavorable traits will decline and be lost—perhaps to the extent that a new species will be formed. Note that natural selection is considered far more than just a minor force for weeding out unfit organisms. Even Paley and other natural theologians accepted natural selection, albeit as a devise for removing unfit organisms, rather than as a directive force for creating new species and new designs.

Concrete evidence for the theory of modification by natural selection is limited to microevolution, such as seen in the case of artificial selection (whereby various breeds of animals and varieties of plants have been produced that are different in some respect from their ancestors), or in natural selection within populations or species (such as the often-cited, but somewhat problematic case of systematic color change in the peppered moth, Biston betularia). The evidence that natural selection directs the major transitions between species and originates new designs (macroevolution) necessarily involves extrapolation from these evidences on the microevolutionary level. One of Darwin's chief purposes in publishing the Origin of Species was to show that natural selection had been the chief agent of the change presented in the theory of descent with modification. The validity of making this extrapolation has recently come under strong challenge from top evolutionists.

In Darwin's comprehensive theory of evolution, there can actually be elucidated at least three additional, major, largely independent theories: (1) evolution as fact; (2) populational speciation; and (3) gradualism. Darwin strived to establish the "fact of evolution," countering the view of most people and scientists at the time that the world was constant. Darwin also looked at speciation as a populational phenomenon; the population gradually changed until it became a new species. Thirdly, Darwin also insisted that evolution was entirely gradual, that evolution proceeded by means of the slow, steady accumulation of slight favorable variations. Indeed, he stated in the Origin of Species:

This insistence that evolution is entirely gradual encountered much resistance, since there seemed to be strong differences between different types, and paleontologists failed to find intermediate types in the fossil record. Today, this concept remains in doubt, with the presentation of various punctuational models for speciation and for the origin of new designs.

Radical components

Although concepts of evolution were not uncommon in the first half of the nineteenth century, Darwin’s theory of modification through natural selection operating on expressed variability was radical in three of its foundational premises:

  1. Purposeless. A higher purpose is not required or utilized to explain the seeming harmony in the world. The orthodox view at the time was that one observed harmony in nature because everything had a preordained role. Darwin's theory cut through this orthodoxy with the view that there is no higher purpose; rather, any apparent harmony is actually the fruit of an underlying struggle of individuals to survive and reproduce.
  2. Philosophical materialism. Matter is to be recognized as the main reality of existence, and mental and spiritual phenomena, including thought, will, and feeling, are to be explained in terms of matter, as its by-products. By advocating a materialist account of life, Darwin launched biology on a trajectory that would contravene one of the strongest traditions of Western thought: the dualist separation of mind and matter, with an elevated status for mind[1]. Rather, in Darwin's view, the human mind is a natural outcome of selective pressures for a large and complex brain.
  3. No inherent progress. Darwin stated that evolution is not inherently progressive; it does not lead inexorably to an improvement of life over time. That is, life does not move from lower to higher states, and indeed, there is no "higher" or "lower" with reference to the structure of organisms. Natural selection only adapts organisms to their local environments. Although natural selection has led to evolving a human, it has also produced the extreme morphological degeneration of many parasites. Darwin granted humans no special status[2]

In actuality, it is the theory of modification through natural selection, rather than the theory of descent with modification, that had these three radical components. By providing a purely non-theological, materialistic explanation for all phenomena of living nature, it was said it "dethroned God." So radical were Darwin's ideas that it has been speculated that, after developing the idea of natural selection, Darwin waited more than 20 years to publish his theory because of its societal implications.

Most religious perspectives do not adhere to the three radical premises that undergird and also emanate from the theory of natural selection: purposelessness, philosophical materialism, and the view that life has not developed progressively. Rather, they attribute a Creator or God as the ultimate force impacting variability and yielding the observed pattern of evolution. Natural selection is recognized as a force for microevolutionary change (within species), or acting on designed variability, but not as directive force responsible for the creation of major new designs or phyla from randomly generated variability.

Importance of Darwin's thought

Charles Darwin was revered by many as a great thinker

Prior to the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859, the field of evolutionary biology was nearly non-existent. Soon it would become the focus of intense activity, and today a vast literature, including entire periodicals, are devoted to this field and its various specialties. The extensive effort devoted to the study of Darwin himself, and his writings, has led to a common designation: "Darwin industry."

Darwin's theory of evolution based upon natural selection changed the thinking of countless fields of study from biology to anthropology. His work established that "evolution" had occurred: not necessarily that it was by natural or sexual selection. (Although by the time of Darwin's death in 1882, the fact of evolution was almost universally accepted by his contemporaries, the mechanism for this evolution—the theory of natural selection—did not become an orthodoxy until long after his death, and particularly only after the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's work in the early twentieth century and the inception of the modern synthesis.)

The impact of Darwin's ideas on current teachings of evolutionary theory is readily visible. Darwin's books, The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871), contain discussions that are still largely applicable and utilized today. These cover such themes as the basics of natural selection, sexual selection, diverse definitions for species, analogous resemblances and convergence, homologous structures, embryological development, and vestigial organs as evidence for descent of humans, fossils as evidence of evolution, classification on evolutionary principles, and so forth. Note, for example, a concept taken directly from The Origin of Species, which is just one of many that are frequently found closely mirrored in the text and illustrations of secondary school biology textbooks: "What can be more curious than that the hand of man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of a horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?" Ernst Mayr relates that the most convincing proofs of evolution in modern times are the very areas that Darwin has presented as evidences: biogeography, paleontology, morphology, classification, and embryology.

Of course, innumerable developments in evolutionary theory have taken place since the time of Darwin, and some of Darwin's concepts have proven wrong. Darwin accepted both the principle of use and disuse (Lamarck's "First Law") and the formulation of inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarck's "Second Law"). In The Origin of Species, he stated that "there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts and disuse diminishes them; and that such modifications are inherited." Indeed, Darwin devoted an entire section in chapter 5 to the concept of use and disuse. However, since Darwin's time the concepts of use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired characteristics have been generally discredited. Also, since Darwin's time, there has been a melding of evolutionary theory with ecology, behavioral biology, and molecular biology, and the laws governing inheritance have been greatly illuminated.

Commemoration

During Darwin's lifetime many species and geographical features were given his name, including the Darwin Sound, named by HMS Beagles Robert FitzRoy after Darwin's prompt action saved them from being marooned, and the nearby Mount Darwin in the Andes, which FitzRoy named in celebration of Darwin's twenty-fifth birthday. In Australia's Northern Territory, the capital city (originally Palmerston) was renamed Darwin to commemorate the Beagle's 1839 visit there, and the territory now 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 honor of his legacy. In 1964, Darwin College, Cambridge was founded, named in honor of the Darwin family, partially because they owned some of the land it was on. In 1992, Darwin was ranked sixteenth on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. Darwin was given particular recognition in 2000 when his image appeared on the Bank of England ten-pound note, replacing Charles Dickens. Darwin was fourth in the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.

Biography

Early life

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

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

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

In 1827, his father, unhappy that his younger son would not become a physician, enrolled him in a Bachelor of Arts course at Christ's College, University of Cambridge, which would qualify him to be a clergyman. This was a sensible career move at a time when Anglican's were provided with a comfortable income, and when most naturalists in England were clergymen who saw it as part of their duties to explore the wonders of God's creation. At Cambridge, Darwin preferred riding and shooting to studying. Along with his cousin William Darwin Fox, he became engrossed in the current craze for the competitive collecting of beetles, and Fox introduced him to the Reverend John Stevens Henslow, professor of botany, for expert advice on beetles. Darwin subsequently joined Henslow's natural history course, becoming the "favorite pupil," known as "the man who walks with Henslow." When exams loomed, he focused on his studies and received private tutoring from Henslow, whose subjects were math and theology. Darwin became particularly enthused by texts by William Paley which included the argument of divine design in nature. In his finals in January 1831, Darwin performed well in theology and, having done well enough in the classics, mathematics, and physics, was tenth out of a pass list of 178.

Residential requirements now kept Darwin at Cambridge until June. In line with Henslow's example and advice, he was in no rush to take holy orders. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative, he planned to visit Madeira to study natural history in the tropics with some classmates after graduation. To prepare for this project, Darwin now joined the geology course of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick, then during the summer break worked with him at mapping strata in Wales. Darwin was surveying strata in Wales on his own when his plans to visit Madeira were dashed by a message that his intended companion had died, but on his return home he received another letter. Henslow had recommended Darwin for the unpaid position of gentleman's companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle, on a two-year expedition to chart the coastline of South America which would give Darwin valuable opportunities to develop his career as a naturalist. His father objected to the voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by Josiah Wedgwood to agree to his son's participation. This voyage became a five-year expedition that would change science dramatically.

Journey on the Beagle

HMS Beagle surveyed wild coasts of South America.

The HMS Beagle survey took five years, two-thirds of which Darwin spent exploring on land. He studied firsthand a rich variety of geological features, fossils, and living organisms, and met a wide range of people, both native and colonial. He methodically collected an enormous number of specimens, many of them new to science, which established his reputation as a naturalist and made him one of the precursors of the field of ecology. His detailed notes formed the basis for his later work and provided social, political, and anthropological insights into the areas he visited. Darwin read Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which explained features as the outcome of gradual processes over huge periods of time, and wrote home that he was seeing landforms "as though he had the eyes of Lyell": stepped plains of shingle and seashells in Patagonia appeared to be raised beaches; in Chile, he experienced an earthquake that raised the land; and high in the Andes, he collected seashells. He theorized that coral atolls form on sinking volcanic mountains, and when the Beagle reached the Cocos (Keeling) Islands its survey supported his theory.

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

While on board the ship, Darwin suffered from seasickness. In October 1833 he caught a fever in Argentina, and in July 1834 (returning from the Andes down to Valparaiso) he fell ill and spent a month in bed.

Career in science, inception of theory

While still a young man, Charles Darwin became eminent as a naturalist.

While Darwin was still on the voyage, Henslow carefully fostered his former pupil's reputation by giving selected naturalists access to the fossil specimens and printed copies of Darwin's geological writings. When the Beagle returned on October 2, 1836, Darwin was a celebrity in scientific circles. He visited his home in Shrewsbury and his father organized investments so that Darwin could become a self-funded gentleman scientist. After visiting Cambridge and getting Henslow to agree to work on botanical descriptions of modern plants he had collected, Darwin went to London institutions to find the best naturalists available to describe his other collections for timely publication. An eager Charles Lyell met Darwin on October 29 and introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen. After working on Darwin's collection of fossil bones at his Royal College of Surgeons, Owen caused great surprise by revealing that some were from gigantic extinct rodents and sloths. This enhanced Darwin's reputation.

With Lyell's enthusiastic backing, Darwin read his first paper to the Geological Society of London on January 4, 1837, arguing that the South American landmass was slowly rising. On the same day, Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens to the Zoological Society. Though the birds seemed almost an afterthought, the ornithologist John Gould revealed that what Darwin had taken to be wrens, blackbirds, and slightly differing finches from the Galápagos were all finches, but each was a separate species. Others on the Beagle, including FitzRoy, had also collected these birds and had been more careful with their notes, enabling Darwin to find which island each species had come from.

In London, Charles stayed with his brother Erasmus. Scientific circles were buzzing with ideas of transmutation of species. Darwin preferred the company of his friends, the Cambridge Dons, even though his ideas were pushing beyond their belief that natural history must justify religion and social order.

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

While organizing Zoology and correcting proofs of his Journal, Darwin's health suffered. On September 20, 1837, he suffered "palpitations of the heart" and left for a month of recuperation in the countryside. He visited Maer Hall where his invalid aunt was being cared for by her daughter Emma Wedgwood, and entertained his relatives with tales of his travels. Darwin avoided taking on official posts that would take valuable time, but by March he was recruited to serve as Secretary of the Geological Society.

Charles chose to marry his first cousin Emma Wedgwood.

Upon being fully recuperated, Darwin returned home to Shrewsbury. Pondering his career and prospects he drew up a list with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry." Having come down in favor of marrying, he discussed it with his father, and then went to visit his cousin Emma on July 29, 1838. He did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice he told her of his ideas on transmutation.

While his thoughts and work continued in London over the autumn, Darwin suffered repeated bouts of illness. On November 11, he returned and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, but later wrote beseeching him to read from the Gospel of Saint John a section on love and following the Way which also states that "If a man abide not in me…they are burned." He sent a warm reply which eased her concern, but she would continue to worry that his lapses of faith could endanger her hope that they would meet in an afterlife.

Darwin considered Malthus's argument that human populations breed beyond their means and compete to survive. He related this to findings about species relating to localities, his inquiries into animal breeding, and ideas of natural "laws of harmony." Towards the end of November 1838, Darwin compared breeders’ selecting traits to a Malthusian Nature selecting from variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practised and perfected." Darwin thought this "the most beautiful part of my theory" of how species originated.

Darwin went house-hunting and eventually found "Macaw Cottage" in Gower Street, London, and then moved his "museum" there over Christmas. He was showing signs of stress, and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." On January 24, 1839, Darwin was honored by being elected as Fellow of the Royal Society and presented a paper on the Roads of Glen Roy.

Marriage and children

On January 29, 1839, Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood (May 2, 1808 – October 7, 1896) at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to also suit the Unitarians.

After first living in Gower Street, London, the couple moved on September 17, 1842, to Down House in Downe. The Darwins had ten children, three of whom died early. Many of these and their grandchildren would later achieve notability themselves.

The devoted father Charles Darwin photographed with his son William in 1842.

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

Career and development of theory

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

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

Darwin made attempts to explain his theory to close friends, but they were slow to show interest and thought that selection must need a divine selector. Darwin formulated a short "Pencil Sketch" of his theory, and by 1844 had written a 240-page "Essay" that expanded his early ideas on natural selection. Darwin left Emma with strict instructions to publish only the 1842 and 1844 preliminary sketches of his theory should he perish before writing the major work on the issue. Darwin completed his third Geological book in 1846. Assisted by his friend, the young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, Darwin embarked on an extensive study of barnacles. In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed.

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

Announcement and publication of theory

The established geologist Charles Darwin was now forced into early publication of his theory of natural selection.

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

The initial announcement of the theory gained little immediate attention. It was mentioned briefly in a few small reviews, but to most people it seemed much the same as other varieties of evolutionary thought. Even the president of the Linnean Society remarked that 1858 had not been a very exciting year in science: It had not "been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear"[3].

For the next 13 months, Darwin struggled with ill health to produce an abstract of his "big book on species." Receiving constant encouragement from his scientific friends, Darwin finally finished his abstract and Lyell arranged to have it published by John Murray. The title was agreed as On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, and when the book went on sale to the trade on November 22, 1859, the stock of 1,250 copies was oversubscribed. At the time "Evolutionism" implied creation without divine intervention, and Darwin avoided using the words "evolution" or "evolve," though the book ends by stating that "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." The book only briefly alluded to the idea that humans, too, would evolve in the same way as other organisms. Darwin wrote in deliberate understatement that "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."

Reaction

Satirical attacks on Darwin were typified by the later caricature of him as an ape in the Hornet magazine

Darwin's book set off a public controversy that 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 favorable and The Times published a glowing review by Huxley that included swipes at Richard Owen, leader of the scientific establishment Huxley was trying to overthrow. Owen initially appeared neutral, but then wrote a review condemning the book. The Church of England scientific establishment reacted against the book, and Darwin's old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow expressed their disappointment in him. Then Essays and Reviews by seven liberal Anglican theologians declared that miracles were irrational (and supported the Origin), distracting attention away from Darwin.

The most famous confrontation took place at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford. Professor John William Draper made a speech on Darwin and social progress, and then Samuel “Soapy Sam” Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, argued against Darwin. In the ensuing debate Thomas Huxley established himself as "Darwin's bulldog," the fiercest defender of evolutionary theory on the Victorian stage. On being asked by Wilberforce whether he was descended from monkeys on his grandfather's side or his grandmother's side, Huxley apparently muttered to himself: "The Lord has delivered him into my hands" and replied that he "would rather be descended from an ape than from a cultivated man who used his gifts of culture and eloquence in the service of prejudice and falsehood" (there are several alternative versions of this story). 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, Charles Lyell, Joseph Dalton Hooker, and Asa Gray—actively pushed his work to the foreground of the scientific and public stage, defending him against his many critics in this key scientific controversy of the era. Darwin's theory also resonated with various movements at the time and became a key fixture of popular culture. The book was translated into many languages and went through numerous reprints. It became a staple scientific text accessible both to a newly curious middle class and to "working men," hailed as the most controversial and discussed scientific book ever written.

Orchids, Variation, Descent of Man and Worms

This classic image shows Darwin as an old man, an eminent sage still researching and producing numerous books.

Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last 22 years of his life, Darwin pressed on with his work. He had published an abstract of his theory, but more controversial aspects of his "big book" were still incomplete: mankind's descent from earlier animals, and the mechanism of sexual selection, which could explain features with no obvious utility other than decorative beauty, as well as suggesting possible causes underlying the development of society and of human mental abilities. His experiments, research, and writing continued.

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-fertilization. As with the barnacles, homologous parts served different functions in different species. Back at home, he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with experiments on climbing plants. He was visited by a reverent Ernst Haeckel who had spread the gospel of Darwinismus in Germany. Even at Cambridge, students now supported his ideas. Huxley gave "working-men's lectures" to widen the audience, and Wallace remained a supporter but increasingly turned to spiritualism. Variation grew to two huge volumes, forcing him to leave out man and sexual selection, but when printed was in huge demand.

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

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

Related topics

Illness

From 1837 onwards, Darwin was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe boils, palpitations, trembling, and other symptoms, which particularly affected him at times of stress, when attending meetings, or dealing with controversy over his theory. Often, he could only work three to four hours a day, or not at all. The cause was unknown during his lifetime, and treatments had little success. Recent speculation suggested that in South America he caught Chagas disease, a parasitical disease from insect bites, causing the later problems. Other possible causes include psychobiological problems.

Views on religion

The 1851 death of Darwin's daughter, Annie, pushed an already doubting Darwin away from the idea of a beneficent God.

Darwin did not set out to demolish anyone’s religious convictions. He did genuinely struggle with some things he saw in nature, from a religious point of view—such as parasitic wasps that slowly devoured their prey, and questions such as “Why are so many animals created only to perish?” With respect to parasitic wasps, he observed that the adults lay their eggs inside their prey, which after hatching take days eating the host’s non-essential body parts, such as muscles and gut, while the host remains alive, but dying. Such a life cycle discomforted Darwin and he wrote to the American biologist Asa Gray, “I cannot persuade myself that a benevolent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.”

Charles Darwin came from a nonconformist background, but attended a Church of England school. At university, studying Anglican theology to become a clergyman, he was a firm believer convinced by the teleological argument in William Paley's Natural Theology, which offered an argument for the existence of God from design. His beliefs began to undergo a transformation while on the HMS Beagle: "Whilst on board the Beagle…I was quite orthodox…. But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament…was no more to be trusted than the…beliefs of any barbarian."

On return, while developing his theory of natural selection, Darwin came to think that the religious instinct had evolved with society and gradually lost his belief in the Bible. With the death of his daughter Annie, Darwin lost faith in a beneficent God and saw Christianity as futile. 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 his later life, Darwin was frequently asked about his religious views. He went as far as saying that he did "not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation," but was always insistent that he was agnostic and had "never been an atheist."

In concluding his biography of his grandfather, Darwin recounted how after the death of Erasmus Darwin in 1802, false stories were circulated that he had called for Jesus on his deathbed, writing "Such was the state of Christian feeling in this country at the [time]…we may at least hope that nothing of the kind now prevails." Despite this hope, the "Lady Hope Story," claiming his sickbed conversion, was published in 1915 and has been propagated by some groups to the extent of becoming an urban legend, though the claims were refuted by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians.

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 programs such as compulsory sterilization laws, then were stigmatized after their usage in the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in its goals of genetic "purity."

See also

Alfred Russel Wallace

Works

Published works

1839: Part II. Mammalia, by George R. Waterhouse (Darwin on habits and ranges)
1840: Part I. Fossil Mammalia, by Richard Owen (Darwin's introduction)

Letters


Notes

  1. ↑ S. E. Luria, S. J. Gould, and S. Singer. A View of Life. (Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing, 1981)
  2. ↑ Luria, Gould, and Singer, 1981.
  3. ↑ D. L. Hull. Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptional Development of Science. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988)

References
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