{{Short description|English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Charles Darwin
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|JP|FRS|FRGS|FLS|FZS}}
| image = Charles Darwin seated crop.jpg
| alt = Three-quarter length studio photo showing Darwin's characteristic large forehead and bushy eyebrows with deep-set eyes, pug nose, and mouth set in a determined look. He is bald on top, with dark hair and long side whiskers, but no beard or moustache. His jacket is dark, with very wide lapels, and his trousers are a light check pattern. His shirt features an upright wing collar, and his cravat is tucked into his waistcoat, which has a light, fine checked pattern.
| caption = Darwin, {{circa|1854}}
| birth_name = Charles Robert Darwin
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1809|2|12}}
| birth_place = [[Shrewsbury]], Shropshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1882|df=y|4|19|1809|2|12}}
| death_place = [[Downe]], Kent, England
| resting_place = [[Westminster Abbey]]
| education = {{ubl
|[[University of Edinburgh]]
|{{no wrap|[[Christ's College, Cambridge]]}} ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]]){{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5032354/Charles-Darwins-personal-finances-revealed-in-new-find.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019230458/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5032354/Charles-Darwins-personal-finances-revealed-in-new-find.html|title=Charles Darwin's personal finances revealed in new find|date=22 March 2009|archive-date=19 October 2017|work=The Telegraph
}}}}
| known_for = [[Natural selection]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Emma Darwin|Emma Wedgwood]]|1839}}
| children = 10, including [[William Erasmus Darwin|William]], [[Henrietta Litchfield|Henrietta]], [[George Darwin|George]], [[Francis Darwin|Francis]], [[Leonard Darwin|Leonard]] and [[Horace Darwin|Horace]]
| parents = {{ubl|[[Robert Darwin]]|[[Susannah Darwin|Susannah Wedgwood]]}}
| family = [[Darwin–Wedgwood family|Darwin–Wedgwood]]
| awards = {{ubl|[[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (1839){{cite web | title=Search Results: Record – Darwin; Charles Robert | website=The Royal Society Collections Catalogues | date=20 June 2015 | url=https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA8196&pos=1 | access-date=2 December 2021 | archive-date=2 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202200044/https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA8196&pos=1 | url-status=live }}|[[Royal Medal]] (1853){{harvnb|Freeman|2007|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=A27b&viewtype=text&pageseq=113 106]}}.|[[Wollaston Medal]] (1859)|[[Copley Medal]] (1864)|{{lang|fr|[[Pour le Mérite#Civil class|Pour le Mérite]]}} (1867)|[[Baly Medal]] (1879)}}
| module = {{Infobox writer
| embed = yes
| notable_works = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle]]''
* ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''
* ''[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex|The Descent of Man]]''
* ''[[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals|Expression of the Emotions]]''}}
| module = {{Infobox scientist
| embed = yes
| fields = {{ubli|[[Natural history]]|[[Geology]]}}
| workplaces = [[Geological Society of London]]
| academic_advisors = {{ubl|[[Robert Edmond Grant]]|[[John Stevens Henslow]]|[[Adam Sedgwick]]}}
| author_abbrev_bot = '''Darwin'''
| author_abbrev_zoo = '''Darwin'''
| signature = Charles Darwin Signature.svg
| signature_alt = "Charles Darwin", with the surname underlined by a downward curve that mimics the curve of the initial "C"
}}
}}
}}
'''Charles Robert Darwin''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɑr|w|ɪ|n}}[http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/darwin "Darwin"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718234042/http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/darwin |date=18 July 2014 }} entry in ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]''. {{Respell|DAR|win}}; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English [[Natural history#Before 1900|naturalist]], [[geologist]], and [[biologist]],{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|Browne|2004}}. widely known for his contributions to [[evolutionary biology]]. His proposition that all [[species]] of life have descended from a [[Common descent|common ancestor]] is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept.{{cite book |last=Coyne |first=Jerry A. |author-link=Jerry Coyne |title=Why Evolution is True |publisher=Viking |year=2009 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/whyevolutionistr00coyn/page/8 8–11] |isbn=978-0-670-02053-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/whyevolutionistr00coyn/page/8}} In a joint presentation with [[Alfred Russel Wallace]], he introduced his scientific theory that this [[Phylogenetics|branching pattern]] of [[evolution]] resulted from a process he called [[natural selection]], in which the [[struggle for existence]] has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in [[selective breeding]].{{Harvnb|Larson|2004|pp=79–111}}. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in [[human history]] and was honoured by [[Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey|burial in Westminster Abbey]].{{cite news |title=Special feature: Darwin 200 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/special/darwin-200 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211051412/http://www.newscientist.com/special/darwin-200 |archive-date=11 February 2011 |access-date=2 April 2011 |work=[[New Scientist]]}}
Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the [[University of Edinburgh Medical School|University of Edinburgh]]; instead, he helped [[Robert Edmond Grant]] to investigate [[marine invertebrates]]. His studies at the [[University of Cambridge]]'s [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]] from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for [[natural science]].{{Harvnb|Leff|2000|loc=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130723181529/http://www.aboutdarwin.com/darwin/WhoWas.html About Charles Darwin]}}. However, it was his [[Second voyage of HMS Beagle|five-year voyage]] on {{HMS|Beagle}} from 1831 to 1836 that truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist. The observations and theories he developed during his voyage supported [[Charles Lyell]]'s [[uniformitarian|concept of gradual geological change]]. Publication of his [[The Voyage of the Beagle|journal of the voyage]] made Darwin famous as a popular author.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=210, 284–285}}. His first scientific work was ''[[The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs]]'' (1842). Along with his work on [[barnacles]], it won him the [[Royal Medal]] in 1853.
Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and, in 1838, devised his theory of natural selection.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=263–274}}. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research, and his geological work had priority.{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|pp=184, 187}} He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting the immediate joint submission of [[On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection|both their theories]] to the [[Linnean Society of London]].{{Cite journal | last1=Beddall | first1=B. G. | title=Wallace, Darwin, and the Theory of Natural Selection | journal=Journal of the History of Biology | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=261–323 | year=1968 | doi=10.1007/BF00351923 | s2cid=81107747 |issn=0022-5010}} Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of natural diversification. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' (1859).{{cite book |title=Why Evolution is True |last=Coyne |first=Jerry A. |author-link=Jerry Coyne |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-923084-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780199230846/page/17 17] |quote=In ''The Origin'', Darwin provided an alternative hypothesis for the development, diversification, and design of life. Much of that book presents evidence that not only supports evolution but at the same time refutes creationism. In Darwin's day, the evidence for his theories was compelling but not completely decisive. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780199230846/page/17 }}{{cite book |title=Forerunners of Darwin | editor-first1=Bentley | editor-last1=Glass | editor-first2=Owsei | editor-last2=Temkin | editor-first3=William L. Jr. | editor-last3=Straus |editor-link=Bentley Glass |location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |orig-date=1959 |date=1968 | isbn=978-0-8018-0222-5 |page=iv |quote=Darwin's solution is a magnificent synthesis of evidence ... a synthesis ... compelling in honesty and comprehensiveness}}. He explored [[coevolution]] in ''[[Fertilisation of Orchids]]'' (1862) and [[human evolution]] and [[sexual selection]] in ''[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex]]'' (1871). ''[[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals]]'' (1872) was an early work of [[psychology]], and one of the first books to feature photographs. His final book was [[The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms|''The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms'']] (1881).
By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted [[evolution as fact and theory|evolution as a fact]]. However, many initially favoured [[The eclipse of Darwinism|competing explanations]] that gave only a minor role to natural selection. It was not until the emergence of the [[modern synthesis (20th century)|modern evolutionary synthesis]] from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2008}}.{{harvnb|Bowler|2003|pp=178–179, 338, 347}}. Darwin's discovery is the unifying theory of the [[life sciences]], explaining the unity and [[diversity of life]].
==Biography==
===Early life and education===
{{further|Charles Darwin's education|Darwin–Wedgwood family}}
Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 at his family's home, [[The Mount, Shrewsbury|The Mount]], in [[Shrewsbury]], Shropshire.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Desmond |first=Adrian J. |title=Charles Darwin |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=13 September 2002 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin |access-date=11 February 2018 |archive-date=6 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206114419/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://darwin.baruch.cuny.edu/biography/shrewsbury/mount/ |title=The Mount House, Shrewsbury, England (Charles Darwin) |author=John H. Wahlert |date=11 June 2001 |work=Darwin and Darwinism |publisher=[[Baruch College]] |access-date=26 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206010149/http://darwin.baruch.cuny.edu/biography/shrewsbury/mount/ |archive-date=6 December 2008}} He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier [[Robert Darwin]] and [[Susannah Darwin]] (née Wedgwood). His grandfathers [[Erasmus Darwin]] and [[Josiah Wedgwood]] were both prominent [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolitionists]]. Erasmus Darwin had praised general concepts of evolution and [[common descent]] in his ''[[Zoonomia]]'' (1794), a poetic fantasy of gradual creation including undeveloped ideas anticipating concepts his grandson expanded.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Homer W. |url=https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit |title=Man and His Gods |date=1952 |publisher=[[Grosset & Dunlap]] |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/339 339–340] |author-link=Homer W. Smith |url-access=registration}}
[[File:Charles Darwin 1816.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Three-quarter length portrait of seated boy smiling and looking at the viewer; he has straight, mid-brown hair and wears dark clothes with a large, frilly, white collar; in his lap he holds a pot of flowering plants|A chalk drawing of the seven-year-old Darwin in 1816, with a potted plant, by [[Ellen Sharples]]. Part of [[:File:Charles and Catherine Darwin, 1816, by Sharples.jpg|a double portrait]] showing him together with his sister Catherine.]]
Both families were largely [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]], though the Wedgwoods were adopting [[Anglicanism]]. Robert Darwin, a [[Freethought#United Kingdom|freethinker]], had baby Charles [[baptism|baptised]] in November 1809 in the Anglican [[St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury]], but Charles and his siblings attended the [[Shrewsbury Unitarian Church|local Unitarian Church]] with their mother. The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818, he joined his older brother [[Erasmus Alvey Darwin|Erasmus]] in attending the nearby Anglican [[Shrewsbury School]] as a [[boarding school|boarder]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=12–15}};
{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=21 21–25]}}.
Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat impoverished people in Shropshire, before going to the well-regarded [[University of Edinburgh Medical School]] with his brother Erasmus in October 1825. Darwin found lectures dull and surgery distressing, so he neglected his studies.{{sfn|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=48 46–48]}} He learned [[taxidermy]] in around 40 daily hour-long sessions from [[John Edmonstone]], a [[100 Great Black Britons|Black Briton]] from [[Demerara]] in the South American [[rainforest]], who had been taught there by [[Charles Waterton]], and when brought to Scotland was freed from slavery.{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=53 51]}};
{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VTNIBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 18–26]}}.{{cite web |title=John Edmonstone: Enslaved Man to (free as a) Bird-Stuffer |website=nrscotland.gov.uk |publisher=National Records of Scotland |date=31 May 2013 |url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/features/john-edmonstone-enslaved-man-to-free-as-a-bird-stuffer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127055910/https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/features/john-edmonstone-enslaved-man-to-free-as-a-bird-stuffer |archive-date=27 November 2020 |access-date=7 September 2025}}
In Darwin's second year at the university, he joined the [[Plinian Society]], a student [[natural history|natural-history]] group featuring lively debates in which [[radicalism (historical)#Popular agitation|radical democratic]] students with [[materialism|materialistic]] views challenged orthodox religious concepts of science.{{sfn|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=31–34}} He assisted [[Robert Edmond Grant]]'s investigations of the anatomy and life cycle of [[marine invertebrates]] in the [[Firth of Forth]], and on 27 March 1827 presented at the Plinian his own discovery that black spores found in [[oyster]] shells were the eggs of a skate [[leech]].{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=72–88}}.
One day, Grant praised [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarck]]'s [[Lamarckism|evolutionary ideas]]. Darwin was astonished by Grant's audacity, but had recently read similar ideas in his grandfather Erasmus' journals.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=72–88}}. Darwin was rather bored by [[Robert Jameson]]'s natural-history course, which covered geology{{snd}}including the debate between [[neptunism]] and [[plutonism]]. He learned the [[taxonomy (biology)|classification]] of plants. He assisted with work on the collections of the [[Royal Museum|University Museum]], one of the largest museums in Europe at the time.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=42–43}}.
Darwin's neglect of medical studies annoyed his father, who sent him to [[Christ's College, Cambridge]] in January 1828 to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree as the first step towards becoming an Anglican country [[parson]]. Darwin was unqualified for Cambridge's ''[[Tripos]]'' exams and was required instead to join the ordinary degree course.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=47–48, 89–91}};
{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|2009|pp=47–48}}. He preferred [[equestrianism|riding]] and [[shooting sports|shooting]] to studying.{{sfn|Darwin|1887|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=66&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=text 48]}} At Cambridge, Darwin joined a society known as the "Glutton Club," which consumed "birds and beasts which were before unknown to human palate." Darwin would continue to eat the meat of exotic animals for the rest of his life; on the voyage of the ''Beagle'', he ate [[Puma (genus)|puma]], [[Iguana|iguanas]], [[Giant tortoise|giant tortoises]], [[Armadillo|armadillos]], and mistakenly ate a [[Darwin's rhea|rhea]] which he intended to study.{{Cite news |last=Rack |first=Jessie |date=2015-08-12 |title=Dining Like Darwin: When Scientists Swallow Their Subjects |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/12/430075644/dining-like-darwin-when-scientists-swallow-their-subjects |access-date=2026-04-14 |work=NPR |language=en}}
[[File:Young-Charles-Darwin-statue-by-Anthony-Smith-(Christ's-College-Cambridge)-3.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Bronze statue of Darwin in 1830 clothes, seated on the arm of a wooden bench; behind him plants partly cover a stone wall, a window has white-painted wooden frames|A [[Commemoration of Charles Darwin#Darwin day, and 2009 commemorations|bicentennial]] portrait by [[Anthony Smith (sculptor)|Anthony Smith]] of Darwin as a student, in the courtyard at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], where he had rooms.{{cite web | title=Darwin statue unveiled at college | website=BBC News | date=12 February 2009 | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7886278.stm | access-date=22 April 2022 | archive-date=16 February 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216155859/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7886278.stm | url-status=live }}]]
During the first few months of Darwin's enrolment at Christ's College, his second cousin [[William Darwin Fox]] was still studying there. Fox impressed him with his butterfly collection, introducing Darwin to [[entomology]] and influencing him to pursue [[beetle]] collecting.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Homer W. |url=https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit |title=Man and His Gods |date=1952 |publisher=[[Grosset & Dunlap]] |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/357 357–358] |author-link=Homer W. Smith |url-access=registration}}{{harvnb|Darwin|1887|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=68&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=text 50–51]}}. He did this zealously and had some of his finds published in [[James Francis Stephens]]' ''Illustrations of British entomology'' (1829–1932).{{Cite web |editor-last=van Wyhe |editor-first=John |title=Darwin's insects in Stephens' Illustrations of British entomology (1829–32) |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Stephens.html |access-date=3 July 2020 |website=Darwin Online |archive-date=1 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901090213/http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Stephens.html}}
Through Fox, Darwin became a close friend and follower of botany professor [[John Stevens Henslow]]. He met other leading [[parson-naturalist]]s who saw scientific work as religious [[natural theology]], becoming known to these [[University don|dons]] as "the man who walks with Henslow". When his own exams drew near, Darwin applied himself to his studies and was delighted by the language and logic of [[William Paley]]'s ''Evidences of Christianity'' (1795).{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=73–79, 763}};
{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=59 57–67]}}. In his final examination in January 1831, Darwin did well, coming tenth out of 178 candidates for the ''ordinary'' degree.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|p=97}}.
Darwin had to stay at Cambridge until June 1831. He studied Paley's ''[[Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity]]'' (first published in 1802), which made an [[teleological argument|argument for divine design in nature]], explaining [[adaptation]] as God acting through [[Physical law|laws of nature]].{{Harvnb|von Sydow|2005|pp=5–7}}. He read [[John Herschel]]'s new book, ''Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy'' (1831), which described the highest aim of [[natural philosophy]] as understanding such laws through [[inductive reasoning]] based on observation, and [[Alexander von Humboldt]]'s ''Personal Narrative'' of scientific travels in 1799–1804.{{ cite book | last=Daum | first=Andreas W.|author-link=Andreas Daum | year=2024 | title=Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography | location=Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J. | publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=137–138 | isbn=978-0-691-24736-6 }} Inspired with "a burning zeal" to contribute, Darwin planned to visit [[Tenerife]] with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics. In preparation, he joined [[Adam Sedgwick]]'s geology course, then on 4 August travelled with him to spend a fortnight mapping [[strata]] in Wales.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=69 67–68]}}.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=128–129, 133–141}}.
===Survey voyage on HMS ''Beagle''===
{{further|Second voyage of HMS Beagle|label 1=Second voyage of HMS ''Beagle''}}
[[File:Voyage of the Beagle-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|alt=Route from Plymouth, England, south to Cape Verde then southwest across the Atlantic to Bahia, Brazil, south to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, the Falkland Islands, round the tip of South America then north to Valparaiso and Callao. Northwest to the Galapagos Islands before sailing west across the Pacific to New Zealand, Sydney, Hobart in Tasmania, and King George's Sound in Western Australia. Northwest to the Keeling Islands, southwest to Mauritius and Cape Town, then northwest to Bahia and northeast back to Plymouth.|The round-the-world voyage of the [[HMS Beagle|''Beagle'']], 1831–1836]]
After leaving Sedgwick in Wales, Darwin spent a few days with student friends at [[Barmouth]]. He returned home on 29 August to find a letter from Henslow proposing him as a suitable (if unfinished) naturalist for a self-funded [[wikt:supernumerary|supernumerary]] place on {{HMS|Beagle}} with captain [[Robert FitzRoy]], a position for a [[gentleman]] rather than "a mere collector". The ship was to leave in four weeks on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America.{{cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Lucas_Lowe_Journal.html |title=The recovery of time past: Darwin at Barmouth on the eve of the Beagle |author=Peter Lucas |date=1 January 2010 |website=Darwin Online |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=11 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411090308/http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Lucas_Lowe_Journal.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-105.xml|title=Letter no. 105, Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, C. R., 24 Aug 1831|website=Darwin Correspondence Project|access-date=29 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229182043/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-105.xml|url-status=live}} Robert Darwin objected to his son's planned two-year voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by his brother-in-law, [[Josiah Wedgwood II]], to agree to (and fund) his son's participation.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=94–97}} Darwin took care to remain in a private capacity to retain control over his collection, intending it for a major scientific institution.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=204–210}}
After delays, the voyage began on 27 December 1831; it lasted almost five years. As FitzRoy had intended, Darwin spent most of that time on land investigating geology and making natural history collections, while HMS ''Beagle'' [[hydrography|surveyed and charted]] coasts.{{harvnb|Keynes|2000|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1840&pageseq=12 ix–xi]}} He kept careful notes of his observations and theoretical speculations. At intervals during the voyage, his specimens were sent to Cambridge together with letters including a copy of [[The Voyage of the Beagle|his journal]] for his family.{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2008b|pp=18–21}} He had some expertise in geology, beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates, but in all other areas, was a novice and ably collected specimens for expert appraisal.{{cite web|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_Keynes_Galapagos.html|title=Darwin's field notes on the Galapagos: 'A little world within itself'|author=Gordon Chancellor|author2=Randal Keynes|date=October 2006|publisher=[[Darwin Online]]|access-date=16 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901082402/http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_Keynes_Galapagos.html|archive-date=1 September 2009|author2-link=Randal Keynes}} Despite suffering badly from seasickness, Darwin wrote copious notes while on board the ship. Most of his zoology notes are about marine invertebrates, starting with [[plankton]] collected during a calm spell.{{Harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1925&viewtype=text&pageseq=53 21–22]}}
[[File:Darwin, detail from Augustus Earle (presumed) - Quarter Deck of a Man of War on Diskivery (sic) or interesting Scenes on an Interesting Voyage.jpg|thumb|180px|Darwin (right) on the ''Beagle''{{'s}} deck at [[Bahía Blanca]] in Argentina, with fossils; caricature by [[Augustus Earle]], the initial ship's artist]]
On their first stop ashore at [[Santiago, Cape Verde|St Jago]] in Cape Verde, Darwin found that a white band high in the [[volcanic rock]] cliffs included seashells. FitzRoy had given him the first volume of [[Charles Lyell]]'s ''[[Principles of Geology]]'', which set out [[uniformitarian]] concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods,{{Ref label|B|II|none}} and Darwin saw things Lyell's way, theorising and thinking of writing a book on geology.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=183–190}} When they reached Brazil, Darwin was delighted by the [[Bahia coastal forests|tropical forest]],{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=73 41–42]}} but detested the sight of [[Slavery in Brazil|slavery there]], and disputed this issue with FitzRoy.{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=75 73–74]}}
The survey continued to the south in [[Patagonia]]. They stopped at [[Bahía Blanca]], and in cliffs near [[Punta Alta]], Darwin made a significant find of fossil bones of huge [[List of prehistoric mammals|extinct mammals]] beside modern seashells, indicating recent [[extinction]] with no signs of change in climate or catastrophe. He found bony plates like a giant version of the armour on local [[armadillo]]s. From a jaw and tooth, he identified the gigantic ''[[Megatherium]]'', then from [[Georges Cuvier|Cuvier's]] description thought the armour was from this animal. The finds were shipped to England, and scientists found the fossils of great interest.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=223–225}}
{{Harvnb|Darwin|1835|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1&viewtype=text&pageseq=7 7]}}
{{cite web|url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-213.xml|title=Letter no. 213, Henslow, J. S. to Darwin, C. R., 31 August 1833|website=Darwin Correspondence Project|access-date=29 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229182046/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-213.xml|url-status=live}}{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=138 106–109]}}
On rides with [[gaucho]]s into the interior to explore geology and collect more fossils, Darwin gained social, political, and [[anthropology|anthropological]] insights into both native and colonial people at a time of revolution, and learnt that two types of [[rhea (bird)|rhea]] had separate but overlapping territories.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=189–192, 198}}{{Harvnb|Eldredge|2006}} Further south, he saw stepped plains of shingle and seashells as [[raised beach]]es at a series of elevations. He read Lyell's second volume and accepted its description of "centres of creation" of species, but his discoveries and theorising challenged Lyell's ideas of smooth continuity and of extinction of species.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=131, 159}}
{{harvnb|Herbert|1991|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A342&pageseq=16 174–179]}}{{cite web|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_fieldNotebooks1.8.html|title=Darwin Online: 'Hurrah Chiloe': an introduction to the Port Desire Notebook|access-date=24 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204201413/http://www.darwin-online.org.uk./EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_fieldNotebooks1.8.html|archive-date=4 December 2008}}
In [[Tierra del Fuego]], Darwin formed the incorrect belief that the archipelago was devoid of reptiles.{{Cite journal |title=Historical account and current ecological knowledge of the southernmost lizard in the world, Liolaemus magellanicus (Squamata: Liolaemidae) |journal=[[Revista Chilena de Historia Natural]] |last=Jaksic |first=Fabian M. |issue=7 |volume=95 |doi=10.1186/s40693-022-00112-y |year=2022|article-number=7 |s2cid=252717680 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022RvCHN..95....7J }}
Three [[Fuegians]] on board, who had been seized during the [[HMS Beagle#First voyage|first ''Beagle'' voyage]] and then given Christian education in England, were returning with a missionary. Darwin found them friendly and civilised, yet at Tierra del Fuego he met "miserable, degraded savages", as different as wild from domesticated animals.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1845|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F14&viewtype=text&pageseq=218 205–208]}} He remained convinced that, despite this diversity, all humans were interrelated with [[Monogenism|a shared origin]] and potential for improvement towards civilisation. Unlike his scientist friends, he now thought there was no unbridgeable gap between humans and animals.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=243–244, 248–250, 382–383}} A year on, the mission had been abandoned. The Fuegian they had named [[Jemmy Button]] lived like the other natives, had a wife, and had no wish to return to England.{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=258 226–227]}}
[[File: HMS Beagle by Conrad Martens.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|alt=On a sea inlet surrounded by steep hills, with high snow-covered mountains in the distance, someone standing in an open canoe waves at a square-rigged sailing ship, seen from the front|As [[HMS Beagle|HMS ''Beagle'']] surveyed the coasts of South America, Darwin theorised about geology and the extinction of giant mammals. Watercolour by the ship's artist [[Conrad Martens]], who replaced Augustus Earle, in [[Tierra del Fuego]].]]
Darwin experienced [[1835 Concepción earthquake|an earthquake in Chile]] in 1835 and saw signs that the land had just been raised, including [[mussel]] beds stranded above high tide. High in the [[Andes]], he saw seashells and several fossil trees that had grown on a sand beach. He theorised that as the land rose, [[island|oceanic islands]] sank, and [[coral reef]]s around them grew to form [[atoll]]s.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=160–168, 182}}
{{cite web | title=Letter no. 275 – Charles Darwin to Susan Elizabeth Darwin – 23 April 1835 | website=Darwin Correspondence Project | url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-275.xml | access-date=6 December 2021 | archive-date=6 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206101229/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-275.xml | url-status=live }}{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|loc=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1497&viewtype=text&pageseq=100 pp. 98–99]}}
On the geologically new [[Galápagos Islands]], Darwin looked for evidence attaching wildlife to an older "centre of creation". He found [[mockingbird]]s allied to those in Chile but differing from island to island. He heard that slight variations in the shape of [[tortoise]] shells showed which island they came from, but failed to collect them, even after eating tortoises taken on board as food.{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=388 356–357]}}{{harvnb|Sulloway|1982|p=19}} In Australia, the [[marsupial]] [[Potoridae|rat-kangaroo]] and the [[platypus]] seemed so unusual that Darwin thought it was almost as though two distinct Creators had been at work.{{cite web|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_fieldNotebooks1.3.html|title=Darwin Online: Coccatoos & Crows: An introduction to the Sydney Notebook|access-date=2 January 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114015611/http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_fieldNotebooks1.3.html|archive-date=14 January 2009}} He found the [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal Australians]] "good-humoured & pleasant", their numbers depleted by European settlement.{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=430 398–399].}}
FitzRoy investigated how the atolls of the [[Cocos (Keeling) Islands]] had formed. The survey supported Darwin's theorising. FitzRoy began writing the official ''Narrative'' of the ''Beagle'' voyages, and after reading Darwin's diary, he proposed incorporating it into the account.{{cite web | title=Letter no. 301, Charles Darwin to Caroline Darwin, 29 April 1836, Port Lewis, Mauritius. | website=Darwin Correspondence Project | url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-301.xml | access-date=12 February 2022 | archive-date=15 February 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215113535/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-301.xml | url-status=live }} Darwin's ''Journal'' was eventually rewritten as a separate third volume, on geology and natural history.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|p=336}}{{Harvnb|Darwin|1839|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=13&itemID=F10.3&viewtype=text viii]}}
In [[Cape Town]], South Africa, Darwin and FitzRoy met John Herschel, who had recently written to Lyell praising his [[uniformitarianism]] as opening bold speculation on "that mystery of mysteries, the replacement of extinct species by others" as "a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process".{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A544&pageseq=21 197]}}
When organising his notes as the ship sailed home, Darwin wrote that, if his growing suspicions about the mockingbirds, the tortoises and the [[Falkland Islands wolf|Falkland Islands fox]] were correct, "such facts undermine the stability of Species", then cautiously added "would" before "undermine".{{Harvnb|Keynes|2000|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1840&pageseq=22 xix–xx]}}
{{Harvnb|Eldredge|2006}} He later wrote that such facts "seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species".{{Harvnb|Darwin|1859|loc=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=16 p. 1]}}
Without Darwin's knowledge, [[Extracts from Letters to Henslow|extracts from his letters to Henslow]] had been read to scientific societies, printed as a pamphlet for private distribution among members of the [[Cambridge Philosophical Society]], and reported in magazines,{{sfn|Darwin|1835|p=1}} including [[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|''The Athenaeum'']].{{cite web | title=Letter no. 291, Caroline Darwin to Charles Darwin, 29 December [1835], [Shrewsbury] | website=Darwin Correspondence Project | url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-291.xml | access-date=19 January 2022 | archive-date=11 February 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211205926/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-291.xml | url-status=live }} Darwin first heard of this at Cape Town,{{cite web | title=Letter no. 302, Charles Darwin to Catherine Darwin, 3 June 1836, Cape of Good Hope | website=Darwin Correspondence Project | url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-302.xml | access-date=19 January 2022 | archive-date=27 January 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127212812/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-302.xml | url-status=live }} and at [[Ascension Island]] read of Sedgwick's prediction that Darwin "will have a great name among the Naturalists of Europe".{{cite web | title=Letter no. 288, Susan Darwin to Charles Darwin, 22 November 1835, Shrewsbury | website=Darwin Correspondence Project | url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-288.xml | access-date=19 January 2022 | archive-date=13 February 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213100832/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-288.xml | url-status=live }}{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=83 81–82].}}
===Inception of Darwin's evolutionary theory===
{{further|Inception of Darwin's theory}}
[[File:Charles Darwin by G. Richmond.png|thumb|upright=1.1|alt=Three-quarter length portrait of Darwin aged about 30, with straight brown hair receding from his high forehead and long side-whiskers, smiling quietly, in wide lapelled jacket, waistcoat and high collar with cravat|While still a young man, Darwin joined the scientific elite; portrait by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]].]]
On 2 October 1836, ''Beagle'' anchored at [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]], Cornwall. Darwin promptly made the long coach journey to Shrewsbury to visit his home and see relatives. He then hurried to [[Cambridge]] to see Henslow, who advised him on finding available naturalists to catalogue Darwin's animal collections and to take on the botanical specimens. Darwin's father organised investments, enabling his son to be a self-funded [[gentleman scientist]], and an excited Darwin went around the London institutions being fêted and seeking experts to describe the collections. British zoologists at the time had a huge backlog of work, due to the encouragement of natural history collecting throughout the British Empire, and there was a danger of specimens being left in storage.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=195–198}}
Charles Lyell eagerly met Darwin for the first time on 29 October and soon introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist [[Richard Owen]], who had the facilities of the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]] to work on the fossil bones collected by Darwin. Owen's surprising results included other gigantic extinct [[ground sloth]]s as well as the ''Megatherium'' Darwin had identified, a near complete skeleton of the unknown ''[[Scelidotherium]]'' and a [[hippopotamus]]-sized [[rodent]]-like skull named ''[[Toxodon]]'' resembling a giant [[capybara]]. The armour fragments were actually from ''[[Glyptodon]]'', a huge armadillo-like creature, as Darwin had initially thought.{{Harvnb|Owen|1840|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F9.1&pageseq=26 16], [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F9.1&pageseq=83 73], [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F9.1&pageseq=116 106]}}
{{Harvnb|Eldredge|2006}} These extinct creatures were related to living species in South America.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=201–205}}
{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=349–350}}
In mid-December, Darwin took lodgings in Cambridge to arrange expert classification of his collections and prepare his own research for publication. Questions of how to combine his diary into the ''Narrative'' were resolved at the end of the month when FitzRoy accepted [[William Broderip|Broderip's]] advice to make it a separate volume, and Darwin began work on his ''Journal and Remarks''.{{sfn|Browne|1995|pp=345–347}}{{sfn|Keynes|2001|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=20 xviii–xix]}}
Darwin's first paper showed that the South American landmass was slowly rising. With Lyell's enthusiastic backing, he read it to the [[Geological Society of London]] on 4 January 1837. On the same day, he presented his mammal and bird specimens to the [[Zoological Society of London|Zoological Society]]. The ornithologist [[John Gould]] soon announced that the Galápagos birds that Darwin had thought a mixture of [[Common blackbird|blackbirds]], "[[Grosbeak|gros-beaks]]" and [[finch]]es, were, in fact, twelve [[Darwin's finches|separate species of finches]]. On 17 February, Darwin was elected to the Council of the Geological Society, and Lyell's presidential address presented Owen's findings on Darwin's fossils, stressing the geographical continuity of species as supporting his uniformitarian ideas.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=207–210}}
{{Harvnb|Sulloway|1982|pp=20–23}}
[[File:Darwin Tree 1837.png|right|thumb|alt=A page of hand-written notes, with a sketch of branching lines|In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on ''Transmutation of Species'', and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first [[tree of life (biology)|evolutionary tree]].]]
Early in March, Darwin moved to London to be near this work, joining Lyell's social circle of scientists and experts such as [[Charles Babbage]],{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-346.html|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 346 – Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, C. S., 27 Feb 1837|access-date=19 December 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629192201/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-346.html|archive-date=29 June 2009}} proposes a move on Friday 3 March 1837,
Darwin's Journal ({{harvnb|Darwin|2006|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=22&itemID=CUL-DAR158.1-76&viewtype=text 12 verso]}}) backdated from August 1838 gives a date of 6 March 1837 who described God as a programmer of laws. Darwin stayed with his [[freethought|freethinking]] brother Erasmus, part of this [[British Whig Party|Whig]] circle and a close friend of the writer [[Harriet Martineau]], who promoted the [[Malthusianism]] that underpinned the controversial Whig [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834|Poor Law reforms]] to stop welfare from causing overpopulation and more poverty. As a Unitarian, she welcomed the [[radicalism (historical)|radical]] implications of [[transmutation of species]], promoted by Grant and younger surgeons influenced by [[Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire|Geoffroy]]. Transmutation was anathema to Anglicans defending social order,{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=201, 212–221}} but reputable scientists openly discussed the subject. There was broad interest in John Herschel's letter praising Lyell's approach as a way to find a [[Scientific law|natural cause]] of the origin of new species.
Gould met Darwin and told him that the Galápagos mockingbirds from different islands were separate species, not just varieties, and what Darwin had thought was a "[[wren]]" was [[Warbler-finch|in the finch group]]. Darwin had not labelled the finches by island, but from the notes of others on the ship, including FitzRoy, he allocated species to islands.{{Harvnb|Sulloway|1982|pp=9, 20–23}} The two rheas were distinct species, and on 14 March Darwin announced how their distribution changed going southwards.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|p=360}}
{{cite web|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1643&viewtype=text&pageseq=1|title=Darwin, C. R. (Read 14 March 1837) Notes on Rhea americana and Rhea darwinii, ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London''|access-date=17 December 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210085710/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1643&viewtype=text&pageseq=1|archive-date=10 February 2009}}
By mid-March 1837, barely six months after his return to England, Darwin was speculating in his ''Red Notebook'' on the possibility that "one species does change into another" to explain the geographical distribution of living species such as the rheas, and extinct ones such as the strange extinct mammal ''[[Macrauchenia]]'', which resembled a giant [[guanaco]], a llama relative. Around mid-July, he recorded in his "B" notebook his thoughts on lifespan and variation across generations{{snd}}explaining the variations he had observed in [[Galápagos tortoise]]s, mockingbirds, and rheas. He sketched branching descent, and then a [[genealogical]] branching of a single [[tree of life (biology)|evolutionary tree]], in which "It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another", thereby discarding Lamarck's idea of independent [[lineage (evolution)|lineages]] progressing to higher forms.{{harvnb|Herbert|1980|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1583e&pageseq=9 7–10]}}
{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2008b|p=44}}
{{harvnb|Darwin|1837|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=CUL-DAR121.-&pageseq=1 1–13, 26, 36, 74]}}
{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=229–232}}
===Overwork and illness ===
{{further|Health of Charles Darwin}}
While developing this intensive study of transmutation, Darwin became mired in more work. Still rewriting his ''Journal'', he took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained a Treasury grant of £1,000, {{Inflation|UK|1000|1832|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}, to sponsor this multi-volume ''[[Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle]]''. He stretched the funding to include his planned books on geology, and agreed to unrealistic dates with the publisher.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=367–369}} As the [[Victorian era]] began, Darwin pressed on with writing his ''Journal'', and in August 1837 began correcting [[Galley proof|printer's proofs]].{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=21 xix]}}
As Darwin worked under pressure, his health suffered. On 20 September, he had "an uncomfortable [[palpitations|palpitation]] of the heart", so his doctors urged him to "knock off all work" and live in the country for a few weeks. After visiting Shrewsbury, he joined his Wedgwood relatives at [[Maer Hall]], Staffordshire, but found them too eager for tales of his travels to give him much rest. His charming, intelligent, and cultured cousin [[Emma Darwin|Emma Wedgwood]], nine months older than Darwin, was nursing his invalid aunt. His uncle Josiah pointed out an area of ground where cinders had disappeared under [[loam]]. Darwin suggested that this might have been the work of [[earthworm]]s, inspiring "a new & important theory" on their role in [[pedogenesis|soil formation]], which he presented at the Geological Society on 1 November 1837.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=233–234}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-404.html |title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 404 – Buckland, William to Geological Society of London, 9 Mar 1838 |access-date=23 December 2008 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629192234/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-404.html |archive-date=29 June 2009}} His ''Journal'' was printed and ready for publication by the end of February 1838, as was the first volume of the ''Narrative'', but FitzRoy was still working hard to finish his own volume.
[[William Whewell]] pushed Darwin to take on the duties of Secretary of the Geological Society. After initially declining the work, he accepted the post in March 1838.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=233–236}}. Despite the grind of writing and editing the ''Beagle'' reports, Darwin made remarkable progress on transmutation, taking every opportunity to question expert naturalists and, unconventionally, people with practical experience in [[selective breeding]] such as farmers and [[pigeon keeping|pigeon fanciers]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=241–244, 426}} Over time, his research drew on information from his relatives and children, the family butler, neighbours, colonists, and former shipmates.{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|p=xii}} He included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an [[orangutan]] in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its childlike behaviour.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=241–244}}
The strain took a toll, and by June, he was being laid up for days on end with stomach problems, headaches, and heart symptoms. For the rest of his life, he was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe [[Boil (infection)|boil]]s, palpitations, trembling, and other symptoms, particularly during times of stress, such as attending meetings or making social visits. The cause of [[Charles Darwin's illness|Darwin's illness]] remained unknown, and attempts at treatment had only ephemeral success.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=252, 476, 531}}
{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=119 115]}}
On 23 June, he took a break and went "geologising" in Scotland. He visited [[Glen Roy]] in glorious weather to see the parallel "roads" cut into the hillsides at three heights. He later published his view that these were marine-raised beaches, but then had to accept that they were shorelines of a [[proglacial lake]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=254}}
{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=377–378}}
{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=86 84]}}
[[File:Emma Darwin.jpg|thumb|alt=Three-quarter length portrait of woman aged about 30, with dark hair in centre parting straight on top, then falling in curls on each side; she smiles pleasantly and is wearing an open-necked blouse with a large shawl pulled over her arms|Darwin's wife [[Emma Wedgwood]]]]
Fully recuperated, he returned to Shrewsbury in July 1838. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts about marriage, career, and prospects on two scraps of paper, one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Advantages under "Marry" included "constant companion and a friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time".{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1497&viewtype=text&pageseq=238 232–233]}} Having decided in favour of marriage, he discussed it with his father, then went to visit his cousin Emma on 29 July. At this time, he did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice, he mentioned his ideas on transmutation.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=256–259}}
===Malthus and natural selection===
Continuing his research in London, Darwin's wide reading now included the sixth edition of [[Malthus]]'s ''[[An Essay on the Principle of Population]]''. On 28 September 1838, he noted its assertion that human "population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio", a [[geometric progression]] so that population soon exceeds food supply in what is known as a [[Malthusian catastrophe]]. Darwin was well-prepared to compare this to [[Augustin Pyramus de Candolle|Augustin de Candolle]]'s "warring of the species" of plants and the struggle for existence among wildlife, explaining how the numbers of a species remained roughly stable.
As species always breed beyond available resources, favourable variations would make organisms better at surviving and passing the variations on to their offspring, while unfavourable variations would be lost. He wrote that the "final cause of all this wedging, must be to sort out proper structure, & adapt it to changes", so that "One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying [to] force into every kind of adapted structure into the gaps in the economy of nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones."{{cite web | title=Darwin transmutation notebook D pp. 134e–135e | url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR123.-&pageseq=112 | access-date=4 June 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718105154/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR123.-&pageseq=112 | archive-date=18 July 2012 }} This would result in the formation of new species.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=264–265}}
{{Harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=385–388}}
{{Harvnb|Darwin|1909|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1556&viewtype=text&pageseq=39 7]}} As he later wrote in his ''[[The Autobiography of Charles Darwin|Autobiography]]'':
{{Blockquote|In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work...{{harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=124 120]}}}}
By mid-December, Darwin saw a similarity between farmers picking the best stock in selective breeding, and a Malthusian Nature selecting from chance variants so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected",{{cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR124.-&pageseq=63 |title=Darwin transmutation notebook E p. 75 |access-date=17 March 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628082830/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR124.-&pageseq=63 |archive-date=28 June 2009 }} thinking this comparison "a beautiful part of my theory".{{cite web|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR124.-&pageseq=61|title=Darwin transmutation notebook E p. 71|access-date=17 March 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628080656/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR124.-&pageseq=61|archive-date=28 June 2009}} He later called his theory [[natural selection]], an analogy with what he termed the "artificial selection" of selective breeding.
On 11 November, he returned to Maer and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, then, in exchanges of loving letters, showed how she valued his openness in sharing their differences, while expressing her strong Unitarian beliefs and concerns that his honest doubts might separate them in the afterlife.{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/130/125/|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Belief: historical essay|access-date=25 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225124103/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/130/125/ |archive-date=25 February 2009 }} While he was house-hunting in London, bouts of illness continued and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." He found what they called "Macaw Cottage" (because of its gaudy interiors) in [[Gower Street (London)|Gower Street]], then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. On 24 January 1839, Darwin was [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1839|elected a Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS).{{cite web | title=Search Results: Record – Darwin; Charles Robert | website=The Royal Society Collections Catalogues | date=20 June 2015 | url=https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA8196&pos=1 | access-date=2 December 2021 | archive-date=2 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202200044/https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA8196&pos=1 | url-status=live }}{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=272–279}}
On 29 January, Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were married at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to suit the Unitarians, then immediately caught the train to London and their new home.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=279}}
===Geology books, barnacles, evolutionary research===
{{further|Development of Darwin's theory}}
[[File:Charles-Darwin-and-William-Darwin,-1842.png|thumb|alt=Darwin in his thirties, with his son dressed in a frock sitting on his knee|Darwin in 1842 with his eldest son, [[William Erasmus Darwin]]]]
Darwin now had the framework of his theory of natural selection "by which to work", as his "prime hobby".{{cite news |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-419.html |title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 419 – Darwin, C. R. to Fox, W. D., (15 June 1838) |newspaper=Darwin Correspondence Project |access-date=8 February 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070904124133/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-419.html |archive-date=4 September 2007}} His research included extensive experimental selective breeding of plants and animals, finding evidence that species were not fixed and investigating many detailed ideas to refine and substantiate his theory. For fifteen years this work was in the background to his main occupation of writing on geology and publishing expert reports on the ''Beagle'' collections, in particular, the [[barnacle]]s.{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A544&pageseq=10 186–192]}}
The impetus of Darwin's barnacle research came from a collection of a barnacle colony from Chile in 1835, which he dubbed [[Mr. Arthrobalanus]]. His confusion over the relationship of this species (''Cryptophialus minutus'') to other barnacles caused him to fixate on the systematics of the taxa. He wrote his first examination of the species in 1846, but did not formally describe it until 1854.{{cite journal |last1=Buchanan |first1=Roderick D. |title=Darwin's "Mr. Arthrobalanus": Sexual Differentiation, Evolutionary Destiny and the Expert Eye of the Beholder |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |date=May 2017 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=315–355 |doi=10.1007/s10739-016-9444-9 |pmid=27098777 |issn=1573-0387}}
FitzRoy's long-delayed ''Narrative'' was published in May 1839. Darwin's ''Journal and Remarks'' got good reviews as the third volume, and on 15 August, it was published on its own. Early in 1842, Darwin wrote about his ideas to Charles Lyell, who noted that his ally "denies seeing a beginning to each crop of species".{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=284–285, 292}}
Darwin's book ''[[The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs]]'' on his theory of atoll formation was published in May 1842 after more than three years of work, and he then wrote his first "pencil sketch" of his theory of natural selection.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=292–293}}
{{Harvnb|Darwin|1909|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1556&pageseq=18 xvi–xvii]}} To escape the pressures of London, the family moved to rural [[Down House]] in Kent in September.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=118 114]}} On 11 January 1844, Darwin mentioned his theorising to the botanist [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]], writing with melodramatic humour "it is like confessing a murder".{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A544&pageseq=7 183–184]}}{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-729.html#back-mark-729.f6|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 729 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (11 January 1844)|access-date=8 February 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307235150/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-729.html#back-mark-729.f6|archive-date=7 March 2008}} Hooker replied, "There may, in my opinion, have been a series of productions on different spots, & also a gradual change of species. I shall be delighted to hear how you think that this change may have taken place, as no presently conceived opinions satisfy me on the subject."{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-734.html|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 734 – Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, C. R., 29 January 1844|access-date=8 February 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226141303/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-734.html|archive-date=26 February 2009}}
[[File:Darwins Thinking Path.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|right|alt=Path covered in sandy gravel winding through open woodland, with plants and shrubs growing on each side of the path|Darwin's "sandwalk" at [[Down House]] in Kent was his usual "thinking path".{{cite web | title=Charles Darwin: a life in pictures, The Sand Walk near Down House, Darwin's thinking path | website=Darwin Online | url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/life19.html | access-date=1 October 2022 | archive-date=1 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001173155/http://darwin-online.org.uk/life19.html | url-status=live }}]]
By July, Darwin had expanded his "sketch" into a 230-page "Essay", to be expanded with his research results if he died prematurely.{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|p=188}} In November, the anonymously published sensational best-seller ''[[Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation]]'' brought wide interest in transmutation. Darwin scorned its amateurish geology and zoology, but carefully reviewed his own arguments. Controversy erupted, and it continued to sell well despite contemptuous dismissal by scientists.{{harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=461–465}}{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-814.html#back-mark-814.f5|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 814 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (7 Jan 1845)|access-date=24 November 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205084645/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-814.html#back-mark-814.f5|archive-date=5 December 2008}}
Darwin completed his third geological book in 1846. He now renewed his interest in marine invertebrates and, using expertise from his student days with Grant, dissected and classified the barnacles he had collected on the voyage. He enjoyed observing their beauty and thought about comparisons with allied structures.{{Harvnb|van Wyhe|2007|pp=190–191}} In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed, but would not commit himself and questioned Darwin's opposition to continuing acts of [[creation myth|creation]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=320–323, 339–348}}
In an attempt to improve his chronic ill health, Darwin went in 1849 to Dr. [[James Manby Gully|James Gully]]'s [[Great Malvern|Malvern]] spa and was surprised to find some benefit from [[hydrotherapy]].{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-1236.html|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 1236 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., 28 Mar 1849|access-date=24 November 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207005457/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-1236.html|archive-date=7 December 2008}} Then, in 1851, his treasured daughter [[Anne Darwin|Annie]] fell ill, reawakening his fears that his illness might be hereditary. She died the same year after a long series of crises.{{harvnb|Browne|1995|pp=498–501}}
In eight years of work on barnacles, Darwin's theory helped him to find "[[homology (biology)|homologies]]" showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions. In some [[genus|genera]] he found minute males [[parasitism|parasitic]] on [[hermaphrodite]]s, showing an [[Androdioecy|intermediate stage]] in evolution of [[Gonochorism|distinct sexes]].{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=121 117–118]}} In 1853, it earned him the [[Royal Society]]'s Royal Medal, and it made his reputation as a [[biologist]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=383–387}} Upon the conclusion of his research, Darwin declared, "I hate a barnacle as no man ever did before."{{Cite journal |last=Bromham |first=Lindell |date=1 October 2020 |title=Comparability in evolutionary biology: The case of Darwin's barnacles |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingty-2020-2056/html?lang=en |journal=Linguistic Typology |language=en |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=427–463 |doi=10.1515/lingty-2020-2056 |issn=1613-415X |s2cid=222319487 |hdl-access=free |hdl=1885/274303|url-access=subscription }}{{sfn|van Wyhe|2007}} In 1854, he became a Fellow of the [[Linnean Society of London]], gaining postal access to its library.{{harvnb|Freeman|2007|pp=107, 109}} He began a major reassessment of his theory of species, and in November realised that divergence in the character of descendants could be explained by them becoming adapted to "diversified places in the economy of nature".{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=419–420}}
===Publication of the theory of natural selection===
{{further|Publication of Darwin's theory}}
[[File:Charles Darwin by Maull and Polyblank, 1855-crop.png|thumb|alt=Studio photo showing Darwin's characteristic large forehead and bushy eyebrows with deep set eyes, pug nose and mouth set in a determined look; he is bald on top, with dark hair and long side whiskers but no beard or moustache|Darwin aged 46 in 1855, by then working towards publication of his theory of [[natural selection]]. He wrote to [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|Joseph Hooker]] about this portrait, "if I really have as bad an expression, as my photograph gives me, how I can have one single friend is surprising."[http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_MaullandPolyblankPhoto.html Darwin Online: Photograph of Charles Darwin by Maull and Polyblank for the Literary and Scientific Portrait Club (1855)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107045842/http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_MaullandPolyblankPhoto.html |date=7 January 2012 }}, John van Wyhe, December 2006]]
By the start of 1856, Darwin was investigating whether eggs and [[seed]]s could survive travel across seawater to spread species across oceans. Hooker increasingly doubted the traditional view that species were fixed, but their young friend [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] was still firmly against the transmutation of species. Lyell was intrigued by Darwin's speculations without realising their extent. When he read a paper by [[Alfred Russel Wallace]], "On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species", he saw similarities with Darwin's thoughts. He urged him to publish to establish precedence.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=412–441, 457–458, 462–463}}
{{harvnb | Desmond |Moore | 2009 | pp=283–284, 290–292, 295}}
Though Darwin saw no threat, on 14 May 1856, he began writing a short paper. Finding answers to difficult questions held him up repeatedly, and he expanded his plans to a "big book on species" titled ''[[Natural Selection (manuscript)|Natural Selection]]'', which was to include his "note on Man". He continued his research, [[Correspondence of Charles Darwin|obtaining information]] and specimens from naturalists worldwide, including Wallace, who was working in [[Borneo]].
In mid-1857, he added a section heading, "Theory applied to Races of Man", but did not add text on this topic. On 5 September 1857, Darwin sent the American botanist [[Asa Gray]] a detailed outline of his ideas, including an abstract of ''Natural Selection'', which omitted [[human evolution|human origins]] and [[sexual selection]]. In December, Darwin received a letter from Wallace asking if the book would examine human origins. He responded that he would avoid that subject, "so surrounded with prejudices", while encouraging Wallace's theorising and adding that "I go much further than you."
Darwin's book was only partly written when, on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace describing natural selection. Shocked that he had been "forestalled", Darwin sent it on that day to Lyell, as requested by Wallace.Ball, P. (2011). Shipping timetables debunk Darwin plagiarism accusations: Evidence challenges claims that Charles Darwin stole ideas from Alfred Russel Wallace. Nature. [http://www.nature.com/news/shipping-timetables-debunk-darwin-plagiarism-accusations-1.9613 online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222191430/http://www.nature.com/news/shipping-timetables-debunk-darwin-plagiarism-accusations-1.9613 |date=22 February 2012 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01808.x|title=A new theory to explain the receipt of Wallace's Ternate Essay by Darwin in 1858|journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society|volume=105|pages=249–252|year=2012|last1=van Wyhe|first1=John|last2=Rookmaaker|first2=Kees|doi-access=free}} Although Wallace had not asked for publication, Darwin suggested he would send it to any journal that Wallace chose. His family was in crisis, with children in the village dying of [[scarlet fever]], and he put matters in the hands of his friends.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=466–470}}
After some discussion, with no reliable way of involving Wallace, Lyell and Hooker decided on a joint presentation at the Linnean Society on 1 July of ''[[On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection]]''. On the evening of 28 June, Darwin's baby son died of scarlet fever after almost a week of severe illness, and he was too distraught to attend.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=466–470}}
There was little immediate attention to this announcement of the theory; the president of the Linnean Society remarked in May 1859 that the year had not been marked by any revolutionary discoveries.{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=40–42, 48–49}} Only one review rankled enough for Darwin to recall it later; Professor [[Samuel Haughton]] of Dublin claimed that "all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old".{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1497&viewtype=text&pageseq=126 122]}} Darwin struggled for thirteen months to produce an abstract of his "big book", suffering from ill health but getting constant encouragement from his scientific friends. Lyell arranged to have it published by [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]].{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=374–474}}
''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=477}} In the book, Darwin set out "one long argument" of detailed observations, inferences and consideration of anticipated objections.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1859|loc=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=477 p. 459]}} In making the case for common descent, he included evidence of homologies between humans and other mammals.{{sfn|van Wyhe|2008}}{{Ref label|C|III|none}} Having outlined sexual selection, he hinted that it could explain differences between [[Race (human categorization)|human races]].{{Harvnb|Darwin|1859|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=217&itemID=F373&viewtype=text 199]}}
{{harvnb | Darwin |Costa | 2009 | p=199}}
{{harvnb | Desmond |Moore | 2009 | p=310}}{{Ref label|D|IV|1}} He avoided explicit discussion of human origins, but implied the significance of his work with the sentence; "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."{{harvnb|Darwin|1859|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F373&pageseq=506 488]}}
{{harvnb | Darwin |Costa | 2009 | pp=199, 488}}
{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2008}}{{Ref label|D|IV|2}} His theory is simply stated in the introduction:
{{blockquote|As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be ''naturally selected''. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1859|loc=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=20 p. 5]}}}}
At the end of the book, he concluded that:
{{blockquote|There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1859|loc=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=508 p. 492]}}}}
The last word was the only variant of "evolved" in the first five editions of the book. "[[Evolutionism]]" at that time was associated with other concepts, most commonly with [[Prenatal development (biology)|embryological development]]. Darwin first used the word [[evolution]] in ''[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex|The Descent of Man]]'' in 1871, before adding it in 1872 to the 6th edition of ''The Origin of Species''.{{harvnb|Browne|2002|p=59}}, {{harvnb|Freeman|1977|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=80&itemID=A1&viewtype=text 79–80]}}
===Responses to publication===
{{further|Reactions to On the Origin of Species|label 1=Reactions to ''On the Origin of Species''}}
The book aroused international interest, with less controversy than had greeted the popular and less scientific ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation''.{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2008b|p=48}} Though Darwin's illness kept him away from the public debates, he eagerly scrutinised the scientific response, commenting on press cuttings, reviews, articles, satires and caricatures, and corresponded on it with colleagues worldwide.{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=103–104, 379}} The book did not explicitly discuss human origins,{{Ref label|D|IV|3}} but included a number of hints about the animal ancestry of humans from which the inference could be made.{{harvnb|Radick|2013|pp=174–175}}
{{harvnb|Huxley|Kettlewell|1965|p=88}} Upon reading it, Huxley remarked "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!"{{cite web| title=Evolution: Library: Huxley: Darwin's Bulldog| publisher=[[PBS]] | url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/2/l_022_09.html}}
The first review asked, "If a monkey has become a man – what may not a man become?" It said this should be left to theologians as being too dangerous for ordinary readers.{{harvnb|Browne|2002|p=87}}
{{harvnb|Leifchild|1859}} Among early favourable responses, Huxley's reviews swiped at [[Richard Owen]], leader of the scientific establishment which Huxley was trying to overthrow.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=477–491}}
In April, Owen's review attacked Darwin's friends and condescendingly dismissed his ideas, angering Darwin,{{harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=110–112}} but Owen and others began to promote ideas of supernaturally guided evolution. [[Patrick Matthew]] drew attention to his 1831 book, which had a brief appendix suggesting a concept of natural selection leading to new species, but he had not developed the idea.{{harvnb|Bowler|2003|pp=158, 186}}
The [[Church of England]]'s response was mixed. Darwin's old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow dismissed the ideas, but [[liberal Christianity|liberal clergymen]] interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the cleric [[Charles Kingsley]] seeing it as "just as noble a conception of Deity".{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/110/104/|title=Darwin and design: historical essay|year=2007|publisher=Darwin Correspondence Project|access-date=17 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615191012/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/110/104/ |archive-date=15 June 2009}} In 1860, the publication of ''[[Essays and Reviews]]'' by seven liberal Anglican theologians diverted [[clergy|clerical]] attention from Darwin. Its ideas, including [[higher criticism]], were attacked by church authorities as [[heresy]]. In it, [[Baden Powell (mathematician)|Baden Powell]] argued that [[miracle]]s broke God's laws, so belief in them was [[atheism|atheistic]], and praised "Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature".{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=487–488, 500}}
Asa Gray discussed [[teleology]] with Darwin, who imported and distributed Gray's pamphlet on [[theistic evolution]], ''Natural Selection is not inconsistent with natural theology''.{{Harvnb|Miles|2001}} The most famous confrontation was at the public [[1860 Oxford evolution debate]] during a meeting of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]], where the [[Bishop of Oxford]] [[Samuel Wilberforce]], though not opposed to transmutation of species, argued against Darwin's explanation and human descent from apes. Joseph Hooker argued strongly for Darwin, and Thomas Huxley's legendary retort, that he would rather be descended from an ape than a man who misused his gifts, came to symbolise a triumph of science over religion.{{harvnb|Bowler|2003|p=185}}
[[File:Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron, c. 1868.jpg|thumb|alt=Three-quarter length portrait of sixty-year-old man, balding, with white hair and long white bushy beard, with heavy eyebrows shading his eyes looking thoughtfully into the distance, wearing a wide lapelled jacket|In 1862 Darwin began growing his beard, as seen in the 1868 portrait by [[Julia Margaret Cameron]].]]
[[File:Editorial cartoon depicting Charles Darwin as an ape (1871).jpg|thumb|alt=White bearded head of Darwin with the body of a crouching ape.|Typical caricatures of Darwin with an [[ape]] body identified him in popular culture as the leading author of evolutionary theory. This 1871 cartoon followed publication of ''[[The Descent of Man]]''.]]
Even Darwin's close friends Gray, Hooker, Huxley, and Lyell still expressed various reservations but gave strong support, as did many others, particularly younger naturalists. Gray and Lyell sought reconciliation with faith, while Huxley portrayed a polarisation between religion and science. He campaigned pugnaciously against the authority of the clergy in education, aiming to overturn the dominance of clergymen and aristocratic amateurs under Owen in favour of a new generation of professional scientists. Owen's claim that brain anatomy proved humans to be a separate [[order (biology)|biological order]] from apes was shown to be false by Huxley in a long-running dispute parodied by Kingsley as the "[[Great Hippocampus Question]]", and discredited Owen.{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=156–159}}
In response to objections that the [[abiogenesis|origin of life]] was unexplained, Darwin pointed to acceptance of [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|Newton's law]] even though the cause of gravity was unknown.{{cite web | title=Science ahead of its time: Secret of 157-year old Darwin manuscript | website=[[National University of Singapore]] News | date=24 November 2022 | url=https://news.nus.edu.sg/secret-of-157-year-old-darwin-manuscript/ | access-date=25 November 2022 | archive-date=25 November 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125100051/https://news.nus.edu.sg/secret-of-157-year-old-darwin-manuscript/ | url-status=live }} Despite criticisms and reservations related to this topic, he nevertheless proposed a prescient idea in an 1871 letter to Hooker in which he suggested the origin of life may have occurred in a "[[warm little pond]]".{{Cite journal |last1=Peretó |first1=Juli |last2=Bada |first2=Jeffrey L. |last3=Lazcano |first3=Antonio |date=1 October 2009 |title=Charles Darwin and the Origin of Life |journal=Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres |language=en |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=395–406 |doi=10.1007/s11084-009-9172-7 |doi-access=free |issn=1573-0875 |pmc=2745620 |pmid=19633921}}
[[Darwinism]] became a movement covering a wide range of evolutionary ideas. In 1863, Lyell's ''[[Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man]]'' popularised prehistory, though his caution on evolution disappointed Darwin. Weeks later, Huxley's ''[[Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature]]'' showed that anatomically, humans are apes. Then, ''[[The Naturalist on the River Amazons]]'' by [[Henry Walter Bates]] provided empirical evidence of natural selection.{{harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=217–226}}
Following the publication of ''On the Origin of Species'', both [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Prince Albert]], who supported Darwin's ideas,{{cite book| last = Fulford| first = Roger| author-link = Roger Fulford| year = 1949| title = The Prince Consort| location = London| publisher = Macmillan Publishers|pages=216–219|url=https://archive.org/details/princeconsort0000fulf|url-access=registration}} and the Prime Minister, [[Lord Palmerston]], recommended Darwin for a knighthood but without success; among the opponents of the proposed honour was Bishop Wilberforce.{{cite book|author-link=Stanley Weintraub|last=Weintraub|first=Stanley|year=1997|title=Albert: Uncrowned King|location=London|publisher=John Murray|page=232|isbn=978-0-7195-5756-9|url=https://archive.org/details/albertuncrownedk0000wein}}
Later lobbying brought Darwin Britain's highest scientific honour, the Royal Society's [[Copley Medal]], awarded on 3 November 1864.{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-4652.html|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 4652 – Falconer, Hugh to Darwin, C. R., 3 Nov (1864)|access-date=1 December 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205084616/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-4652.html|archive-date=5 December 2008}} That day, Huxley held the first meeting of what became the influential "[[X Club]]" devoted to "science, pure and free, untrammelled by religious dogmas".{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-4807.html#mark-4807.f8|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 4807 – Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, C. R., (7–8 Apr 1865)|access-date=1 December 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205084621/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-4807.html#mark-4807.f8|archive-date=5 December 2008}} By the end of the 1860s, most scientists agreed that evolution occurred, but only a minority supported Darwin's view that the chief mechanism was natural selection.{{harvnb|Bowler|2003|p=196}}
''On the Origin of Species'' was translated into many languages, becoming a staple scientific text attracting thoughtful attention from all walks of life, including the "working men" who flocked to Huxley's lectures.{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=507–508}}
{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=128–129, 138}} Darwin's theory resonated with various movements at the time{{Ref label|E|V|none}} and became a key fixture of popular culture.{{Ref label|F|VI|none}} Cartoonists parodied animal ancestry in an old tradition of showing humans with animal traits, and in Britain, these droll images served to popularise Darwin's theory in an unthreatening way. Darwin had started growing a beard during illness in 1862. After he reappeared in public in 1866, caricatures of him as an [[ape]] helped to identify all forms of evolutionism with Darwinism.{{harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=373–379}}
[[Othniel C. Marsh]], America's first palaeontologist, was the first to provide solid fossil evidence to support Darwin's theory of evolution by unearthing the ancestors of the modern horse.Plate, Robert. ''The Dinosaur Hunters: Othniel C. Marsh and Edward D. Cope'', pp. 69, 203-5, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1964. In 1877, Marsh delivered a very influential speech before the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, providing a demonstrative argument for evolution. For the first time, Marsh traced the evolution of vertebrates from fish all the way through humans. Sparing no detail, he listed a wealth of fossil examples of past life forms. The significance of this speech was immediately recognized by the scientific community, and it was printed in its entirety in several scientific journals.McCarren, Mark J. ''The Scientific Contributions of Othniel Charles Marsh'', pp. 37-9, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1993. {{ISBN|0-912532-32-7}}Plate, Robert. ''The Dinosaur Hunters: Othniel C. Marsh and Edward D. Cope'', pp. 188-9, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1964.
===''Descent of Man'', sexual selection, and botany===
{{further|Darwin from Orchids to Variation|Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions|Darwin from Insectivorous Plants to Worms|label 1=''Orchids'' to ''Variation''|label 2=''Descent of Man'' to ''Emotions''|label 3=''Insectivorous Plants'' to ''Worms''}}
[[File:1878 Darwin photo by Leonard from Woodall 1884.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Head and shoulders portrait, increasingly bald with rather uneven bushy white eyebrows and beard, his wrinkled forehead suggesting a puzzled frown|By 1878, an increasingly famous Darwin had suffered years of illness.]]
Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last twenty-two years of his life,{{sfn|Desmond|Moore|Browne|2007|pp=73–75}} Darwin's work continued. Having published ''On the Origin of Species'' as an [[abstract (summary)|abstract]] of his theory, he pressed on with experiments, research, and writing of his "[[Natural Selection (manuscript)|big book]]". He covered human descent from earlier animals, including the evolution of society and of mental abilities, as well as explaining decorative beauty in [[wildlife]] and diversifying into innovative plant studies.{{sfn|Desmond|Moore|Browne|2007|pp=78–83, 86–90}}
Enquiries about insect [[pollination]] led in 1861 to novel studies of wild [[orchid]]s, showing adaptation of their flowers to [[Pollination syndrome|attract specific moths]] to each species and ensure [[heterosis| cross-fertilisation]]. In 1862, ''[[Fertilisation of Orchids]]'' gave his first detailed demonstration of the power of natural selection to explain complex ecological relationships, making testable predictions. Explorers in [[Madagascar]] had discovered an orchid, ''[[Angraecum sesquipedale]]'', with a sixteen-inch-long nectary. Darwin predicted the existence of a moth with a proboscis long enough to pollinate it; the pollen "would not be withdrawn until some huge moth, with a wonderfully long proboscis, tried to drain the last drop." Explorers in Madagascar discovered ''[[Xanthopan]]'' in 1903.{{cite book| title=[[Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea]]| last=Zimmer| first=Carl| author-link=Carl Zimmer| year=2001| page=193}} As his health declined, he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with inventive experiments to trace the movements of [[vine|climbing plants]].{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2008b|pp=50–55}} Admiring visitors included [[Ernst Haeckel]], a zealous proponent of Darwinism incorporating Lamarckism and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s idealism.{{cite web |url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letters/darwins-life-letters/darwin-letters1866-survival-fittest |title=The correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 14: 1866 |access-date=6 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605110511/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/correspondence-volume-14 |archive-date=5 June 2010 }} Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 25 June 2012 Wallace remained supportive, though he increasingly turned to [[Spiritualism (religious movement)|Spiritualism]].{{harvnb|Smith|1999}}.
Darwin's book ''[[The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication]]'' (1868) was the first part of his planned "big book", and included his unsuccessful hypothesis of [[pangenesis]] attempting to explain [[heredity]]. It sold briskly at first, despite its size, and was translated into many languages. He wrote most of a second part, on natural selection, but it remained unpublished in his lifetime.{{Harvnb|Freeman|1977|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A1&pageseq=123 122]}}
Lyell had already popularised human prehistory, and Huxley had shown that anatomically humans are apes. With ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' published in 1871, Darwin set out evidence from numerous sources that humans are animals, showing continuity of physical and mental attributes, and presented sexual selection to explain impractical animal features such as the [[peacock]]'s plumage as well as human evolution of culture, differences between sexes, and physical and cultural racial classification, while emphasising that humans are all one species.{{Harvnb|Darwin|1871|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F937.2&pageseq=402 385–405]}}
{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=339–343}}
{{Multiple image|total_width=400
|image1=Darwin letter.jpg
|alt1=handwritten letter from Charles Darwin to John Burdon-Sanderson dated 9 October 1874
|caption1=Letter of enquiry from Charles Darwin to the physiologist [[John Burdon-Sanderson]]
|image2=Man is But a Worm.jpg
|alt2=Darwin's figure is shown seated, dressed in a toga, in a circular frame labelled "TIME'S METER" around which a succession of figures spiral, starting with an earthworm emerging from the broken letters "CHAOS" then worms with head and limbs, followed by monkeys, apes, primitive men, a loin cloth clad hunter with a club, and a gentleman who tips his top hat to Darwin
|caption2=''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]''{{'}}s [[almanac]] for 1882, published shortly before Darwin's death, depicts him amidst evolution from chaos to Victorian gentleman with the title ''Man Is But A Worm''.
}}
His research using images was expanded in his 1872 book ''[[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals]]'', one of the first books to feature printed photographs, which discussed the [[evolutionary psychology|evolution of human psychology]] and its continuity with the [[ethology|behaviour of animals]]. Both books proved very popular, and Darwin was impressed by the general assent with which his views had been received, remarking that "everybody is talking about it without being shocked."{{Harvnb|Browne|2002|pp=359–369}}
{{harvnb|Darwin|1887|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1452.3&pageseq=145 133]}} His conclusion was "that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system{{snd}}with all these exalted powers{{snd}}Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."{{Harvnb|Darwin|1871|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F937.2&viewtype=text&pageseq=422 405]}}
His evolution-related experiments and investigations led to books on ''[[Insectivorous Plants (book)|Insectivorous Plants]]'', ''[[The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom]]'', different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, and ''[[The Power of Movement in Plants]]''. He continued to collect information and exchange views from scientific correspondents all over the world, including [[Mary Treat]], whom he encouraged to persevere in her scientific work.[https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/darwins-women Darwin's Women] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212213901/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/darwins-women |date=12 February 2020 }} at [[Cambridge University]] He was the first person to recognise the significance of carnivory in plants.{{cite journal |last1=Hedrich |first1=Rainer |last2=Fukushima |first2=Kenji |title=On the Origin of Carnivory: Molecular Physiology and Evolution of Plants on an Animal Diet |journal=Annual Review of Plant Biology |date=17 June 2021 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=133–153 |doi=10.1146/annurev-arplant-080620-010429 |pmid=33434053 |s2cid=231595236 |issn=1543-5008|doi-access=free |bibcode=2021AnRPB..72..133H }} His botanical work{{Ref label|I|IX|none}} was interpreted and popularised by various writers including [[Grant Allen]] and [[H. G. Wells]], and helped transform plant science in the late 19th century and early 20th century.{{cite journal |last1=Pain |first1=Stephanie |title=How plants turned predator |journal=Knowable Magazine |date=2 March 2022 |doi=10.1146/knowable-030122-1 |doi-access=free |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/how-plants-turned-predator |access-date=11 March 2022 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308103952/https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/how-plants-turned-predator |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=Endersby |first1=Jim |title=Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=June 2016 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=205–229 |doi=10.1017/S0007087416000352 |pmid=27278105 |s2cid=23027055 |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10359900&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0007087416000352 |access-date=17 March 2022 |language=en |issn=0007-0874|url-access=subscription }}
===Death and funeral===
{{See also|Darwin from Insectivorous Plants to Worms#Death|label 1=Darwin from ''Insectivorous Plants'' to ''Worms'' § Death}}
[[File:Herschel&darwin.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=Tombs of John Herschel, left black marble, and Charles Darwin. white marble in Westminster Abbey|The adjoining tombs of the scientists [[John Herschel]] and Charles Darwin in the nave of [[Westminster Abbey]], London]]
In 1882, Darwin was diagnosed with what was called "[[angina pectoris]]" which then meant [[coronary thrombosis]] and disease of the heart. At the time of his death, the physicians diagnosed "anginal attacks" and "heart-failure"; there has since been scholarly speculation about his [[health of Charles Darwin|life-long health issues]].{{cite book |title=Darwin's Illness |pages=116–120 |first=Ralph |last=Colp |doi=10.5744/florida/9780813032313.003.0014 |chapter=The Final {{sic|nolink=y|reason=error in source|Illnes}} |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8130-3231-3 }}{{cite journal |last=Clayton |first=Julie |date=24 June 2010 |title=Chagas disease 101 |journal=Nature |volume=465 |issue=n7301_supp |pages=S4–S5 |doi=10.1038/nature09220 |pmid=20571553 |bibcode=2010Natur.465S...3C |s2cid=205221512 |doi-access=free}}
Darwin died at Down House on 19 April 1882, aged 73. His last words were to his family, telling Emma, "I am not the least afraid of death{{mdash}}Remember what a good wife you have been to me{{mdash}}Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me". While she rested, he repeatedly told Henrietta and Francis, "It's almost worthwhile to be sick to be nursed by you".{{cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=CUL-DAR210.9&pageseq=16 |title=[Reminiscences of Charles Darwin's last years.] CUL-DAR210.9|author=Darwin, Emma|author-link=Emma Darwin |year=1882 |access-date=8 January 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628080442/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=CUL-DAR210.9&pageseq=16 |archive-date=28 June 2009}}
He had expected to be buried in St Mary's churchyard at [[Downe]], but at the request of Darwin's colleagues, after public and parliamentary petitioning, [[William Spottiswoode]] (President of the Royal Society) arranged for Darwin to be honoured by [[Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey|burial in Westminster Abbey]], close to John Herschel and [[Isaac Newton]]. The funeral, held on Wednesday, 26 April, was attended by thousands of people, including family, friends, scientists, philosophers, and dignitaries.{{Harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|pp=664–677}}{{cite web | title=Westminster Abbey » Charles Darwin | website=Westminster Abbey | date=2 January 2016 | url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/charles-darwin | access-date=2 January 2016 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200905/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/charles-darwin | archive-date=4 March 2016 }}
{{Harvnb|Leff|2000|loc=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140410153323/http://www.aboutdarwin.com/darwin/burial.html Darwin's Burial]}}
==Children==
{{further|Darwin–Wedgwood family#Charles Darwin}}
{|class=toccolours style=float:right;clear:right;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;
|[[William Erasmus Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|27 December 1839 –||8 September 1914
|-
|[[Anne Darwin|Anne Elizabeth Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|2 March 1841 –||23 April 1851
|-
|Mary Eleanor Darwin||style=text-align:right;|23 September 1842 –||16 October 1842
|-
|[[Henrietta Litchfield|Henrietta Emma Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|{{nobr|25 September 1843 –}}||17 December 1927
|-
|[[George Darwin|George Howard Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|9 July 1845 –||7 December 1912
|-
|Elizabeth Darwin||style=text-align:right;|8 July 1847 –||8 June 1926
|-
|[[Francis Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|16 August 1848 –||{{nobr|19 September 1925}}
|-
|[[Leonard Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|15 January 1850 –||26 March 1943
|-
|[[Horace Darwin]]||style=text-align:right;|13 May 1851 –||29 September 1928
|-
|Charles Waring Darwin||style=text-align:right;|6 December 1856 –||28 June 1858
|}
The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from [[inbreeding]] due to the close family ties he shared with his [[cousin marriage|wife and cousin]], Emma Wedgwood. He examined inbreeding in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of [[outcrossing]] in many species.{{sfn|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=447}}
[[File:Emma Darwin with Charles Waring Darwin.jpg|thumb|125px|Emma Darwin with Charles Waring Darwin]]
Charles Waring Darwin, born in December 1856, was the tenth and last of the children. Emma Darwin was aged 48 at the time of the birth, and the child was mentally subnormal and never learnt to walk or talk. He probably had [[Down syndrome]], which had not then been medically described. The evidence is a photograph by William Erasmus Darwin of the infant and his mother, showing a characteristic head shape, and the family's observations of the child.David P. Steensma (15 March 2005). "Down syndrome in Down House: trisomy 21, GATA1 mutations, and Charles Darwin". ''[[Blood (journal)|Blood]]'' 105 (6) 2614–2616. Charles Waring died of scarlet fever on 28 June 1858,Freeman, R. B. (1984), ''Darwin Pedigrees'', London, p. 43. when Darwin wrote in his journal: "Poor dear Baby died."Darwin, C. R. ''Journal (1809–1881)'', p. 37.
Of his surviving children, [[George Darwin|George]], [[Francis Darwin|Francis]] and [[Horace Darwin|Horace]] became [[Fellow of the Royal Society|Fellows of the Royal Society]],{{cite web|title=List of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1660–2006, A–J|url=http://royalsociety.org/trackdoc.asp?id=4274&pId=1727|access-date=16 September 2009|format=PDF|archive-date=3 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203000229/https://royalsociety.org/trackdoc.asp?id=4274&pId=1727}} distinguished as an astronomer,{{MacTutor Biography|id=Darwin}} botanist and civil engineer, respectively. All three were knighted.Berra, Tim M. ''Darwin and His Children: His Other Legacy'', (Oxford: 2013, Oxford UP), 101, 129, 168. George became a knight commander of the Order of the Bath in 1905. Francis was knighted in 1912. Horace became a knight commander of the KBE in 1918. Another son, [[Leonard Darwin|Leonard]], went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, [[Eugenics|eugenicist]], and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist [[Ronald Fisher]].Edwards, A. W. F. 2004. Darwin, Leonard (1850–1943). In: ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press.
==Views and opinions==
===Religious views===
{{Further|Religious views of Charles Darwin}}
Darwin's family tradition was [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] [[Unitarianism]], while his father and grandfather were [[freethinkers]], and his baptism and boarding school were [[Church of England]]. When going to Cambridge to become an Anglican clergyman, he did not "in the least doubt the strict and [[Biblical inerrancy|literal truth]] of every word in the Bible". He learned [[John Herschel|John Herschel's]] science which, like [[William Paley]]'s [[natural theology]], sought explanations in laws of nature rather than miracles and saw adaptation of species as evidence of design. On board HMS ''Beagle'', Darwin was quite [[orthodoxy|orthodox]] and would quote the Bible as an authority on [[morality]].{{Harvnb|Darwin|1958|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1497&viewtype=side&pageseq=87 85–96]}} He looked for "centres of creation" to explain distribution, and suggested that the very similar [[antlion]]s found in Australia and England were evidence of a divine hand.
[[File:Annie Darwin.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Three-quarter length studio photo of seated girl about nine years old, looking slightly plump and rather solemn, in a striped dress, holding a basket of flowers on her lap|In 1851, Darwin was devastated when his daughter [[Anne Darwin|Annie]] died; by then his faith in Christianity had dwindled, and he had stopped going to church.{{harvnb|van Wyhe|2008b|p=41}}]]
Upon his return, he expressed a [[Historical criticism|critical view of the Bible's historical accuracy]] and questioned the basis for considering one religion more valid than another. In the next few years, while intensively speculating on geology and the transmutation of species, he gave much thought to religion and openly discussed this with his wife Emma, whose beliefs similarly came from intensive study and questioning.
The [[theodicy]] of Paley and [[Thomas Malthus]] vindicated evils such as starvation as a result of a benevolent creator's laws, which had an overall good effect. To Darwin, natural selection produced the good of adaptation but removed the need for design.{{harvnb|von Sydow|2005|pp=8–14}} He was increasingly troubled by the [[problem of evil]]{{harvnb|von Sydow|2005|pp=4–5, 12–14}}{{Harvnb|Moore|2006}} and he could not see the work of an omnipotent deity in all the pain and suffering, such as the [[ichneumon wasp]] paralysing [[caterpillar]]s as live food for its eggs. Though he thought of religion as a [[tribe|tribal]] survival strategy, in a letter to Asa Gray in 1860, Darwin also confessed that he could not "anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe (as) the result of brute force,"{{cite book | title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin | chapter=THE CORRESPONDENCE October 1873 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2014-01-23 | isbn=978-1-107-05214-7 | doi=10.1017/cbo9781107280403.012 | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9781107280403A024/type/book_part | access-date=2026-02-12 | page=426–476}} making him reluctant to give up the idea of [[deism|God as an ultimate lawgiver]].
Darwin remained close friends with the [[Vicar (Anglicanism)|vicar]] of Downe, [[John Brodie Innes]], and continued to play a leading part in the parish work of the church,{{cite web |url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/commentary/religion/darwin-and-church |title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Darwin and the church: historical essay |access-date=26 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128133709/https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/commentary/religion/darwin-and-church |archive-date=28 November 2016 |date=5 June 2015 }} but from {{circa|1849}} would go for a walk on Sundays while his family attended church. He considered it "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist"[http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-12041.html Letter 12041] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091107174817/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-12041.html |date=7 November 2009 }} – Darwin, C. R. to Fordyce, John, 7 May 1879[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/17/darwin-evolution-religion Darwin's Complex loss of Faith] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211082018/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/17/darwin-evolution-religion |date=11 February 2017 }} [[The Guardian]] 17 September 2009 and, though reticent about his religious views, in a letter to John Fordyce in 1879, he wrote that "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. – I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind".
At other times he believed in a [[First Cause]], citing
the extreme difficulty, or rather the impossibility, of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity for looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.{{cite book| last=Miller| first=Kenneth R.| author-link=Kenneth R. Miller| title=[[Finding Darwin's God]]| p=287| year=1999}}The "[[Elizabeth, Lady Hope|Lady Hope Story]]", published in 1915, claimed that Darwin had reverted to Christianity on his sickbed. The claims were repudiated by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians.{{harvnb|Moore|2005}}