After Darwin attended Cambridge he and Henslow kept in touch. In a letter Henslow, spoke about a ship that was going to be sent around South America on a scientific expedition and urged Darwin to go and volunteer. In 1831, he was invited to join as an unpaid Naturalist. Captain Robert Fizroy, who was hired to conduct a hydrographical survey of the South American Islands, invited him onto the H.M.S Beagle. Darwin’s job was to investigate and collect new species to be sent back to England for research. On the 17 of December 1831, the Beagle set sail. Darwin considered this event the most important in his life.
Darwin visited “… volcanic and coral islands, tropical forests in Brazil, the vast pampas of Patagonia, a crossing of the Andes from Chile to Tucuman in Argentina and more.”. He studied plants, animals, and collected specimens (from different groups of organisms) from these places, which he took back to England to later study. Darwin also found important fossils in Patagonia. The fossils were of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. Most of Darwin’s time was spent on Geology. As the voyage passed by Darwin began to question some of the beliefs he previously never questioned. He started to question the belief of the fixity of species. In the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he found variations with the plants and the animals that were clearly native in nature, but showed kinship with the other species and plants he had come across on the other islands. On each island the forms of tortoise, finch, and mockingbirds were related, yet different in structure and eating habits. At the time, Darwin did not fully understand what he had come across, however he started to realize his observations gave doubt to popular belief that species were individually created and did not evolve. In latter years this discovery would lead him to the theory of evolution.
After his return to London in 1836, after five years Darwin decided to focus and research the specimens he had come across. He gave the specimens to various specialists to examine and started to find facts of variation that he had seen while on the Beagle. Darwin studied the domestication of animal and he noticed that variation did occur. In light of his findings around the spring of 1837, Darwin started to believe in the idea of evolution. A year after while reading Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population he would figure out the mechanism of evolution and the principle of natural selection. However, Darwin would not publish his theory for another 20 years.
In 1839, he published his observations on the Beagle and by 1845 the entire Geology of the Beagle had been published. In the years before the publication of his most famous work, The Origins of species Darwin wrote about the findings he had found on the Beagle. Darwin was elected a fellow of the Royal society in 1839 and in the same year married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood. Darwin worked on a series of essays and a four-part monograph. In 1842, he published his work on Coral reefs. It proved coral reefs were made by the clumping together of skeletons of small animals that eventually resulted in a large mass, a coral reef. In 1844, he published a work called Volcanic Islands. He found that volcanoes and earthquakes changed the rock layers and their order. Between the years 1851 and 1854, Darwin published a monograph on Cirripedes. He confirmed that these marine vertebrates are crustaceans and produced a classification for them.
In 1858, he received a manuscript by Alfred Russel Wallace. He was dumbfounded by what he saw; Wallace had come to almost the same theory as evolution as he had. Darwin immediately hurried to put together an “abstract” as he said of his work. He published this work, which is known as On the origins of Species on November 24, 1859. 1250 copies were printed of the first edition and it sold on the first day it was available. This book introduced the theory of natural selection. Darwin believed that evolution was the chief mechanism of evolution. He argued natural selection is the struggle for existence. It is caused by the tendency towards overpopulation. The better individuals will survive, reproduce and pass their advantageous characterises on to their offspring or descendents. These descendent will make up an ever-greater proportion of succeeding generations. After a long period of time this natural selection of random variation will eventually produce a significant change in a population that a new species can emerge. It is adaptation, a natural process. The book was constantly attacked and criticized because it went against the creation cited in the Book of Genesis. From 1861 to 1868, Darwin worked on new editions on the Origins of Species. Darwin went on to publish The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication in 1868. In the book he struggles with the problem of how genetic variation emerges.
In 1871, Darwin published his second greatest work The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex. Its aim was to show man’s genealogical connection with the animal kingdom. He highlighted man’s descent from an ancestor related to the Catarrhine monkeys. He also tried show examples of evolution for humans and to show we have been subject to natural selection also. In 1872, he published The expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals. He argued that facial muscles were created for the purpose of expressions.
In Darwin’s last years he wrote his autobiography (1876) and his last book The formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their habits (1881). Darwin highlights the importance of these creatures through geological history. Darwin never stopped his studies, but he became ill by an illness that followed him throughout his life and he died April 29, 1888.
Darwin changed the thought of his time and pioneered the way for future geologists and naturalists. Darwin was a man that inspired the young intellectuals of his time and threatened the conservative older professionals of his time. Yet, most came to accept his evolutionary theory. Darwin is remembered as one of the most controversial figures of his time.
Bibliography
Bowler, Peter J. Darwinism. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.
Mayer, Ernst. One long argument. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Patterson, Colin. Evolution. London: Cornell University Press, 1978.
Tort, Patrick. Darwin and the Science of Evolution. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
Peter J. Bowler, Darwinism (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993), p.1.
Patrick Tort, Darwin and the Science of Evolution (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000), p.17.
Ernst Mayer, One long argument (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), p.4.
www.cheathouse.com/essay/essay_view.php?p_essay_id=154
Colin Patterson, Evolution (London: Cornell University Press, 1978) p. 56.
