Charles Darwin: His Life, Family, Friends, and Critics

Laurent Hodges College for Seniors, Fall 2008

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

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) Darwins only brother Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) Emily Catherine Darwin (1810-1866) When Darwins 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 didnt 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 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 was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, shown on these maps.

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.

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.

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.