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CHARLES DARWIN

Charles Egbertt Darwin was an English naturalist. He was born in Shrewsbury in 1809 and died in 1882. The son of Dr.Robert Darwin and grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, he was
educated at Shrewsbury School, and at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. He early devoted himself to the study of natural history, and in 1831 he was appointed naturalist to the surveying voyage of HMS Beagle, commanded by Captain (afterwards Admiral) Fitzroy. The vessel sailed in December 1831, and did not return until October 1836, after having circumnavigated the globe.

Charles Darwin returned home with rich stores of knowledge, part of which he soon gave to the public in various works. In 1839 he married his cousin Emma Wedgwood, and henceforth spent the life of a quiet country gentleman, engrossed in scientific pursuits - experimenting, observing, recording, reflecting, and generalizing. In 1839 he published his Journal of Researches during a Voyage round the World; in 1842 Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs; in 1844 Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands, etc; in 1846 Geological Observations in South America; in 1851 and 1854 his Monograph of the Cirrhipedia, and soon after the Fossil Lepadridae and Balsenidae of Great Britain. In 1859 his name attained its great celebrity by the publication of The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. This work, scouted and derided though it was at first in certain quarters, maybe said to have worked nothing less than a revolution in biological science. In it for the first time was given a full exposition of the theory of evolution as applied to plants and animals, the origin of species being explained on the hypothesis of natural selection.

The rest of his works are largely based on the material he had accumulated for the elaboration of this great theory. The principal are a treatise on the Fertilization of Orchids published in 1862; Domesticated Animals and Cultivated Plants; or The Principle of Variation, etc, under Domestication published in 1867; Descent of Man and Variation in Relation to Sex published in 1871; The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals published in 1872; Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants; Insectivorous Plants published in 1875; Cross and Self Fertilisation published in 1876; The Power of Movement in Plants published in 1880; The Formation of Vegetable Mould published in 1881; the last containing a vast amount of information in regard to the common earth-worm.
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