A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHARLES DARWIN

Charles Darwin was one of the most controversial figures of the nineteenth century. Indeed, his ideas about the origin of species and the evolution of man changed the science of biology forever and his notions of common descent and natural selection still provide the fundamental basis for the biological sciences. Perhaps more than any other scientific revolution, the Darwinian revolution influenced the modern world's conception of nature and of human nature itself. Thanks to Darwin, we can no longer avoid the fact that we are part of nature and, in his own words are "created from animals."

In his own day and in ours, Darwin's ideas have met with fierce resistance, from within the scientific community, but especially from conservative theological traditions. His vision of nature seemed inconsistent with Biblical accounts of creation and traditional Western concepts of human nature. In sharp contrast to the public life of his ideas, Darwin's private life seemed to epitomize the relaxed life of the Victorian gentleman.

He was born on February 12th, 1809 into a distinguished family. His father, Robert Darwin, was a prosperous doctor in Shrewsbury in the West of England. His grandfather was the speculative evolutionist, Erasmus Darwin. His mother was Susannah Wedgewood, daughter of Josiah Wedgewood, founder of the famous Wedgewood pottery industry. His mother died when Charles was eight. To his father, his youthful years seemed unpromising. He seemed more interested in hunting dogs and rat catching. Yet his love of and interest in natural things set in at an early age. Even as a boy, he had an inordinate interest in beetle collecting.

At age 16, Charles was sent to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and follow in his father's footsteps. Things did not work out so well and we are all the more fortunate for that. Charles was a bit too squeamish to bear watching surgical operations. (recall that at this time they would have been done without the benefit of anesthetic.) His father then proposed that Charles pursue a religious career and enter the Church. At this time in his life Darwin would have seen himself as a quite orthodox Christian. "I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible."

So he entered Cambridge in 1827 to study for the clergy. While at Cambridge he continued his interest in natural history and came under the influence of geologists Adam Sedgewood and John Henslow. Later, Henslow helped arrange for Darwin to join the crew of the HMS Beagle as a ship naturalist. The Beagle was to circumnavigate the world, compiling a detailed survey of the flora, fauna, and geography of South America and some islands in the Pacific. This voyage was a crucial episode in Darwin's life.

The ship set sail in December of 1831, when Darwin was just 22 years old. It was of course on this voyage that Darwin explored the rich biological diversity of South America and when he visited the now famous Galapagos Islands. He returned to England in 1836 with rather more questions than answers. How to account for the varieties of species he had seen? Three years after his return, he published a book about his trip. The Voyage of the Beagle, which was a stunning success.

Darwin was not yet an evolutionist, but that was to come soon. He concerned himself with matters geological, proposing a theory about the formation of coral reefs; he worked with animal breeders, pigeon fanciers and such. He studied Malthus' Essay on Population and he came to see its relevance to the problem that came to occupy his private researches: the transmutation of species.

By the end of 1839, Darwin had solved his problem. The varieties of species which we observe in nature derive by a process of natural selection (this is the causal mechanism of evolution). Taking a cue from Malthus, Darwin argued that species tend to produce more offspring than the environment can sustain, resulting in a struggle for existence. This struggle for existence, operating on the variations within a species, served to insure that those best adapted (e.g., those that could make more efficient use of the resources of the environment) would survive and pass on their characteristics to subsequent generations.

So the main lines of his theory were well in place by the mid 1840's. Why then did he wait until 1859 to publish? Explanations are various. Some believe that he was afraid of the public outcry that he knew his theory would arouse. Others believe that it was out of concern for his wife, Emma, who never seemed to accept her husband's unorthodox opinions. Nevertheless, in 1858 Darwin received a letter from a young naturalist, Alfred Wallace, who was collecting specimens on the Malay peninsula. To the shocked Darwin, Wallace had proposed a nearly identical theory to that of Darwin's to explain the origin of species, even down to the influence of Malthus.

Darwin's close friend, the great geologist Charles Lyell, arranged for Wallace's letter and an outline of the theory of descent with modification by natural selection to be read jointly at a meeting of the Linnean Society in 1858. The publication of his Origin of Species followed in 1859. The work was a great success and a great shock, but in any case, the world of biology was never to be the same again.

Following the publication of the Origin, Darwin continued to pursue his efforts to extend the scope of his theory to other areas of biology. In 1862 he published On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, a stunning application of his theory of adaptation by natural selection, supporting his views about the nature and origin of the relation between flowering plants and insects. This was followed in 1865 by The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants and in 1868 by The Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication.

While people cared about the species question in general, it was clearly its implications for humans that stimulated the greatest controversy. That had been avoided in the Origin in what is perhaps the greatest understatement in the history of science to the effect that his theory might shed some light on the evolution of man! Twelve years after the publication of the Origin he finally published The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1872, the work in which he not only extended his theory of origins to humans, but further developed his ideas about another important mechanism of evolution, sexual selection. Charles Darwin died in 1882 after suffering a series of heart attacks. His family had made arrangements for him to be buried near his home at Down House in Kent. But a movement to provide a "more suitable" place culminated in the family agreeing to his burial in Westminster Abbey. The Darwinian revolution is the most important scientific revolution in modern times in that it altered forever our conceptions of nature and our own relation to it. In many respects, we have yet to come to terms with all the implications of the ideas of this Newton of Biology.