Transcript Document 7241253

Charles Darwin:
His Life,
Family,
Friends,
and Critics
Laurent Hodges
College for Seniors, Fall 2008
Outline of this Course
1. Brief biography of Charles Darwin’s whole life
2. Biology before Darwin time (Linnaeus, etc.)
3. Geology before Darwin’s time (Hutton, etc.)
4. Darwin’s 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. Darwin’s later work
9. The fall and rise of “Darwinism”
Part of the Darwin-Wedgwood Family
Darwin’s 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 Darwin’s
father)
• A son named Charles Darwin
died at the age of 20
Erasmus Darwin
(1731 – 1802)
Darwin’s Grandfathers: His Maternal Grandfather
• Noted pottery designer
• Founder of the Wedgwood
firm (1759)
• Father of Susanna
Wedgwood (Charles Darwin’s
mother)
• Father of Josiah Wedgwood
II (“Uncle Jos” )
• Prominent in anti-slavery
movement
Josiah Wedgwood
(1730 – 1795)
Darwin’s 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
Robert and Erasmus Darwin: son and father
Children of Robert and Susanna Darwin
• Marianne Darwin (1798-1858)
• Caroline Darwin (1800-1888) – married Josiah
Wedgwood III
• Susan Elizabeth Darwin (1803-1866)
• Erasmus Alvey Darwin (1804-1881) – Darwin’s only
brother
• Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
• Emily Catherine Darwin (1810-1866)
When Darwin’s mother died in 1817, his older sisters (then
19, 17, and 14) acted as substitute mothers.
Erasmus Alvey Darwin
(1804 – 1881)
Older brother of
Charles Darwin
Studied medicine, but
didn’t really want to
practice it. His father
then pensioned him off
at the age of 26, and he
neither did any work
nor accomplished
anything significant in
his lifetime. He was
just a “gentleman of
leisure.”
Charles Darwin (at age of nine) and his younger
sister Catherine.
Three Main Parts of Charles Darwin’s 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 was
born in
Shrewsbury,
Shropshire,
shown on
these maps.
The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Charles Darwin’s childhood home and his
birthplace.
Darwin’s 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.
Voyage of the 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.
Darwin’s 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 doesn’t 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)
Emma’s 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 Darwin’s theory.
1858 – 1859
At the suggestion of Hooker and Lyell, presentations were
made at the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858, of Wallace’s
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 Darwin’s
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.
Darwin’s 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
Darwin’s 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.
Darwin’s 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 Darwin’s 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
Darwin’s 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.