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Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82) was born on February 12, 1809, at Shrewsbury, England, the son of Robert Waring Darwin, a physician, and Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood. His grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a respected physician and active naturalist who had published a theory of evolution (Zoonomia) in the 1790s, which as a boy Darwin discussed at length with his grandfather.

Darwin studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and theology at Cambridge University, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Abandoning his plan to become an Anglican priest, he joined a scientific expedition on board the H.M.S. Beagle on a voyage circumnavigating the globe.

Between 1831-36 Darwin served as a naturalist on the Beagle. In 1839 he published Voyage of the Beagle (Journal and Remarks). The book described research travels in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, collecting specimens of plants, animals, and minerals while the survey crew on board the Beagle was preparing naval charts.

As Darwin collected data on the natural world, he was forced to conclude that the world was much older than about six thousands years. After visiting the Galapagos Islands, he began to develop the theory of evolution. He was influenced by Charles Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism in Principles of Geology and by Robert Malthus’ Essay on the Principles of Population and its view of a struggle for existence among individuals competing for food and reproductive opportunity.

Darwin published his theory of evolution as the theory of the mutation of species in Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). He argued that species of fauna and flora have developed from a common ancestor. The mechanism for the mutation of the members of a species into another species is natural selection that was similar to the way breeders or growers utilize certain species for selective breeding. Natural selection takes place among the enormous numbers of individuals in a species struggling for survival. Eventually, enough changes take place that new species emerge. Geographic isolation and genetic drift are two mechanisms that make the development of species change possible.

The publication of Origin was met with approval by some and disapproval by others. Darwin, who was constantly ill after his return to England, was publicly defended by his “bulldog,” Julian Huxley.

Darwin had not discussed human evolution in the Origin; however, he did in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). His last major work was The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

Darwin died at Downe, Kent, England on April 19, 1882. He was buried in a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Bibliography:

Philip Appleman, ed., Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition (W. W. Norton, 1970);
Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1887 (Barnes & Noble, 2005);
Jonathan Howard, Darwin: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 1982);
Jonathan Miller, Darwin for Beginners (Pantheon Books, 1982).