# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darwin, Charles Robert

​DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1809–1882), naturalist, born 12 Feb. 1809, at 'The Mount,' Shrewsbury, was the son of Robert Waring Darwin and grandson of Erasmus Darwin [q. v.] Robert Waring Darwin, married, in 1796, Susannah, daughter of his father's friend, Josiah Wedgwood, and the youngest but one of her six children was Charles Robert Darwin. She died in 1817, when Darwin was eight years old, so that his education as a child fell in great measure into the hands of his elder sisters. He had no distinct remembrance of his mother, chiefly (as he has said) some childish memories of 'her black velvet gown, and her curiously constructed work-table.'
Darwin retained to the end of his life a vivid and affectionate remembrance of his home, a feeling which was fostered by his strong love and reverence for his father's memory. It was a sentiment which could nor fail to strike any one intimate with him, and was manifested by frequent allusions to his father, or reference to long-remembered opinions of his.
Robert Waring Darwin (1766-1848) was a man of strongly marked character. He had no pretensions to being a man of science, no tendency to generalise his knowledge, and, though a successful physician, he was glided rather by intuition and everyday observation than by a deep knowledge of his subject. According to the opinion of his son, his chief mental characteristics were a keen power of observation and a knowledge of men, qualities which led him to 'read the characters and even the thoughts of those whom he saw even for a short time.' It is not, therefore, surprising that his help should have been sought, not merely in illness, but in cases of family trouble and sorrow. This was largely the case, and his wise sympathy, no less than his medical skill, obtained for him a strong influence over the lives of a large number of people. He was a man of quick, vivid temperament, with a lively interest in even the smaller details in the lives of those with whom he came in contact. He was fond of society, and entertained a good deal, and with his large practice and many friends the life at Shrewsbury must have been a full, stirring, and varied one, very different in this respect from the later home of his son at Down.
The chief knowledge we have of Darwin's childhood is gained from his own recollections, and judging from these he seems to have been a simple, docile, and happy child, with the somewhat unusual liking for long solitary walks. He has recorded the fact (curious in the development of so truth-loving a nature) that he was, as a little boy, prone to invent startling adventures for the sake of creating an impression, a disposition which was wisely treated, not by punishment, but by withholding the coveted expression of surprise.
In 1817 he went to a day-school kept by Mr. Case, the minister of the unitarian chapel, where, as a boy, he attended service. In the summer of 1818 he entered as a boarder at Shrewsbury school under Dr. Butler. Here the teaching was kept within the narrowest possible classical lines, and according to his own estimation the only education that he got during his boyhood was from some private lessons in Euclid and from working at chemistry in an amateur laboratory fitted up by his brother in the tool-house at home. This latter study met with disapproval and even public reproof from his schoolmaster. At this time his chief taste was that love of collecting which afterwards made him an ardent coleopterist, but which was now manifested in getting together such miscellaneous things as franks, seals, coins, minerals, &c. He has described the zeal with which, as a boy and young man, he gave himself up to shooting, a passion which only gradually faded before his stronger delight in unravelling the geology of an unknown country.
It was intended that he should follow his father's profession of medicine, and accordingly he left school somewhat early, and in 1825 joined his brother Erasmus at Edinburgh University. Here, as at school, and afterwards at Cambridge, he profited but little from the set studies of the place. The study of medicine at Edinburgh failed to attract him, although previously he had been interested by the care of a few patients, whom he attended under his father's guidance among the poor of Shrewsbury. Anatomy disgusted him, the operating theatre ('before the blessed days of chloroform') horrified him, and 'Materia Medica' left on his ​mind nothing but the memory of 'cold breakfastless hours on the properties of rhuharb.' Even in pure science he did not fare much better : the teaching in geology was of such a nature as to make him determme that, whatever else might be his fate, he would not be a geologist. But his time was not wasted ; he became a friend of Br. Grant, afterwards professor of zoology at University College, and was thus induced to attend to the seanshore fauna. He read two papers before the Plinian Society (about 1826) on what was then considered to be the young state of Fucus loreus, and on the so-called ova of Flustra. The society did not publish proceedings, so that he had not the satisfaction of appearing in print as a naturalist till a later date, when he took some of the rarer British beetles. He speaks in one of his letters of the delight given him on this occassion by the words 'captured by C. Darwin,' ; adding that the word 'captured' seemed to convey peculiar distinction. It may be said that Edinburgh gave him, but in a less degree, 'the advantages which Cambridge afterwards supplied, namely, encouragement and instruction of a social rather than an academic kind.'
After two years had been spent at Edinburgh the idea of going on with medicine was abandoned, and the church was suggested, and after some deliberation accepted by Darwin as his future profession. It thus became necessary that he should obtain an English university degree, and if was for this purpose that he entered his name in October 1827 at Christ's College, Cambridge. In the two years since he left school his classics had been largely forgotten, even the Greek alphabet having to be partly re-learned. He therefore stayed at home, reading with a private tutor, and came up in the Lent term of 1828. We gather from his letters, from his recollections, and those of contemporaries, that his life at college was thoroughly happy. He worked, with some repining, through the small amount of classics and mathematics required for the ordinary degree, but without consciously profiting by them. He then felt, and afterwards believed, that ' Paley's Evidences ' and Euclid were the only parts of the academical course the study of which had any effect on his mind. But these things filled only a small part of his life. He seems to have been overflowing with spirits and energy, which spent themselves in a crowd of varied interests. Beetle-collecting, gallops across country, engravings at the Fitzwilliam, vingt-et-un sappers, shooting in the fens, and anthems at King's Chapel, were all enjoyed with a rejoicing enthusiasm. His contemporaries speak especially of his energy, his geniality, his generous sympathy 'with all that was good and true,' and his hatred of what was vile, cruel, or dishonourable.
The great feature of his Cambridge life was undoubtedly his friendship with Henslow, the professor of botany in the university. Henslow was a man courteous and placid outwardly, but at the same time unbending and full of vigour where principle was concerned, and fully worthy of the great love and respect that Darwin felt towards him. He was eminently well fitted to be a friend to undergraduates. His varied knowledge, his modest and sympathetic nature, gave him an influence which he used in the best way — by making companions of his pupils, and teaching them perhaps more out of school than in the lecture-room. Darwin seems to have been much with Henslow, often dining with him, or joining him in his 'constitutional,' so that he gained the sobriquet of 'the man who walks with Henslow.'
At Cambridge he read the book which had more influence on him than any other single book, Humboldt's 'Personal Narrative.' It raised in him a burning enthusiasm for natural history and the travels of naturalists, an enthusiasm which he tried to communicate to his friends by vehement preachings on the splendours of Brazilian forests. He attempted to form a party to visit Teneriffe, and took some preliminary steps in inquiring about the journey and beginning to learn Spanish.' It is doubtful how far his proposed companions were in earnest about the Teneriffe scheme, which is chiefly worthy of mention as a dream fulfilled by the Beagle voyage,
After having passed his examination as tenth in the 'poll,' a place which fully satisfied his ambition, he was obliged to return to Cambridge in the Lent term of 1831 to make up the proper time of residence before he could take the B.A. Henslow now persuaded him to begin geology, for he had not previously even attended Sedgwick's lectures. This led to his accompanying the professor on a geological tour in North Wales in August of this year, an experience which was of some use to him afterwards. Leaving Sedgwick, he paid a visit to a Cambridge reading-party at Barmouth, and then returned for partridge shooting, and on reaching home found a letter from Henslow containing the oiler of the appointment to the Beagle. The letter concludes with the words, 'Don't put on any modest doubts or fears about your disqualifications, for I assure you I think you are the very man they are in search of; so conceive yourself to be tapped on the shoulder by your bum-bailiff and affectionate; friend ...' It is clear that if Darwin had been his own master he would at once have accepted the offer, but his father ​objected so strongly that he felt obliged to decline, and wrote to this effect on 30 Aug. 1831. On the following day he went to Maer, the house of Josiah Wedgwood, and here he found in his uncle a strong supporter of the view that he ought on no account to refuse the offer. He therefore wrote home, urging Josiah Wedgwood's arguments against Dr. Darwin's objections, one of which was that the voyage would prove injurious to his character as a clergyman. Finally Dr. Darwin was persuaded to yield his consent, and Charles posted off to Cambridge, sending, on his arrival late at night, a note to Henslow full of his hopes that ‘the place is not given away.’ Then followed a busy time in London, filled up by arrangements with his new chief, Captain FitzRoy, and with the admiralty, and by multitudinous shoppings. Finally all was settled, and the Beagle sailed on 27 Dec. 1831 on her memorable voyage. The Beagle was a 10-gun brig of 235 tons, and was commanded by Captain (afterwards Admiral) FitzRoy. Darwin went as naturalist without salary, at the invitation of the captain, who gave him a share of his cabin. He was on the ship's books for victuals, and was to have the disposal of his collections. The object of the voyage was to extend the survey of South America, begun under Captain King in 1826, and ‘to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the world.’
Though the vessel was small, she was at the time considered to be well fitted for the expedition, and Darwin's letters from Devonport, whence the expedition sailed, are full of enthusiasm over the ‘mahogany fittings,’ the unprecedented stock of chronometers, &c. His own corner for work was the narrow space at the end of the chart-room, which was so small that when his hammock was hung, one of the drawers in which he kept his clothes had to be removed to make room for the ‘foot clews.’ To work efficiently in this cramped space required method and tidiness, and Darwin has said that the absolute necessity of such habits was to him a valued piece of training. In a somewhat analogous way he afterwards experienced the paramount importance of method when the hours for work are short and broken. His own outfit was sufficiently meagre both as to knowledge and appliances. He seems at first, and indeed for sometime after the voyage had begun, to have considered himself merely in the light of a collector rather than an original worker. But from any point of view his appliances were curiously deficient; for instance, he had no compound microscope, and in this point he followed the best advice he could get, namely, that of Robert Brown. In his letters written during the voyage, phrases such as ‘the exquisite glorious delight’ of tropical scenery, ‘a hurricane of delight and astonishment,’ show that the fulfilment of his Cambridge dreams brought with it no disappointment. Later come the ‘delight’ and ‘more than enjoyment’ in his days of work at South American geology, after which he ‘could literally hardly sleep at nights.’ Later again comes the delight in home letters, or in home dreams of autumn robins singing in the Shrewsbury garden, and the longing to return home becomes ever stronger, with a corresponding loathing and abhorrence of the sea ‘and all ships which sail on it.’ The voyage ended at last, and on 6 Oct. 1836 he found himself at home, after an absence of ‘five years and two days.’
It is impossible to overrate the influence of the voyage on Darwin's career: it was both his education and his opportunity. He left England untried and almost uneducated for science, he returned a successful collector, a practised and brilliant geologist, and with a wide general knowledge of zoology gained at first hand in many parts of the world. And above all he came back full of the thoughts on evolution impressed on him by South American fossils, by Galapagos birds, and by the general knowledge of the complex interdependence of all living things gained in his wanderings. And thus it was that within a year of his return he could begin his first note-book on evolution—the first stone, in fact, of the ‘Origin of Species.’
The intention of entering the church, although it was never formally given up, had by this time died a natural death. This was not due to heterodoxy, for it was only gradually that Darwin attained to the condition of agnosticism of his later years. It was, however, sufficiently evident that he had discovered his career, and that he could not find a better profession than science, to which he ‘joyfully determined to devote himself.’
After a short visit at home, he went to London to arrange for the disposal of his collections; then in December (1836) he moved to Cambridge, where he was occupied with his collections, in writing his journal, and in preparing some geological papers. Early in 1837 he was back in London lodgings, where he remained for two years, until his marriage. On 29 Jan. 1839 he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, the daughter of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, and the granddaughter of the founder of the Etruria works. After their marriage they lived at 12 Upper Gower Street, and here they remained until 1842, when the move to Down was made. Having disposed of the most important part ​of his collections by giving the fossil bones to the College of Surgeons, he had to arrange for the publication of the description of other parts. A grant of 1,000l. from the treasury enabled him to set about the publication of the quarto volumes entitled ‘The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.’ The different groups were undertaken by various naturalists: Sir R. Owen, Mr. Blomefield (Jenyns), Professor Bell, &c., Darwin himself supplementing their work by ‘adding habits and ranges, &c., and geographical sketches.’ He also read various papers at the Geological Society, among which was an account of his first observations on the action of worms. And lastly he undertook, much against his will, the secretaryship of the Geological Society, a post which he filled from 1838 to 1841. He found time, moreover, to do some work in English geology. In 1838 he visited Glen Roy, and wrote an essay on the ‘Parallel Roads,’ a piece of work of which he was afterwards ashamed, and which he spoke of as a warning against the use of the method of exclusion in science. His view, which then seemed the only possible one, was afterwards superseded by the glacier-dam theory of Agassiz.
It was during this period that his friendship with Lyell began. He wrote in November 1836: ‘Among the great scientific men, no one has been nearly so friendly and kind as Lyell. … You cannot imagine how good-naturedly he entered into all my plans.’ Lyell received the theory of coral reefs with enthusiasm, although its adoption necessitated the destruction of his own views on the subject. It must have been a great encouragement to Darwin to find himself welcomed as a brother-geologist by such a man as Lyell, the value of whose work he had personally tested and learned to estimate in South America. The acquaintance grew into a friendship which lasted throughout Lyell's life, and Darwin, nearly at the end of his own life, had still the same impression of Lyell's character, declaring that he had never known any man with so keen a sympathy in the work of others.
It was about this time that a failure in his health first became noticeable. Thus as early as October 1837 he wrote: ‘Anything which flurries me completely knocks me up afterwards, and brings on a violent palpitation of the heart.’ Again, in 1839, he was forced by ill-health to take various short holidays; he seems then to have felt, and this feeling remained with him throughout life, that work was the only cure for his discomfort, for he notes, after mentioning his ill-health: ‘I have derived this much good, that nothing is so intolerable as idleness.’ It has often been assumed that the sea-sickness from which he suffered so much during the voyage of the Beagle was the starting-point of his failure in health. There is no evidence to support this belief, and he did not himself share it. His ill-health was of a dyspeptic kind, and may probably have been allied to gout, which was to some extent an hereditary malady. It was the factor which more than any other determined the outward form of his life. For it was the strain of a London life that determined him to settle in the country, and it was the continuance of ill-health that forced him to lead for the rest of his days a secluded life of extreme regularity. If the character of his working life is to be understood, the conditions of ill-health under which he worked should never be forgotten. He bore his illness with such patience that even those most intimate with him hardly realised the amount of his habitual sufferings. But it is no exaggeration to say that for nearly forty years he did not know one day of the health of ordinary men, and that his life was one long struggle against the weariness and strain of sickness.
Down is a small village sixteen miles from London, of a few hundred inhabitants. It stands in a retired corner between the high roads to Westerham and Sevenoaks, on the undulating high land, five hundred and sixty feet above the sea, to the north of the great chalk escarpment above the Weald. Darwin describing it in a letter (1843) to his cousin, W. D. Fox, says: ‘Its chief merit is its extreme rurality. I think I never was in a more perfectly quiet country.’ He regarded it from the first as his home for life, and it ultimately took deep root in his affections. The house he described in 1842 as good but very ugly, and the garden was bleak and exposed. In later years, when the house had been altered and was clothed with creeping plants, and when the garden was sheltered by groups and banks of evergreens, the place became, in a quiet way, decidedly attractive. The first four years of the new life at Down were mainly occupied in writing the ‘Volcanic Islands,’ the ‘Geology of South America,’ and preparing for the Colonial and Home Library series a second edition (1845) of his ‘Journal,’ of which the first edition had been somewhat hampered by being published together with the narratives of Captains FitzRoy and King (1839).
In 1846 he began a special piece of zoological work, a monograph on the group of Cirripedes (barnacles), which occupied him until 1854, and the results of which were published by the Ray Society and by the Palæontographical Society in 1851 and 1854. The work on barnacles, besides being a com​plete and original study on an imperfectly known and misinterpreted group of animals, was of importance, inasmuch as it may be said to have completed Darwin's education as a naturalist. It gave him an insight into taxonomy and morphology, which served him well in writing the 'Origin of Species,' and it taught him, as Mr. Huxley has said, to understand in this branch of knowledge what amount of speculative strain his facts would bear — an experience he had already gone through during the voyage of the Beagle in the case of geology. Nevertheless Darwin was, in later life, inclined to doubt whether it was worth so much time as he gave to it, And during at least the latter part of the eight years (1846-64) he certainly grew very weary of the subject.
It was during the early years at Down that his acquaintance with Sir Joseph (then Dr.) Hooker grew into intimacy, it became the chief friendship of his life, and has given us a rich store of letters which illustrate Daiwin's life more fully than any other series of letters. During part of the period 1842-1854 he suffered more from ill-health than at any other time of his life, and he was thus, in 1849, driven to make a trial of hydro- pathy. He visited more than once the water-cure establishment of Dr. Gully at Malvern, and in later years was often a patient of Dr. Lane at Moor Park. Besides the visits to Malvern, we hear of other short absences from Down. Thus, in 1845, he took a short tour, in which he visited a farm which he owned in Lincolnshire, and paid visits to Dean Herbert, the horticulturist, and to Waterton at Walton Hall. In the following years, 1846 and 1847, he attended the meetings of the British Association at Southampton and Oxford. He was again at the Birmingham meeting in 1849, and this (with the exception of Glasgow in 1855) was, we believe, the last meeting of the Association at which he was present. He was now gradually settling down into the permanent custom of his life, namely, to work until he was threatened with a complete breakdown, and then to take a holiday of the fewest possible number of days that would suffice to revive him. These visits were spent almost universally at the houses of relatives, except when the whole family removed for some time to a hired house.
Origin of Species. — In considering the history of the ' Origin of Species ' we must go back to earlier years. The first rough sketch of his theory was written out in 35 pages in 1842, and this was enlarged in 1844 to a fuller sketch of 230 pages. Evidence of his early views can be gathered from his previous writing. The following passage from the manuscnpt journal made during the voyage shows that in 1834 his views on species were sufficiently orthodox. Writing at Valparaiso, he says : ' I have already found beds of recent shells yet retaining their colour at an elevation of thirteen hundred feet, and beneath the level country is strewn with them. It seems not a very improbable conjecture that the want of animals may be owing to none having been created since this country was raised from the sea.' The following passage was written in January 1836, near the end of the voyage, and is reproduced in the first edition of 'Tne Voyage of the Beagle,' p. 526.
After describing the omithorhynchus playing in the water like a water rat, he goes on : 'A little time before this I had been lying on a sunny bank and was reflecting on the strange character of the animals of this country as compared with the rest of the world. All unbeliever in everything beyond his own reason might exclaim : Two distinct creators must have been at work ; their object, however, has been the same, and certainly the end in each case is complete. While thus thinking, I observed the noUow conical pitfall of the lion-ant.... There can be no doubt that this predacious larva belongs to the same genus with the European kind, though to a different species. Now, what would the sceptic say to this? Would any two workmen ever have hit on so beautiful, so simple, and yet so artificial a contrivance? It cannot be thought so. One Hand has surely worked throughout the universe.' In the manuscript journal the passage is continued: 'A geologist, perhaps, would suggest that the periods of creation have been distinct or remote the one from the other; that the Creator rested in his labour.' The passage quoted from the first edition does not occur in the 'Journal' of 1845, a fact which may be significant of the change which had come over Darwin's way of regarding nature during the interval 1837—45. He records that as early as March 1836 he had been much struck by the character of the American fossils and of the Galapagos species. His first note-book was opened in July 1837, so that the first edition of the ' Journal ' was written only a few months after he had been to formulate his belief in evolution, while the second edition was published after an interval of eight years. He has recorded the fact that he did not see his way clearly until after he had read 'Malthus on Population' in 1838, i.e. between the first and second editions of the 'Journal,' and this, no doubt, helps to account for the stronger tinge of evolution in the second edition. But even in the latter we have a passage in which he wonders that certain animals which 'play ​so insignificant a part in the great scheme of nature' should have been created. And this is written in the language of theologico-natural-history rather than from the point of view of one who realises the full meaning of the struggle of existence.
After reading the 'Journal' of 1845 we come back with a sense of surprise to the Manuscript Sketch of 1844, where his theory of evolution by means of natural selection is so completely given. Even in the note-book filled between July 1837 and February 1838 the views on evolution are striking in their completeness; thus he clearly believed in the common origin of animals and plants. The book is filled with detached notes, often taking the form of a query, as to the bearing of his views on such points as classification, geographical distribution, geological time, and the relation of fossil to modern forms, rudimentary organs, extinction, isolation, means of transport, &c.
The idea of natural selection is not prominent in the 1837-8 note-book, but it is suggested in such a sentence as the following: 'With respect to extinction we can easily see that [the] variety of [the] ostrich, [the] Petise, may not be well adapted and thus perish out; or on [the] other hand, like Orpheus [a bird], being favourable, many might be produced. This requires [the] principle that the permanent variation produced by confined breeding and changing circumstances are continued and produce[d] according to the adaptations of such circumstances, and, therefore, that [the] death of [a] species is a consequence ... of non-adaptation of circumstances.' The sketch of 1844 bears, on the whole, a striking resemblance to the origin of species, in the kind of points treated, in the arrangement of the argument, and in the choice of illustrations, and even some of the sentences are almost identical. It is not to be expected that it should bear the stamp of matured consideration, or the control and balance arising from an accumulated wealth of fact and thought, and this difference is perceptible. What Darwin himself believed to be the great flaw in the 1844 sketch was want of the ' principle of divergence ' (see Origin of Species 6th ed.) By those who are imbued with evolution as taught in the 'Origin of Species,' this 'principle of divergence will hardly be missed in reading the sketch of 1844; we seem unconsciously to assume the principle, although it is not given. In his later years Darwin had something of this feeling, for it became all but incredible to him that he should at first have overlooked it. We have some evidence of the estimate which Darwin formed of the 1844 sketch at the time. A letter exists, addressed to his wife, in which he made provision, in case of his death, for the publication of the manuscript. After stating that he believes his conclusions to be ' a considerable step in science ' he goes on to request that a sum of 400l. or 500l. shall be given to an editor who, with the help of his books and notes, should undertake to correct and expand and illustrate the sketch. The idea that the sketch might be left as the only record of his work must have remained in his mind for many years, for the following note is pencilled on the back of the letter, with the date August 1854: ' Hooker by far best man to edit my species volume.'
During the years between 1844 and 1858 (when he began to write the ' Origin of Species ') he read enormously, going over whole series of periodicals, books of travel, on sport, general natural history, horticulture, and on the breeding of animals, so that, as he expressed it, he was afterwards surprised at his own industry. And it should be remembered that he was carrying out this laborious undertaking without being buoyed up by any very certain hope of converting others to his views. Thus he wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker in 1844: 'In my most sanguine moments all I expect is that I shall be able to show ... that there are two sides to the question of the immutability of species.' Then, too, there was much practical and experimental work to be done. He prepared skeletons of many kinds of domesticated birds, and minutely compared the size and weight of their bones with those of the wild species. He also began in 1855 to keep tame pigeons and to make laborious crossing experiments, Then there was a long inquiry, both by experiment, reading, and correspondence, into the means of transport of seeds, which entailed trials as to the powers of floating and of resisting salt water possessed by a large number of fruits and seeds. His letters contain long discussions with Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker, and Dr. Asa Gray, on a variety of geological questions, on geographical distribution, or on the theory of 'large genera varying' (which latter point required much laborious tabulation of various Floras), on the hypothetical continents of Edward Forbes, and on a host of other points.
Such work as this was steadily continued, and would perhaps have been indefinitely prolonged, had it not been for the interference of his friends. In 1856, at the urgent advice of Lyell, he determined to write out his results. Lyell wished him to prepare a preliminary volume, but he seems to have found this an impossibility, and in July 1856 he wrote: 'I have resolved to make it [the book] ​nearly as complete as my present materials allow.' And these materials he speaks of as so large 'that it would take me at least a year to go over and classify them.' This plan was steadily adhered to, and by June 1858 he had completed some nine or ten chapters of the book. At this point the work was interrupted, never to be resumed on the same plan.
On 18 June 1858 he received a manuscript from Mr. A. R. Wallace, then in the Malay Archipelago, in which a theory of the origin of species identical with his own was put forward. On the day that he received the paper he wrote to Lyell: 'I never saw a more striking coincidence; if Wallace had my manuscript sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better short abstract!' Mr. Wallace made no mention of any intention of publishing the essay, merely requesting that it might be forwarded to Lyell; but Darwin determined at once 'to offer to send it to any journal.' Then came a period of doubt on Darwin's part as to what he should do. Being urged by his friends to publish an abstract of his own views, he wrote to Lyell: 'Wallace might say, " You did not intend publishing an abstract of your views till you received my communication. Is it fair to take advantage of my having freely, though unasked, communicated to you my ideas, and thus prevent me forestalling you?" The advantage which I should take being that I am induced to publish from privately knowing that Wallace is in the field. It seems hard on me that I should be thus compelled to lose my priority of many years' standing, but I cannot feel at all sure that this alters the justice of the case. First impressions are generally right, and I at first thought it would be dishonourable in me now to publish.'
Ultimately the matter was left in the hands of his friends Lyell and Hooker, who decided that the fair course would be to publish, simultaneously with Mr. Wallace's essay, a letter of 5 Sept. 1857, addressed to Dr. Asa Gray, in which Darwin had given an account of his theory, together with some passages from his sketch of 1844. The two papers were read on the evening of 1 July 1858, and were published together in the 'Linnean Society's Journal,' vol. iii. No. 9, 1858.
This incident was a fortunate one for the progress of evolution, since it induced Darwin to write the 'Origin of Species,' a presentation of his views far more readable and more powerful for conversion than his projected fuller work could possibly have been. After the publication of the paper by the Linnean Society he at once set to work to write his 'Abstract,' the name under which he constantly refers at this time to the 'Origin of Species.' The first idea was that it should be published in a series of numbers of the 'Linnean Journal,' and it was not till about the end of 1858 that it became evident that it must be published as a separate work. In March 1809 he wrote: 'I can see daylight through my work ... and I hope in a month or six weeks to have proof-sheets. I am weary of my work. It is a very odd thing that I have no sensation that I overwork my brain; but facts compel me to conclude that my brain was never formed for much thinking.' The weariness increased with the correction, so that to finish the book at all was almost a greater strain than he could bear. He speaks of the style being 'incredibly bad, and most difficult to make clear and smooth;' again, of the proof-sheets as being corrected so heavily as almost to be rewritten. At last, on 11 Sept., he wrote that he had finished the last proof-sheet, adding, 'Oh, good heavens! the relief to my head and body to banish the whole subject from my mind I' The book was published on 24 Nov. 1859, and the whole edition of 1,250 copies sold on the day of publication. Lyell had read an early copy of it, and wrote on 3 Oct. a letter full of enthusiastic admiration of the book, but somewhat cautiously expressed as to acceptance of the principle. Sir J. D. Hooker wrote also in terms of warm admiration, and was considered by Darwin as his first convert; and other letters in the same spirit soon followed from Mr. Huxley, Dr. Asa Gray, Sir John (then Mr.) Lubbock, and Dr. Carpenter. The letters accompanying presentation copies show how moderate were the expectations of the author in the matter of conversion. He wrote to Dr. Hugh Falconer: 'If you read it, you must read it straight through, otherwise from its extremely condensed state it will be unintelligible.' And to his old master Henslow: 'If you are in ever so slight a decree staggered (which I hardly expect) on the immutability of species, then I am convinced with further reflection you will become more and more staggered, for this has been the process through which my mind has gone.' Doubts of another kind are expressed in a letter to Dr. Carpenter (19 Nov.): 'When I think of the many cases of men who have studied one subject for years, and have persuaded themselves of the truth of the foolishest doctrines, I feel sometimes a little frightened, whether I may not be one of these monomaniacs.' In the spring of the following year he began to feel sure that the subject was making converts in the class which he especially wished to gain over. On 3 March 1860 he wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker: ​‘I am astonished and rejoiced at the progress which the subject has made,’ and went on to give a classified list of his adherents:
| Geologists | Zoologists Palæontologists |
| Lyell Ramsay Jukes H. D. Rogers | Huxley J. Lubbock L. Jenyns (to large extent) Searles Wood |
| Physiologists | Botanists |
| Carpenter Sir H. Holland (to large extent) | Hooker H. C. Watson Asa Gray (to some extent) Dr. Boott (to large extent) Thwaites |
And he added that should the book be forgotten in ten years (according to the prophecy of an eminent naturalist), ‘with such a list I feel convinced the subject will not.’ Later on, in May, he wrote full of hope to the same friend: ‘If we all stick to it we shall surely gain the day. And I now see that the battle is worth fighting.’ Later, again, after the adverse reviews in the ‘Edinburgh’ and ‘North British Review,’ and in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ and several others, he saw that the fight was thickening, and wrote to Lyell (1 June): ‘All these reiterated attacks will tell heavily; there will be no more converts, and probably some will go back. I hope you do not grow disheartened. I am determined to fight to the last.’
The second edition of the ‘Origin of Species’ (three thousand copies) was published on 7 Jan. 1860, and two days later Darwin began looking over his notes in preparation for a new book, which should deal in detail with the evidence yielded by domestic animals and plants under cultivation. This book, ‘The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ was not published until 1868. But the eight years which elapsed between its commencement and completion were not entirely given up to it. He reckoned that about four years out of this period were employed on it, the working days of the remaining four years being spent in various ways; for instance, on new editions of the ‘Origin,’ and on his books on ‘Orchids’ and on ‘Climbing Plants,’ &c. It will be convenient to treat the botanical work separately, and to consider now the series of books which are more directly connected with the ‘Origin of Species.’
The ‘Variation of Animals and Plants’ was, like all Darwin's books, far more successful than the author expected. His letters contain more than one warning, even to scientific friends, that they must not attempt to read it all, that it is unbearably dull, that if they read the large print in two or three of the chapters they will have all that is worth reading. The most novel point in the book, and the one which had the strongest hold on the author's mind, or at least on his imagination, was the theory of Pangenesis. This theory of the mechanism of inheritance has never met with much acceptance, though some few naturalists have felt, as Darwin most strongly felt, that it was an ‘immense relief’ to have some purely material conception, about which the facts of inheritance can be grouped. Writing in 1876, Darwin said of his theory: ‘If any one should hereafter be led to make observations by which some such hypothesis could be established, I shall have done good service.’ The book did not escape adverse criticism. It was said, for instance, that the public had been patiently waiting for Mr. Darwin's pièces justificatives, and that after eight years all that he had to offer was a mass of details about pigeons and rabbits. But the fair critics saw its true character, an expansion, with unrivalled wealth of fact, of a section of the ‘Origin of Species.’
The ‘Descent of Man,’ which followed in 1871, grew out of the book on ‘Variation.’ It was his original intention to give a chapter on Man, as the most domesticated of animals. But it soon became evident that a separate treatise must be given to the subject. In the ‘Origin of Species’ he thought it best, ‘in order that no honourable man might accuse’ him of concealing his views, to add that ‘light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history.’ The belief that man must be included with other animals had been accepted by him from the first, so that his collection of facts bearing on the subject dated back to 1837 or 1838. This matured store of facts and thoughts could now be fully expanded, and it should be noted that this subject and the variation of domestic races were the only ones connected with evolution which he was enabled to write in extenso, so as to use his full store of materials. In the years between 1859 and 1871 a great change in the receptivity of the public for evolutionary ideas had been wrought, and although the subject was more likely to give offence, yet the ‘Descent of Man’ was received with less than followed the publication of the ‘Origin of Species.’
The next book, on the 'Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,' published in 1872, grew out of the 'Descent of Man,' just as the latter grew out of 'Variation under Domestication,' for it had been intended as a chapter in the natural history of man, but as before, as soon as he began to put his notes together he saw that it would require a separate volume. His study of this subject originated in 1840, in his conviction that even 'the most complex ... shades of expression must all have a gradual and natural origin.' The 'Expression of the Emotions' had a large sale, 6,267 copies being disposed of on the day of publication. No second edition of this booK on ' Expression ' has appeared; so large a reprint was made that it was not exhausted during the author's lifetime, and thus unfortunately his large collection of material for a new edition was never made use of. A postscript to the book on 'Expression,' under the title * Biographical Sketcn of an Infant,' appeared in 'Mind' in 1877, to the publication of which Darwin was encouraged by the appearance of a similar paper by M. Inline. From this time forward his working hours were almost entirely given up to the study of plants. There are, however, some important exceptions to this statement. New editions of his works took up a certain amount of time; thus the 'Origin' had five editions between 1869 and 1872, when a sixth and stereotyped edition was published. Of these the second was little more than a reprint, whereas the third, fourth, and fifth contained much new matter. A second and largely corrected edition of the 'Descent of Man' appeared in 1874, and in 1876 a second edition of 'Variation and Domestication,' the fruit of much labour, was brought out. Second editions of his 'Geological Observations' and 'Coral Reefs' appeared in 1874 and 1876. Two other books, not on a botanical subject, were written in his later life. One of these, the biography of his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, appeared in 1879. It was written as a 'preliminary notice' to the English version of Dr. E. Krause's 'Essay on the Work of Erasmus Darwin.' Darwin had a strong feeling for his forbears, and found much enjoyment in this new work of biographical writing.
In 1881 his book on the 'Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of Worms' appeared. It was, like so much of his books, the result of the expansion or completion of earlier work. His attention had been directed to the action of earthworms in 1837, while he was staying with his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, in Sta^rdshire, and in 1888, as already stated, a short paper on the subject was published by the Geological Society. Before the publication of this book Darwin wrote : 'This is a subject of but small importance; and I know not whether it will interest many readers, but it has interested me. It is the completion of a short paper read before the Geological Society more than forty years ago, and has revived old geological thoughts.' Both his estimate of the value of the book and his expectations as to its general success were wide of the mark. Its value was at once recognised by scientific opinion, and it proved to be widely popular with the general public.
Botanical Work. — It has been well said that one great service rendered by Darwin to science was the revival of teleology in a rational form, a form in which it is no longer opposed to, but 'wedded to morphology.' The knowledge of the manner in which the structures of living beings have become adapted to their various encfa gives a vigour to the study of the form and organisation of animals and plants, the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. And it was to a great extent by his special botanical work that he wrought this cnange; for it was in botany that he showed in practice how powerful, for the study of adaptive structure, are the means of research which the ' Origin of Species ' has placed in our hands. It was work of this nature which occupied his later years; the subject-matter varied, but whether he investigated the fertilisation of flowers, the twining of steins, the movements of leaves, or the natural history of insectivorous plants, the character of the work remained the same. One of Darwin's earliest references to a botanical subject occurs in the note-book of 1837-8, in which facts bearing on evolution were collected. 'Do not plants which have male and female organs together yet receive influence from other plants? Does not Lyell give some arguments about varieties being difficult to keep on account of pollen from other plants, because this may be applied to show [that] all plants do receive intermixture? ' It was especially his belief that intercrossing within the limits of each species played an important part in keeping specific forms constant that led him to pay attention to the fertilisation of plants. His interest in the subject was heightened by reading, in 1841, Christian Konrad Sprengel's book, 'Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur,' published in 1793. This remarkable work, in which much of the modern theory of fertilisation is given, first led him to see in what detail the structure of flowers is adapted t-o certain ends. Sprengel's book was overlooked and slighted by the naturalists of his own day in spite of its originality, and it was a satis- ​satisfaction to Darwin to think he had been the chief agent in resuscitating him.
His first publications on the fertilisation of plants were two short communications to the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' in 1857 and 1858, on the fertilisation of the kidney-bean, and here it is evident that his chief interest lay in the question how far the different varieties of the bean are liable to natural intercrossing by insects. In 1860 and 1861 he worked at the fertilisation of the British orchids. This was, to a great extent, a rest to him amid the severer work entailed by the 'Variation of Animals and Plants,' and was considered by him as culpable idleness. During the whole of the latter part of 1861 and the spring of 1862 he gave himself up to the work, and the book on 'The Fertilisation of Orchids' was finished at the end of April 1862. His letters show the keen pleasure he felt in making out the complex relations between insects and orchids—a pleasure which he contrived to convey to his readers. The principles worked out in the 'Orchid' book for a single group have been accepted for flowers in general, and thus a new department of botanical research has been founded. This new field of work, which has been so largely extended by Hermann Müller and others, has reacted in a way especially satisfactory to its founder, namely, in showing how points of importance to the welfare of an organism may be hidden in apparently unimportant peculiarities, and it thus gives a basis of solid experience to the often-repeated caution as to our ignorance of the relations of organisms to their environment. No one with a knowledge of the wonderful mutual relations between flowers and insects will be inclined to dogmatise rashly as to the uselessness of any structure, or as to the consequent impossibility of its having been modified by means of natural selection.
A book which Darwin has described as the 'complement' of the 'Orchid' book was published fourteen years afterwards, in 1876. 'The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation,' which is hardly known except to professed naturalists, was the result of eleven years of experimental work, and contains conclusions of the highest theoretical interest. It is the complement of the 'Orchid' book, because, while that work showed how perfect are the means for insuring cross-fertilisation, the later book showed why cross-fertilisation is important. At the time of the publication of the 'Fertilisation of Orchids' no one could positively assert that a plant which is adapted for cross-fertilisation has an advantage over others not so adapted. 'The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation' supplied this want, and showed therefore, that each variation affecting the capabilities of a flower for cross-fertilisation must be severely tested in the struggle for life. Formerly we could only surmise that such variations were sifted out by a selective agency of unknown character; now we can show that a selective agency of a definite kind and of measurable strength must be ever at work. He showed, too, how the advantages of cross-fertilisation are in some unknown way connected with the advantages arising from changed conditions of life, and he was thus enabled to throw more direct light on the philosophy of the existence of sex than any previous writer. It is characteristic of Darwin's mode of work that the whole of this important research originated in an accidental observation. He noticed, in the course of experiments directed to another object, that the offspring of a cross were superior in vigour, even in the first generation, to seedlings of self-fertilised parentage. It is not so characteristic of him that it should have required, as he has recorded, a repetition of the accident before his attention was thoroughly roused.
His next important botanical work—on heterostyled plants—was the investigation and ultimate solution of a problem at first sight of trivial significance, but really of an extremely complex character. As early as 1838 he noticed what seemed to be an unmeaning variability in the length of the style, or organ through which the influence of the pollen is conveyed to the ovules. But when he found that the primrose presents two sets of individuals, differing in a constant and striking degree in the length of the style and in other characters, he became convinced that his first idea was erroneous. Even after he had given up the variability hypothesis, he started with quite a wrong idea as to the meaning of the facts, and only attained the solution of the problem through the destruction of his preconceived ideas by a rigorous course of experiment. He showed that the two forms in the primrose, or the three forms in Lythrum, although each is a perfect hermaphrodite, are nevertheless connected with each other in a manner resembling to a certain extent the relationship between the sexes of animals. The working out of this curious result gave him, as he has mentioned, more pleasure than almost any other research. Besides giving the explanation of hitherto neglected facts, the work on heterostyled plants is of importance in a way that has not been always recognised, namely, in throwing light on the question of hybridisation. He found that in the primrose, for instance, a 'long-styled' individual crossed by another long-styled flower is comparatively infertile. So that ​here within the limits of a single species we have a degree of sterility strictly comparable to what obtains in the crossing of distinct species. Thus our knowledge of heterostyled plants is of importance as bearing on one of the most difficult points in the statement of the case for evolution, the sterility of inter- specific crosses, and of hvbrids. The papers on heterostyled plants (the first of which was published in 1862), supplemented with a number of facts and discussions of a cognate kind, formed the basis of the book on 'Different Form6 of Flowers,' which appeared in 1877. The work on climbing plants had a somewhat similar history, inasmuch as it was first published (1864) by the Linnean Society, and afterwards republished (1875) as a separate book. The subject was suggested to him by a paper of Dr. Asa Gray's published in 1858, and he was the more attracted to it because he was not satisfied with the explanation of the mechanism of twining taught by Henslow at Cambridge. The problem had been at- tacked by two German physiologists before Darwin wrote, but he was ignorant of this fact when he began to observe climbing plants, and his work has a value quite independent of theirs. It was a subject he enjoyed greatly, for, as he has said, 'some of the adaptations displayed by climbing plants are as beautiful as those of orchids for ensuring cross-fertilisation.' This book did not lead him at once to any wide theoretical conclusions, but it was the starting-point of his last book, the 'Power of Movement in Plants.' In working at climbing plants he had to study the revolving movement of growing shoots, and when he found that these movements, as exhibited by climbing plants, are not confined to any one order of plants, but are found throughout the vegetable kingdom, he was led to speculate on the existence of a fundamental movement which might serve as a basis for the evolution of the complex and striking movements of climbing plants. This movement he found in 'circumnutation,' and the study of circumnutation forms the subject-matter of the 'Power of Movements.' This book required an immense amount of patient work, much of which was of a kind new and difficult to him. It led him to believe that the movements of the growing parts of plants, such as the curvatures which occur in response to the stimulus of light, gravitation, &c., are all modifications of the fundamental element of circumnutation. This conclusion has not been at all universally received by physiologists, and may be said to be still sub judice. But, whether or not subsequent researches sustain his general conclusion, no one, as Mr. Dyer has remarked ('Charles Darwin,' Nature Series), 'can doubt the importance of what Mr. Darwin has done in showing that, for the future, the phenomena of plant movement can, and indeed must, be studied from a single point of view.'
His book on 'Insectivorous Plants,' published in 1875, was the result of the completion and elaboration of observations made many years previously, during a holiday spent in Sussex. Two species of Drosera were abundant at Hartfield, where he was staying in 1860, and he noticed the numerous insects caught by the leaves. The movement of the tentacles was soon seen, and on comparing the behavour of leaves placed in nitrogenous with those in non-nitrogenous fluids, it became evident that 'here was a fine new field for investigation.' The subject was occasionally taken up in subsequent years (often in a spirit of incredulity at his own results), and during the summers of 1872 and 1873, and the greater part of 1874, he worked steadily at it.
Darwin always enjoyed experimental work far more than writing, and the pleasure of following out the brilliant discoveries which he made in the natural history of insectivorous plants was a relief and rest to him from the drier labour of preparing a second edition of the 'Descent of Man.'
Darwin's last publications were two papers of no great importance, read before the Linnean Society in the autumn of 1881. They dealt with a kind of coagulation or 'aggregation' produced in certain leaves and roots by the action of ammonia. It was thus a piece of work directly connected with 'Insectivorous Plants,' where for the first time the curious process of aggregation, as seen in the tentacles of Drosera, was described. Darwin's views as to the nature of aggregation have now been shown to be erroneous ; nevertheless the investigation possesses a permanent interest and importance as a contribution to the physiology of the cell.
Personal Characteristics. — In figure Darwin was thin and tall, being about six feet in height, though from a slight habitual stoop he scarcely looked so tall. His frame was naturally strong, and fitted for activity, but he had a certain clumsiness of movement, shown, for instance, in his inability to use his hands in drawing. As a young man he had much endurance, and during an expedition from the Beagle he was one of the few who were able to struggle on in search of water when all were suffering from thirst and exhaustion.
His face was ruddy, his eyes blue-grey under deep overhanging brows and bushy eyebrows. His high forehead waa much ​wrinkled, but in other respects his face was not lined or marked, and his expression gave little evidence of his habitual discomfort. The transparent goodness and simplicity of his nature gave to his manner a vivid personal charm, which has impressed so many of those who came in contact with him. In society he was bright and animated, and had a quiet ease and naturalness arising from a complete absence of pose or pretension. His natural tendency was to express his feelings warmly and frankly ; and on any subject that roused his indignation — such as cruelty — his anger easily broke forth. Conversation was a keen enjoyment to him, and he had in a striking degree the pleasant quality of being a good listener. In the matter of humour he was sympathetic rather than critical, and in his own talk there was commonly a touch of simple humour or of a sunny geniality. He was not quick in verbal argument, and had a curious tendency to entangle himself in parentheses. His manner towards strangers was marked by something of a formal politeness, a habit neightened perhaps by his retired life at Down. Towards those below him in social station he was particularly courteous and considerate. It would be easy to enumerate the striking qualities of Darwin's character, but the true tone or flavour of his nature is peculiarly difficult to seize and set down in words. Yet it was at once recognised and deeply felt by those who came in contact with him. Even the readers of his books and the many strangers who received his letters, seemed to caUm a true image of his personality.
His manner of life was simple and of extreme regularity. His day was parcelled out into a number of short periods of work, interspersed with regular intervals for rest. Thus, in the morning, after some two hours in his study he would appear in the drawing-room, look at his letters, and rest on the sofa while listening to a novel read aloud. Then after another short spell of work he would take his regular midday walk, and in the afternoon would follow a similar alternation of rest and woric His love of novels was not critical, for he has said, 'I like all if moderately good, and if they do not end unhappily.' They were, to quote his words again, 'a wonderful relief and pleasure' to him, so that he would often 'bless all novelists.' His literary taste suffered a decay as he grew older — in his youth he found great delight in the poetry of Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, &c., but in later life all such pleasure was dead, and the same may be said of his early love of engravings and pictures. His lore of music (in spite of an almost total want of ear) was strong, and did not fade in the same way. But his appreciation of scenery was perhaps the only aesthetic taste which remamed quite undimmed.
He attached ^preat value to economy in time, and worked during his short speUs with a kind of restrained eagerness, as if longing to make the utmost of them. He had certain fixed plans of reading and of abstracting what he read, and he was especially careful in classifying his notes and abstracts, which he divided among a large number of portfolios. Thus it was that he had so ready a control over his stores of information, and could at once get together any required set of facts from among the accumulation of a lifetime. His memory, which he has described as 'extensive, yet hazy,' was of a kind most valuable in his work, since it constantly warned him if he had read or observed anything opposed to the conclusion he was inclined to draw. One of the most remarkable qualities of his mind was the power of arresting exceptions, that is, of not allowing them to pass unnoticed. Most people are inclined to pass over a point, apparently slight and unconnected with their present work, with some half-considered explanation which, in fact, is not an explanation at all. It was just these things that he seized on to make a start from. It was as though he was so highly charged with theorising power that any fact, however small, released a stream of thought. Thus it happened that many untenable nypotheses occurred to him only to be condemned, but not condemned unheard, for the most improbable were tested. He has himself allowed that he was perhaps 'superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully.' He attempted to analyse impartially the qualities which led to his success, summing them up in these words : 'Therefore my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have been the love of science, unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject, industry in observing and collecting facts, and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense.'
He died at Down on 19 April 1882. He had for some time suffered at intervals from a feeling of pain and uneasiness in the region of the heart, and it was during an attack of this kind that his death occurred. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Darwin's surviving children are : William Erasmus ; Henrietta Emma, married R. B. Litchfield; George Howard, F.R.S., Plumian ​professor of astronomy at Cambridge; Elizabeth; Francis, F.R.S., university lecturer in botany at Cambridge; Leonard, captain, R.E.; Horace, civil engineer.
There are portraits in possession of the family by G. Richmond (water-colour, 1838); by Samuel L. Lawrence (chalk, 1853; another chalk drawing by Lawrence, probably of the same date, belongs to Professor Hughes of Cambridge); by T. Woolner, R.A. (bust, 1869); oil-painting by W. Ouless, 1875 (replica at Christ College, Cambridge, etching by Rayon). An oil-painting by W. B. Richmond (1879) belongs to the university of Cambridge, and one by the Hon. John Collier (1881) to the Linnean Society (replica of the last in possession of the family; etching by L. Flameng). There is also a lithograph (1851) in the Ipswich British Association series. A statue by Joseph Boehm, R.A., is in the Natural History Museum, and a medallion by the same is to be placed in Westminster Abbey. A plaque modelled by T. Woolner, made by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, is on Darwin's rooms in Christ's College.
A complete list of Darwin's works, including his publications in scientific journals, is given in the life by his son. His chief publications were:
* 'Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle …' 1832–6; 'Journal and Remarks,' by C. Darwin, form the third volume. A second edition called 'Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle,' appeared in 1845, and a third, called 'A Naturalist's Voyage,' in 1860.
* 'Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle,' 1840, edited by Darwin, who wrote a geological introduction to part i. ('Fossil Mammalia,' by R. Owen), and added a 'Notice of their Habits and Range' to part ii. ('Mammalia,' by G. R. Waterhouse).
* 'The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs' (being the first part of the 'Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle') 1842.
* 'Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited' (second part of the 'Geology,' &c.), 1844.
* 'Geological Observations on South America' (being the third part of the 'Geology,' &c.), 1846.
* 'A Monograph of the Fossil Lepapidæ or Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain,' 1851 (Palæontographical Society).
* 'Monograph of the Tubeless Cirripedia, with figures of all the species' (Roy. Society, 1851 and 1854).
* 'Monograph of the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ of Great Britain' (Palæontographical Society), 1854.
* 'On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,' 1859.
* 'On the various Contrivances by which Orchids are fertilized by insects,' 1862.
* 'The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants,' 1875.
* 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' 1868.
* 'The Descent of Man and Selection in relation to Sex,' 1871.
* 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,' 1872.
* 'The effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom,' 1876.
* 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' 1880.
* 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of Worms, with observations on their habits.'
['Charles Darwin,' by Dr. Asa Gray, Nature, June 4, 1874, forming part of a series of papers on 'Scientific Worthies.' 'Charles Darwin. Eine biographische Skizze,' by Prof. W. Preyer, published in the German periodical, Kosmos, in February 1879. The number of Kosmos is a 'Gratulationsheft zum siebzigsten Geburtstage Ch. Darwins.' The sketch of Darwin's life is valuable independently of other merits, because he supplied the chief facts to the author. It also contains a nearly complete list of Darwin's published works up to 1879. 'Darwin considéré au point de vue des causes de son succès et de l'importance de ses travaux,' by M. Alph. de Candolle. Archives des Sciences de la Bibliothèque Universelle, tome vii., Mai 1882. 'Charles Darwin,' Nature Series, 1882, containing Introductory Notice by T. H. Huxley; Life and Character, by G. J. Romanes; Work in Geology, by A. Geikie; Botany, by W. T. Thiselton Dyer; Zoology and Psychology, by G. J. Romanes. 'Charles Darwin; a paper contributed to the Transactions of the Shropshire Archæological Society,' by Edward Woodall, 1884; Ernst Krause's Charles Darwin und sein Verhältniss zu Deutschland, Leipzig, 1885; Grant Allen's Charles Darwin (English Worthies Series), London, 1885; Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter, edited by his son, Francis Darwin, London, 1887.]
F. D.