Charles
Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, the grandson
of Erasmus Darwin. His mother was a daughter of Josiah
Wedgewood of the famous firm making distinguished
china.
Darwin was educated at Shrewsbury school under
Samuel Butler and in 1825 he entered Endinburgh
University to prepare for the medical profession. In
1828 he entered Cambridge University in the hope of
becoming a clergyman. He took his degree in 1831.
From December 1831 to October 1836 he sailed in
H.M.S. "Beagle" as a naturalist. He visited many
places including the Atlantic islands, South American
Coast, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand and other
islands. He also visited Brazil.
In 1839 he married his cousin and moved in 1842 to
Kent which was his home the rest of his life. In 1856
he started to write an explanation of his views but in
June 1858 he received a manuscript from Alfred Henry
Wallace in which he found a complete abstract of his
own theory of natural selection. Wallace's essay and
an abstract of Darwin's work was sent to the Linnean
Society. The title of the joint communication was "On
the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties: and on the
Presentation of Varieties and Species by Natural
Selection," (July 1, 1858).
He published his great work, On the Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection on the
Presentation of Favored Races in the Struggle for
Life in 1859.
The Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication was published in 1868. Other
publications included:
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to
Sex (1871)
On the Various Controversies by which British and
Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects
(1862)
The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the
Vegetable Kingdom (1876)
The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the
Same Species (1877)
The Power of Movement in Plants (1880)
The Formation of Vegetable Moved Through the Action
of Worms (1881)
As a result of his many observations of plants and
animals he concluded that "favorable variations would
tend to be preserved and unfavorable ones to be
destroyed. The result of this would be the formation
of a new species." Since Darwin presented a
scientifically sound explanation of how evolution took
place "few from miraculous intervention or unfounded
favory he succeeded where Lamarck had failed in making
the fact of evolution acceptable" (Encyclopedia
Brittanica).
