Charles Darwin

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May 25th, 2012
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The spark for Darwin’s accomplishments was ignited with the 1831 HMS Beagle expedition, which was to chart coastlines in the South Americas and other areas of the Pacific. Darwin, supposedly studying religion at that time, had become increasingly absorbed with natural history and persuaded the Professor of Botany, John Henslow, to put him forward for the post of unpaid naturalist on the Beagle’s voyage. He thereby abandoned his university studies. His father, and initially the vessel’s Captain FitzRoy, resisted, but he eventually persuaded them to let him take part in the five-year expedition.

THE GALAPAGOS

During the journey, Darwin made many geological and biological observations, but it was his time spent around the Galapagos Islands which would end up having the most significant impact on him. The ten islands are relatively isolated, even from each other, and as such act as a series of distinct observatories through which Darwin could draw comparisons. He noted that the islands shared many species of flora and fauna in common, but that each land mass often displayed distinct variations within the same group of organisms. For example, he famously noted fourteen different types of finch across the islands, notably with different shaped beaks. In each instance the particular beak seemed to best suit the capture of that bird’s prevalent food source, whether it be seeds, insects or fish.

Over the ensuing years, and upon his return to England, Darwin pondered on the reasons for the variations in the finches and other plants and animals. He soon surmised that the birds had descended from a single parent species, rather than each springing up independently and thus acknowledged the idea of evolution, a concept which had existed for some time but was not widely accepted. Darwin began looking for an explanation for this evolution. One text which had a particular impact on him was Thomas Malthus’s 1798 work An Essay on the Principle of Population which Darwin read in 1838. Malthus had been concerned with overpopulation resulting in famine, and the possible competition for food which could ensue. Darwin immediately saw that this could also be applied to the animal world too, where only those best adapted to food collection in their environments would survive. Those that could not compete would die out and the characteristics of the successful animals, which may have occurred in the first place by chance, would be passed on to future generations. As environments changed and animals moved about, success criteria would change, gradually resulting in variations within species, as had happened with the finches. Ultimately new species would also be created.

CHALLENGING THE NOTION OF GOD

Unfortunately, such a hypothesis would challenge the commonly held view of man as the lord of the earth, specifically created and placed upon the planet in God’s image, as described in the Bible. Darwin was implicitly suggesting that man had evolved by chance over thousands of years. He correctly anticipated uproar and resistance to his ideas, particularly from religious leaders. Consequently, he kept his theories dark for twenty years while he gathered additional evidence to back up his case.

He finally published in 1858. He did this jointly with Alfred Russell Wallace (1823—1913), whose independent ideas were remarkably similar to Darwin’s. They agreed to a joint public declaration of their hypotheses by submission of a paper to the Linnean Society. Darwin followed this up with a more detailed account in 1859 containing evidence he had collected over the previous decades called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

The predicted outcry ensued and a fierce debate followed, but Darwin already had a number of friends, particularly Thomas Huxley, known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, who would vigorously defend his ideas. This left Darwin free to follow through further implications of his hypothesis in other works, including the 1871 text The Descent of Man, which articulated the idea of the evolution of the human race from other creatures.

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