PPT - 1 - Brief Biography of Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

7/29/2019 PPT - 1 - Brief Biography of Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

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Charles Darwin:

His Life,

Family,

Friends,

and CriticsLaurent Hodges

College for Seniors, Fall 2008


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Outline of this Course

1. Brief biography of Charles Darwins whole life2. 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 HMSBeagle 183118366. Scientific work 18371858

7. Publication and reception ofOn the Origin of

Species (1859)

8. Darwins later work

9. The fall and rise of Darwinism


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Part of the Darwin-Wedgwood Family


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Darwins Grandfathers: His Paternal Grandfather

Noted and wealthy physician

Offered (but declined) post ofRoyal 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(17311802)


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Darwins Grandfathers: His Maternal Grandfather

Noted pottery designer

Founder of the Wedgwood

firm (1759)

Father of SusannaWedgwood (Charles Darwins

mother)

Father of Josiah Wedgwood

II (Uncle Jos )

Prominent in anti-slavery

movement Josiah Wedgwood

(17301795)


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Father: Robert Waring Darwin (17661848)

Son of Erasmus DarwinPhysician and lender (for mortgages)

Mother: Susanna Wedgwood Darwin (17651817)

Daughter of Josiah Wedgwood I

Brother of Josiah Wedgwood II

Darwins Parents


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Robert and Erasmus Darwin: son and father


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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 onlybrother

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.


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Erasmus Alvey Darwin

(18041881)

Older brother of

Charles Darwin

Studied medicine, but

didnt really want to

practice it. His fatherthen pensioned him off

at the age of 26, and he

neither did any work

nor accomplishedanything significant in

his lifetime. He was

just a gentleman of

leisure.


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Charles Darwin (at age of nine) and his younger

sister Catherine.


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Three Main Parts of Charles Darwins Life

18091831: Age 0 - 22

Childhood, education, college

18311836: Age 22 to 27

Voyaging on the HMSBeagle

18361882: Age 27 to 73Scientist and author (geology, experimental and

evolutionary biology)


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Darwin was

born in

Shrewsbury,

Shropshire,

shown on

these maps.


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The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

Charles Darwins childhood home and his

birthplace.


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Darwins Schooling

18171818: Attended day-school of Reverend Case18181825: Attended Shrewsbury School, a boarding

school run by Dr. Samuel Butler (grandfather of the

Samuel Butler who wroteErewhon and The Way of All

Flesh). He could readily walk back home from this

school, although he was a boarder.

18251827: Studied medicine (mostly) at University of

Edinburgh, where his father and brother had studied, butdiscovered medicine was not to his liking.

18281831: Attended and graduated from Cambridge

University, intending to become a clergyman.


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The Voyage of the HMSBeagle

In 1831 Darwin serendipitously became the naturalistcompanion of Captain Robert FitzRoy on the round-the-

world voyage of the HMSBeagle, a voyage that lasted

nearly five years, until late 1836, and included

explorations of east and west coasts of South Americaincluding Brazil, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and

the Galapagos Islandsplus 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.


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Voyage of the HMSBeagle, 18311836


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18361839

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.


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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 organismsanimals, plants, fungi, all organismsare

descended from a remote common ancestor.

The main (but not only) driving force for evolutionary

change is natural selection, the survival of certain traitsbecause 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.


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The Children of Charles and Emma Darwin

1839, December 27 William Erasmus Darwin (18391914)

1841, March 2 Anne Annie Elizabeth (1841 1851)

1842, September 23 Mary Eleanor; died on October 16.

1843, September 25 Henrietta Etty Emma (1843 1930)

1845, July 9George Howard (18451912)

1847, July 8 Elizabeth (18471926)

1848, August 16 Francis (18481925)

1850, January 15 Leonard (18501943)

1851, May 13 Horace (18521928)1856, December 6 Charles Waring (18561858)

Emmas age at the births of her ten children were 31, 32, 34, 35, 37,

39, 40, 41, 44, and 48.


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18391858

In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote out a brief and then a longersketch 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 selectionalmost identical to Darwins theory.


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18581859

At the suggestion of Hooker and Lyell, presentations were

made at the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858, of Wallacespaper simultaneously with two articles by Darwin.

Shortly thereafter, Darwin began work on On the Origin of

Species, essentially an abridged version of the large bookhe 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.


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18601882

Darwin continued working and writing the rest of hislife (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.


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Darwins major books

1839Voyage of the Beagle

18511854Living and Fossil Cirripedia

1859On the Origin of Species

1862On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign

Orchids are Fertilised by Insects

1865On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants

1868The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication1871The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

1872The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

1875Insectivorous Plants

1876The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the VegetableKingdom

1877The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species

1880The Power of Movement in Plants (with son Francis Darwin)

1881The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of

Worms


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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 AugustWeismann in Germany. Many other biologists were

saltationists, believing in the role of major sudden

changes (as by large mutations).

Gradualism was not accepted because physicistsargued against the earth being old enough for

evolution to have occurred through small steps over

long periods of time.


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Darwins Reputation (continued)

Until about 1900, inheritance was poorly understood,

and the favored theory of blending inheritance or softinheritance 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.


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Key Dates in the Life of Charles Darwin

1809Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

1831Graduated from Cambridge University and left on his five-

year voyage aboard the HMSBeagle.

1836Returned from his voyage and became known as a scientist in

London, befriended by Lyell and others.

1838Read Thomas Malthus and realized the importance of natural

selection in evolution.

1839Married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood; published his

Voyage of the Beagle.

1858Presentation of Wallace-Darwin papers to Linnean Society.

1859Publication of On the Origin of Species

1871Publication ofThe Descent of Man, Selection in Relation to

Sex.

1882 Died; buried at Westminster Abbey London

Documents

PPT - 1 - Brief Biography of Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)