Charles Darwin:

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Outline of this Course

1. Brief biography of Charles Darwins whole life
2. Biology before Darwin time (Linnaeus, etc.)
3. Geology before Darwins time (Hutton, etc.)
4. Darwins early life, to 1831 (age 22)
5. The Voyage of the HMS Beagle 1831 1836
6. Scientific work 1837 1858
7. Publication and reception of On the Origin of
Species (1859)
8. Darwins later work
9. The fall and rise of Darwinism

Part of the Darwin-Wedgwood Family

Darwins Grandfathers: His Paternal Grandfather

Noted and wealthy physician
Offered (but declined) post of
Royal Physician by George III
Poet and proto-evolutionist
Father of at least 14 children
with two wives and one mistress
Father of Robert Waring
Darwin (Charles Darwins
father)
A son named Charles Darwin
died at the age of 20
Erasmus Darwin
(1731 1802)

Darwins Grandfathers: His Maternal Grandfather

Noted pottery designer
Founder of the Wedgwood
firm (1759)
Father of Susanna
Wedgwood (Charles Darwins
mother)
Father of Josiah Wedgwood
II (Uncle Jos )
Prominent in anti-slavery
movement

Josiah Wedgwood
(1730 1795)

Darwins Parents
Father: Robert Waring Darwin (1766 1848)
Son of Erasmus Darwin
Physician and lender (for mortgages)
Mother: Susanna Wedgwood Darwin (1765 1817)
Daughter of Josiah Wedgwood I
Brother of Josiah Wedgwood II

Three Main Parts of Charles Darwins Life

1809 1831: Age 0 - 22
Childhood, education, college
1831 1836: Age 22 to 27
Voyaging on the HMS Beagle
1836 1882: Age 27 to 73
Scientist and author (geology, experimental and
evolutionary biology)

Darwin s-a
nascut in
Shrewsbury,
Shropshire.

The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

Charles Darwins childhood home and his
birthplace.

Darwins Schooling
1817 1818: Attended day-school of Reverend Case
1818 1825: Attended Shrewsbury School, a boarding
school run by Dr. Samuel Butler (grandfather of the
Samuel Butler who wrote Erewhon and The Way of All
Flesh). He could readily walk back home from this
school, although he was a boarder.
1825 1827: Studied medicine (mostly) at University of
Edinburgh, where his father and brother had studied, but
discovered medicine was not to his liking.
1828 1831: Attended and graduated from Cambridge
University, intending to become a clergyman.

The Voyage of the HMS Beagle

In 1831 Darwin serendipitously became the naturalist
companion of Captain Robert FitzRoy on the round-theworld voyage of the HMS Beagle, a voyage that lasted
nearly five years, until late 1836, and included
explorations of east and west coasts of South America
including Brazil, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and
the Galapagos Islands plus stops at many other places,
including Australia and South Africa.
Darwin collected many specimens and took copious
notes on this voyage, publishing a book about his travels
to accompany two volumes written by FitzRoy.

Calatoria navei HMS Beagle, 1831 1836

1836 1839
Back in London, Darwin became a well-known scientist/
naturalist, more of a geologist than a biologist.
However, he began several notebooks on biology and
evolution, having become convinced that species were
not immutable but changed and evolved.
In 1838 he read Thomas Malthus essay on population
and conceived the importance of natural selection in
evolution.
In 1839 he married his first cousin. Emma Wedgwood,
and they had 10 children born between 1841 and 1854.

Darwins Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection

Organisms change in time, usually very slowly (sometimes
extremely slowly), or evolve. Darwin wrote of descent
with modification but the modern term is evolution.
All organisms animals, plants, fungi, all organisms are
descended from a remote common ancestor.
The main (but not only) driving force for evolutionary
change is natural selection, the survival of certain traits
because they better adapt the organism for its survival.
Natural selection doesnt just select against inferior
organisms, it selects for superior organisms and leads to even
more superior organisms.

The Children of Charles and Emma Darwin

1839, December 27
1841, March 2
1842, September 23
1843, September 25
1845, July 9
1847, July 8
1848, August 16
1850, January 15
1851, May 13
1856, December 6

William Erasmus Darwin (1839 1914)

Anne Annie Elizabeth (1841 1851)
Mary Eleanor; died on October 16.
Henrietta Etty Emma (1843 1930)
George Howard (1845 1912)
Elizabeth (1847 1926)
Francis (1848 1925)
Leonard (1850 1943)
Horace (1852 1928)
Charles Waring (1856 1858)

Emmas age at the births of her ten children were 31, 32, 34, 35, 37,
39, 40, 41, 44, and 48.

1839 1858
In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote out a brief and then a longer
sketch of his theory of evolution through natural selection, but did
not publish them. He left directions for Emma Darwin to have the
1844 essay published should anything happen to him.
After a considerable amount of work on biological organisms
(especially barnacles) Darwin was convinced by Charles Lyell in
1856 to begin writing a major work on evolution, never finished.
This writing was interrupted in 1858 by the arrival of a letter from
Alfred Russel Wallace accompanied by a paper on evolution by
natural selection almost identical to Darwins theory.

1858 1859
At the suggestion of Hooker and Lyell, presentations were
made at the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858, of Wallaces
paper simultaneously with two articles by Darwin.
Shortly thereafter, Darwin began work on On the Origin of
Species, essentially an abridged version of the large book
he was working on.
Its publication in late 1859 was a sensation in the scientific
world, and biology was never the same. The book had
tremendous impact on science, philosophy, and the way
humans viewed the world and their place in it. Thomas
Henry Huxley, particularly, proselytized for Darwins
ideas, but Darwin had other prominent supporters.

1860 1882
Darwin continued working and writing the rest of his
life (22 more years). Many ideas that were omitted
from On the Origin of Species (such as the animal
ancestry of humans) or only briefly mentioned (such
as sexual selection and the expression of the emotions)
became the subject of other books.
Darwin received several scientific awards, but was
never knighted. When he died in April 1882, however,
he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Darwins major books

1839 Voyage of the Beagle
1851 1854 Living and Fossil Cirripedia
1859 On the Origin of Species
1862 On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign
Orchids are Fertilised by Insects
1865 On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants
1868 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
1871 The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
1872 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
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
1880 The Power of Movement in Plants (with son Francis Darwin)
1881 The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of
Worms

Darwins Reputation after his death

The fact of evolution was well established and
believed by all biologists.
Natural selection was considered the most important
cause of evolution by very few biologists, notably
Alfred Russel Wallace in England and August
Weismann in Germany. Many other biologists were
saltationists, believing in the role of major sudden
changes (as by large mutations).
Gradualism was not accepted because physicists
argued against the earth being old enough for
evolution to have occurred through small steps over
long periods of time.

Darwins Reputation (continued)

Until about 1900, inheritance was poorly understood,
and the favored theory of blending inheritance or soft
inheritance was not capable of leading to the
evolutionary changes required by Darwins theory. This
changed after geneticists (beginning with Mendel in
1865) showed inheritance to be particulate or hard.
About 1930 the concept of gradualism was received
more favorably, and the geneticists and naturalists found
out how their approaches meshed, leading to the Modern
(Darwinian) Synthesis.
The discovery in the last half of the 20th century of the
role of DNA and genes largely completed the triumph of
Darwins ideas.

Key Dates in the Life of Charles Darwin

1809 Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
1831 Graduated from Cambridge University and left on his fiveyear voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.
1836 Returned from his voyage and became known as a scientist in
London, befriended by Lyell and others.
1838 Read Thomas Malthus and realized the importance of natural
selection in evolution.
1839 Married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood; published his
Voyage of the Beagle.
1858 Presentation of Wallace-Darwin papers to Linnean Society.
1859 Publication of On the Origin of Species
1871 Publication of The Descent of Man, Selection in Relation to
Sex.
1882 Died; buried at Westminster Abbey, London.