Charles Darwin was the first scientist to produce a detailed theory of evolution – provoking uproar when he spelled it out in the 1859 book On The Origin Of Species
CHARLES Darwin was the first scientist to produce a detailed theory of evolution - provoking uproar when he spelled it out in the 1859 book On The Origin Of Species.
Although it was still hotly debated as many as 80 years after the book came out, nowadays it is almost universally accepted as fact, except in some religious circles.
Darwin was born in 1809 into a rich family in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
Darwin studied medicine at Edinburgh University for two years before going to Cambridge University, aiming to become a clergyman.
There he met a naturalist, John Stevens Henslow, who encouraged his interest in studying natural phenomena.
Darwin’s life changed soon after he graduated at 22.
He joined the survey ship HMS Beagle on a scientific expedition around the world, working as an unpaid naturalist (his wealth allowed him the luxury of never having to earn a living).
He was able to study geological formations and wildlife in many countries — and noted that certain species seemed related to those elsewhere, while still being slightly different.
Many also bore remarkable similarities to the fossils of extinct creatures.
Back in England in 1836, Darwin read an essay written 28 years earlier by an economist, who stated the world’s food could never sustain the rate of population growth.
Darwin combined this theory with his own beliefs about the links between species and concluded that because the world is incapable of supporting all life born into it, the young of each species compete intensely to survive.
The survivors are inherently fitter or better adapted to their conditions than the others.
They pass on their superior traits to their offspring, thus ensuring that by “natural selection”, as Darwin called it, each species is refined over many thousands of years.
Darwin spent 20 years developing this theory, during which time he also concluded that all related organisms have the same ancestors.
This flew in the face of the then-accepted concept of “catastrophism”, which stated that the Earth was periodically hit by enormous natural disasters which wiped out plants and animals and that each time life began again from scratch.
Modern-day life forms, the theory asserted, survived only by being placed aboard Noah’s Ark during the great flood.
Fossils were the remains of all life prior to that.
Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species caused massive controversy because its logical conclusion was that man, too, had evolved over time from “lower” species and had not been created as the Old Testament had said.
Despite the furore, contemporaries respected his work and realised its importance. The book sold out on its first day and went through six editions afterwards.
Darwin married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and they had ten children, three of whom died as babies.
After the publication of “Origin” on November 24, 1859, he spent the rest of his life writing books which expanded on points made in his original.
Darwin died in Downe, Kent, on April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.