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(miCAGO LONDON TORONTO GENEVA SYDNEY TOKYO MANILA • • - • • • THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The Great Books ispublished with the editorial advice oj thejacuities oj The University oj Chicago No part ofthis work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,electronicormechanical,includingphotocopying,recording,orbyany informationstorageandretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publisher. © 1952 BY Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Twenty-eighth Printing, 1986 Copyright under International Copyright Union All Rights Reserved under Pan American and Universal Copyright Conventions by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-10355 International Standard Book Number: 0-85229-163-9 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Charles Darwin, 1809-1882 In evaluating the qualities that accounted for relation of living animals to thefossil remains his "successasamanofscience,"CharlesDar- of the same species. wininhismodestautobiography, written "be- Darwin described the voyage of the Beagle cause it might possibly interest my children," as "by far the most important event in my tracesfromhisearlyyouth, "the strongestde- life." Besides making him one of the best sire to understand and explain" whatever he qualified naturalistsofhisday, itdevelopedin observed. His childhood fantasies were con- him the "habit of energetic industry and of cernedwithfabulousdiscoveriesinnaturalhis- concentrated attention." This new purpose- tory; to his schoolmates he boasted that he fulness on the part of his son was succinctly could produce variously colored flowers of the noted by Dr. Darwin, who remarked upon sameplant by wateringthem with certain col- first seeing him after the voyage: "Why, the ored fluids. shape of his head is quite altered." His father, a highly successful physician, After his return, Darwin settled in London was somewhat puzzled by the singular inter- andbeganthetaskoforganizingandrecording estsofhissecondsonaswellasbyhisundistin- his observations. He became a close friend of guished career in the classical curriculum of Lyell, the leading English geologist, and later Dr. Butler's day school; he accordingly de- of Hooker, an outstanding botanist. In 1839 cidedtosendhimtoEdinburghtostudymedi- he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and cine. At Edinburgh Darwin collected animals toward the end of 1842, because of Darwin's in tidal pools, trawled for oysters with Nev/- chronic ill-health, the family moved to Down, haven fishermen to obtain specimens, and where he lived in seclusion for the rest of his made two small discoveries which he incor- days. During the six years in London, he pre- porated in papers read before the Plinian paredhisJournalfromthenotesofthevoyage Society. He put forth no very "strenuous ef- and published his carefully documented study fort" to learn medicine. of Coral Reefs. With some asperity, Dr. Darwin proposed The nexteightyearswere spentin the labo- the vocation of clergyman as an alternative. riousclassificationofbarnaclesforhisfour-vol- The life of a country clergyman appealed to umeworkonthatsubject."Ihavebeenstruck," young Darwin, and, after quieting his doubts he wrote to Hooker, "with the variability of concerning his belief in "all the dogmas of the every part in some slight degree of every Church," he began this new career at Cam- species." After this period of detailed work bridge. He proved unable, however, to repress with a single species, Darwin felt prepared to his scientific interests and developed into an attack the problem of the modification of spe- ardent entomologist, particularly devoted to cies which he had been pondering for many collecting beetles; he had the satisfaction of years. seeing one of his rare specimens published in A number of facts had come to light during Stephen's IllustrationsofBritish Insects. As at the voyage of the Beagle that Darwin felt Edinburgh, he enjoyed many stimulating as- "could only be explained on the supposition sociations with men of science. It was a pro- thatspecies graduallybecome modified."Lat- fessor of botany at Cambridge, J. S. Henslow, er, after his return to England, he had col- who arranged for his appointment as natural- lected all the material he could find which istonthegovernmentship, H. M. S. Beagle. "boreinanywayonthevariationofplantsand From 1831 to 1836 the Beagle voyaged in animals under domestication." He soon per- Southern waters. Lyell's researches into the ceived "that selection was the keystone of changes wrought by natural processes, set man's success. But how selection could be ap- forth in Principles of Geology, gave direction plied to organisms living in a state of nature toDarwin'sownobservationsofthegeological remained for some time a mystery." One day, structure of the Cape Verde Islands. He also while reading Malthus on Population, it sud- madeextensiveexaminationsofcoralreefsand denly occurred tohim how, in the strugglefor notedtherelationsofanimalsonthemainland existence, which he had everywhere observed, fothose of the adjacent islands, as well as the "favorable variations would tend to be pre- . BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE served and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. tion to Sex (1871), Darwin fulfilled his state- The result would be the formation of a new mentintheOriginthat"lightwouldbethrown species. Here then I had at last a theory by ontheoriginofmanandhishistory." TheEx- which to work." pression oftheEmotions (1872) offered anatu- HeconfidedthistheorytoHookerandLyell, ralexplanationofphenomenawhich appeared who urged him to write out his viewsforpub- to be adifficulty in the way of the acceptance lication. But Darwin worked deliberately; he of evolution. His last works were concerned wasonlyhalfthroughhisprojectedbookwhen, with the form, movement, and fertilization of in the summer of 1858, he received an essay plants. from A. R. Wallace at Ternate in the Moluc- Darwin's existence at Down was peculiarly cas, containing exactly the same theory as his adapted topreservehisenergy and givedirect own.DarwinsubmittedhisdilemmatoHooker order to his activity. Because of his continual and Lyell, to whom he wrote: "Your words ill-health, his wife took pains "to shield him have come true with a vengeance—that I from every avoidable annoyance." He ob- should beforestalled." It was theirdecisionto servedthesameroutinefornearly forty years, publish an abstract of his theory from a letter his days being carefully parcelled into inter- of the previous year together with Wallace's vals of exercise and light reading in such pro- essay, the joint work being entitled: On the portions that he could utilize to his fullest TendencyofSpeciestoform Varietiesandonthe capacity the four hours he devoted to work. PerpetuationofVarietiesandSpeciesbyNatural His scientific reading and experimentation, as Means ofSelection. well, were organized with the most rigorous A year later, on November 24, 1859, The economy. Even the phases of his intellectual OriginofSpeciesappeared.Theentirefirstedi- lifenon-essentialtohisworkbecame, asheput tionof 1,250copieswassoldonthedayofpub- it, "atrophied," a fact which he regretted as Hcation. Astormofcontroversyaroseoverthe "alossofhappiness." Suchnon-scientificread- hook, reaching its height at a meeting of the ing ashedid waspurelyforrelaxation, and he British Association at Oxford, where the cele- thoughtthat"alawoughttobepassed"against bratedduelbetweenT. H. HuxleyandBishop unhappy endings to novels. Wilberforcetookplace.Darwin, whocouldnot Withhiswifeandsevenchildrenhismanner sleepwhenheansweredanantagonistharshly, wassounusually "affectionateanddelightful" took Lyell's advice and saved both "time and that his son, Francis, marvelled that he could temper" by avoiding the fray. preserve it "with such an undemonstrative In his work, however, he stayed close to his race as we are." When he died on April 19, thesis. He expanded the material of the first 1882, his family wanted him to be buried at chapterofthe Origininto abook, Variationof Down; public feeling decreed that he should PlantsandAnimalsunderDomestication(1868) be interred in Westminster Abbey, where he In The Descent of Man and Selection in Rela- was laid beside Sir Isaac Newton. GENERAL CONTENTS ^ THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Page 1 THE DESCEN'T«OF«MAN, Page 253