Introduction Charles Robert Darwin, the naturalist whose discovery of the theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology, was born in Shrewsbury, Eng., on Feb. 12, 1809. He was the son of Robert Waring Darwin, who had one of the largest medical practices outside of London, and the grandson of the physician Erasmus Darwin, the author of Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life, and the artisan-entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood. Darwin enjoyed a secure position in the professional upper middle class that provided him with considerable social and professional advantages.
Youth and education. Darwin's mother died when he was eight years old. Otherwise he enjoyed a golden childhood, cosseted and encouraged by adoring sisters, an older brother, and the large Darwin and Wedgwood clans. He was keenly interested in specimen collecting and chemical investigations, but at the Shrewsbury school, where he was an uninspired student, the headmaster, Dr. Samuel Butler, stressed the classics and publicly rebuked Darwin for wasting his time with chemical experiments. At age 16 he was sent to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he was repelled by surgery performed without anesthetics. During his two years in Scotland Darwin benefited from friendships with the zoologist Robert Grant, who introduced him to the study of marine animals, and the geologist Robert Jameson, who fed his growing interest in the history of the Earth.
Disappointed by Darwin's lack of enthusiasm for medicine, his father sent him to the University of Cambridge in 1827 to study divinity. At the time Darwin adhered to the conventional beliefs of the Church of England. His academic record at Christ's College was as undistinguished as it had been at Edinburgh. He socialized considerably with hunting, shooting, riding, and sporting friends. Cambridge did not yet offer a degree in the natural sciences, but, guided by his older cousin William Darwin Fox (an entomologist who inspired in him a lifelong passion for collecting beetles), Darwin met the circle of Cambridge scientists led by the cleric-botanist John Stevens Henslow. Soon a regular at Henslow's "open houses," Darwin accompanied him on daily walks and became known as "the man who walks with Henslow." Henslow encouraged Darwin's excitement about science and confidence in his own abilities.
On leaving Cambridge in the spring of 1831 Darwin, in preparation for a scientific trip to the Canary Islands, read Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, a scientific travelogue of a journey to Central and the northern parts of South America. At Henslow's recommendation he accompanied Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian professor of geology at Cambridge, on a three-week tour of North Wales to learn geologic fieldwork.
In August 1831, at Henslow's recommendation to the Admiralty, Darwin was invited to sail as the unpaid naturalist on HMS Beagle. The ship was to survey the east and west coasts of South America and continue to the Pacific islands to establish a chain of chronometric stations. Henslow suggested Darwin as both an acute observer and a companion for the aristocratic young captain, Robert FitzRoy. (The Beagle already had a naturalist-surgeon, but one whom FitzRoy found socially unsuitable.) Robert Darwin first refused permission on grounds that it was dangerous and would not advance Charles in his career. But upon the intercession of his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, he changed his mind.
On Dec. 27, 1831, Charles Darwin sailed from Plymouth, Eng., on the Beagle, a 10-gun brig that had been refitted as a three-masted bark. The voyage, planned for two years, lasted five, during which Darwin kept meticulous notes and sent back geologic and biologic specimens.
The voyage of the "Beagle." In a letter to FitzRoy accepting the post Darwin explained that he expected the voyage to be a "second birth." There is no doubt that the years he spent exploring the South American continent and the offshore islands of the Galápagos honed his skills as a collector, observer, and theorist. Often seasick, Darwin rested horizontally in a hammock during the worst motion and spent long periods of time ashore whenever the opportunity arose. He delighted in the exotica of the tropics. Adventurous, he braved his way through armed political rebellions, rode with the gauchos in Argentina, and on collecting and shooting expeditions justified his earlier devotion to sport. He joined the crew in towing the ship's boats upstream and once rescued the expedition by running to save a boat from a tidal wave. He seemed to relish danger and was sustained in the considerable discomfort by a lively curiosity. He wrote to one of his sisters, "We have in truth the world before us. Think of the Andes; the luxuriant forest of the Guayquil [sic]; the islands of the South Sea & New South Wales. How many magnificent & characteristic views, how many & curious tribes of men we shall see.--what fine opportunities for geology & for studying the infinite host of living beings: Is this not a prospect to keep up the most flagging spirit?"
Darwin had brought his own books to augment the ship's extensive library. The most important scientific work was the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which Henslow had urged him to read though not to believe. Lyell argued that the face of the Earth had changed gradually over long periods of time through the continuing, cumulative effects of local disturbances, such as eruptions, earthquakes, erosion, and deposition. Such disturbances had existed in the distant past and could be observed in the present. This view differed dramatically from that held by most contemporary geologists, who hewed to the belief that changes in the face of the Earth resulted from short- lived events of great violence that could raise mountains or flood the entire planet. During the first months of his journey Darwin was converted to Lyell's views by his own observations.
About 1,800 miles southwest of the Canary Islands the Beagle visited São Tiago, a volcanic island in the Cape Verde Islands. From the harbour Darwin saw a band of white rock extending horizontally at a height of about 45 feet above the base of the sea cliffs. The formation was calcareous and contained numerous shells, almost all of which could be found on the coast. Darwin reasoned that a stream of lava from the ancient volcanoes had flowed over what had been ancient seabed, baking it to form the hard white rock. The whole island had subsequently been heaved up to make the sea cliff from the white band downward. Darwin also realized that the island's surface had been formed by a succession of volcanic events, not a single dramatic one. He discerned an initial subsidence, the settling of the surface around the original craters, its building up from new lava spills from different craters, and further subsidence and building up over a long period of time. (see also São Tiago Island)
Later, in Chile, Darwin witnessed his first earthquake. He saw the land rise before his eyes. Then, after crossing the Andes in 1835, he wrote to his sister that he could understand "to a certain extent the description & manner of the force, which has elevated this great line of mountains." He had found fossil shells at an elevation of 12,000 feet, and he theorized that a chain of suboceanic volcanoes had poured forth enormous quantities of lava that formed the Andes through a further process of upheaval and fracturing. Darwin marveled at the whole South American continent, which he read as a vast testing ground for Lyell's ideas. To his cousin William Fox he wrote, "Everything in America is on such a grand scale. The same formations extend for 5 or 600 miles without the slightest change--for such geology one requires 6 league boots."
The data Darwin collected on the Beagle provided him with material for three books on South American geology. Although his theories of continental change have been superseded by the theory of plate tectonics, his descriptions in letters to Henslow, which Henslow excerpted and read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society and the Geological Society of London, brought him celebrity in scientific circles even before his return.
While still on the voyage he challenged Lyell's view of the formation of coral reefs by volcanic action. Darwin contended that the reefs were part of a process of gradual changes in the Earth's crust resulting from the subsidence of some landmasses and corresponding elevations elsewhere. He explained that coral, which only grows in shallow waters, forms a reef by building up on the seafloor as the floor subsides. He predicted that if a whole island sank below the ocean's surface, and the coral continued to grow, a reef would turn into an atoll around a lagoon. Lyell was convinced and supported Darwin's reinterpretation, which deep-sea borings in the 20th century have confirmed.
Darwin's geologic ponderings were important for geology and to his scientific development. Many of the rocks he examined contained fossils, and his constant exposure to the evidence of extinct species and the similarity of many of them to living species kept one problem at the fore: By what mechanism did new species replace extinct ones? (see also
speciation)
During the voyage Darwin developed confidence in his own observations as well as the ability to grasp a problem and work at it steadily. The isolation of the voyage, combined with the exposure to new phenomena, taught him to think for himself within the familiar scientific culture of his time. He developed a rare combination of strengths: a dedication to careful fact gathering and a propensity to theorize about the facts. His geologic pondering on a continental scale encouraged him to search for universal laws. The voyage of the Beagle transformed Darwin into an independent and adventurous scientist who had the courage to embrace the heretical idea of the transmutation of species.
"On the Origin of Species." When Darwin returned to England in 1836 he was welcomed by the scientific fraternity as a colleague and was promptly made a fellow of the Geological Society. The next year he was elected to its governing council. In 1838 Darwin was elected to the Athenaeum, the exclusive club for men distinguished in literature, art, or science, and in 1839 he was elected to the Royal Society. Through his older brother, Erasmus, he met the historian Thomas Carlyle and the feminist Harriet Martineau. He was also a friend of Charles Babbage, whose computing machine was one of a host of scientific interests.
At this time, however, Darwin began to lead something of a double life. To the world he was busy preparing his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, which was published in 1839. This book, modeled in part on von Humboldt's, established the lucid style enlivened by the sharp descriptions that makes all of Darwin's works both accessible and convincing. Darwin was also preparing his geology books and superintending the analysis and publication by specialists of The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (published between 1839 and 1843 with the help of a £1,000 government grant). Privately Darwin had begun a remarkable series of notebooks in which he initiated a set of questions and answers about "the species problem." He proceeded to collect facts about species through letters and discussions with breeders, gardeners, naturalists, and zookeepers, as well as through extensive reading.
Darwin kept this interest secret while he gathered evidence to substantiate his theory of organic evolution. He was mindful of the fate of other unorthodox scientists. He jotted in his notebook, "Mention persecution of early astronomers--then add chief good of individual scientific men, is to push their science a few years in advance only of their age." Darwin's ideas were not only scientifically radical but also could have been interpreted as actionable under the laws governing blasphemy and sedition. England at the time was intensely evangelical, and the natural world was understood as one in which the spirit of God could be seen in the creation of new species of plants and animals that appeared to come into existence to replace those that became extinct. Darwin gradually became intellectually uncomfortable with this view of life as he confronted puzzling evidence.
Upon his return from the voyage Darwin had turned over his specimens to cataloging experts in Cambridge and London. In South America he had found fossils of extinct armadillos that were similar but not identical to the living animals. In Argentina he had seen species vary geographically; for example, the giant ostriches (rheas) on the pampas were replaced to the south in Patagonia by much smaller species, both of which were akin to but different from the African ostrich. He had been disturbed by the fact that the birds and tortoises of the Galápagos Islands off the western coast of Ecuador tended to resemble species found on the nearby continent, while inhabitants of similar neighbouring islands in the Galápagos had quite different animal populations. In London Darwin learned that the finches he had brought from the Galápagos belonged to different species, not merely different varieties, as he had originally believed. He also learned that the mockingbirds were of three distinct species and that the Galápagos tortoises represented at least two species and that, like many of the specimens from the archipelago, they were native to the islands but to neither of the American continents.
After Darwin received these reports, his doubts about the fixity of species crystallized into a belief in transmutation. In March 1837 he confided in his notebook that species changed from one place to another or from one era to the next. He continued analyzing his data, searching for a mechanism for this process. Then in October 1838 Darwin read Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus argued that population growth is geometric, while the food supply increases only arithmetically, and thus that population increase is always checked by a limited food supply. Darwin recalled in his Autobiography his realization that given the struggle for existence everywhere, "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"--the principle of natural selection--"by which to work."
Darwin's originality extended beyond perceiving the savagery of the natural world. Other scientists and philosophers had noted the brutality of species against species, of the lion devouring the lamb. Darwin saw competition between individuals of a single species. He recognized that within a local population the individual with, for example, the sharper beak, the longer horn, or the brighter feather might have a better chance to survive and reproduce than other individuals. If such advantageous traits were passed on to new generations, they would eventually be predominant in future populations. Darwin thus shifted the focus of evolutionary analysis from between to within species. He saw natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations passed on to succeeding generations and by which the traits of individuals that were less competitive gradually disappeared from populations. (Later generations of biologists came to understand variations within a species as variations in the genes of its individual members, and they explained evolution as the action of natural selection upon genes responsible for advantageous traits.) After he had hit upon natural selection, Darwin was eager to verify it, and he stepped up his inquiries to plant and animal breeders. He hoped to learn from their experience with artificial selection how natural selection worked.
Darwin still faced the problem of divergence--that is, the evolutionary development of dissimilar characteristics in closely related species that have descended from a single organic ancestor. As he had observed during his voyage, divergent species appeared on different landmasses. Darwin solved this puzzle of geographic distribution by assigning the dissemination of populations of ocean islands to the power of wind and water. The theory of the evolution of species thus solved many puzzles in comparative anatomy, embryology, and paleontology. (For further discussion of the details of Darwin's theory, see
EVOLUTION, THE THEORY OF ; for details of the evolution of humans, see
EVOLUTION, HUMAN .)
The idea of organic evolution was not new. It had been suggested a generation earlier by Erasmus Darwin and in France by Buffon, Montesquieu, Maupertuis, Diderot, and most recently Lamarck. Lamarck had drawn the first evolutionary diagram--a ladder leading from unicellular organisms to man. But none of these earlier evolutionists had presented either a mechanism or persuasive evidence for the process. Lamarck offered the hypothesis that spontaneous generation occurs constantly, that organisms possess an "inner feeling" toward perfection, and that the traits an animal acquires to adapt to a changing environment are passed on to its descendants.
Though lack of an apparent mechanism of inheritance eventually prompted him to accept the latter idea, Darwin's theory was rooted in direct observation and an attempt to discover universal laws. His evolutionary sketch was a branching tree, not a single ladder. Above all, Darwin rejected the prevailing view that organisms are perfectly adapted to their environment. He viewed the natural world, instead, as caught in an incessant struggle between competing individuals that have different degrees of fitness. Others had seen struggles but always between species, never within them. By moving the battle from interspecies struggles to intraspecies competition, Darwin introduced the concept of populations--that is, localized groups consisting of members of a given species in which each individual differs from its sibling. He recognized that it is the competition within a species leading to the survival of individuals with adaptationally advantageous traits that eventually brings about the evolution of a new species.
By 1842 Darwin was confident enough in his theory to draft a short sketch, and in 1844 he composed a longer version, which he showed to his friend, the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. Wary of presenting his theory to the public, Darwin spent the next decade concentrating on a treatise on barnacles, in which he hinted but did not actually say that species were the product of natural selection. In the meantime the intellectual atmosphere in England altered and discussions about evolution became commonplace. Darwin still withheld publishing his thesis. When he would have determined that the time was ripe is impossible to know, but the decision was removed from him when on June 18, 1858, he received from Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in the Malay Archipelago, a paper that perfectly summarized the theory that Darwin had been elaborating for 20 years. Disheartened by this apparent preemption of his life's work, Darwin was saved by his friends and confidants, Lyell, Hooker, and T.H. Huxley, who arranged for a joint paper by Darwin and Wallace to be read to the Linnean Society of London on July 1, 1858.
Darwin then began work on what he called an "abstract" of the larger manuscript that he had begun two years earlier. This abstract, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, was published on Nov. 24, 1859. The first edition sold out immediately, and by 1872 the work had run through six editions. The theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles. With the exception of holdouts like his old colleague Adam Sedgwick and individuals such as the biologist Richard Owen, who attacked Darwin personally, most opposition was from the clergy. They realized that the theory of evolution was inconsistent with a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. Orthodox Christians felt threatened by the suggestion that the natural (or living) world worked according to laws as did the physical world. There was no place in Darwin's world for divine intervention, nor was mankind placed in a position of superiority vis-à-vis the rest of the animal world. Darwin saw man as part of a continuum with the rest of nature, not separated by divine injunction.
After the publication of the Origin, Darwin continued to write, while friends, especially Huxley, defended the theory before the public. In June 1860 at the Oxford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Huxley confronted the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, who had been coached by Richard Owen. Wilberforce patronized Huxley, asking whether it was through his father or his mother that he was descended from an ape. Huxley replied that he was not ashamed of having descended from an ape but would be ashamed of an ancestor who used gifts of eloquence in the service of falsehoods. Huxley and Hooker annihilated Wilberforce's position at the Oxford debate and continued spreading what was tantamount to a gospel of evolution.
Darwin completed the elucidation of his theory in his next three books, which were all continuations of the Origin. In The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868), Darwin proposed his hypothesis of pangenesis (an ill-founded attempt to account for the acquisition of hereditary characteristics, a process eventually explained in the development of cell biology and genetics).
Darwin met the issue of human evolution head-on in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), in which he elaborated on the controversial subject only alluded to in the Origin. He expanded the scope of evolution to include moral and spiritual as well as physical traits and underscored man's psychological as well as physiological similarities to the great apes, predicting, "the time will before long come when it will be thought wonderful that naturalists, who were well acquainted with the comparative structure and development of man and other animals, should have believed that each was the work of a separate act of creation."
The second half of the book elaborated upon the theory of sexual selection. Darwin observed that in some species males battle other males for access to certain females. But in other species, such as peacocks, there is a social system in which the females select males according to such qualities as strength or beauty. Twentieth-century biologists have expanded this theory to the selection by females of males who can contribute toward the survival of their offspring; i.e., female selection secures traits that make the next generation more competitive. Although Darwin's description of female choice was roundly rejected by most scientists at the time, he adamantly defended this insight until the end of his life. While not universally accepted today, the theory of female choice has many adherents among evolutionary biologists.
The last of Darwin's sequels to the Origin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), was an attempt to erase the last barrier presumed to exist between human and nonhuman animals--the idea that the expression of such feelings as suffering, anxiety, grief, despair, joy, love, devotion, hatred, and anger is unique to human beings. Darwin connected studies of facial muscles and the emission of sounds with the corresponding emotional states in man and then argued that the same facial movements and sounds in nonhuman animals express similar emotional states. This book laid the groundwork for the study of ethology, neurobiology, and communication theory in psychology.
Later works. Throughout his career Darwin wrote two kinds of books--those with a broad canvas, such as the evolution quartet, and those with a narrow focus, such as the treatise on barnacles. His interests shifted over the years from geology to zoology to botany. In these later works, however, he included theoretical interpretation, whereas his earlier works had contained mostly data. In On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects (1862) he demonstrated that plants exhibit complicated characteristics that are adaptive and that increase the survival of a species. One such characteristic, for example, is cross-pollination (the mechanism by which pollen is transferred from one flower to another). In explaining the interdependence of bees and orchids, Darwin noted that flowers that are pollinated by the wind have little colour, while those that need to attract insects have brightly coloured petals and sweet-smelling nectaries. In The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (1877) he observed that flowers in some species differ in the lengths of their anthers and styles, which is another adaptation for cross-pollination. Darwin experimented in his garden at Down House in Kent where he raised two large beds of Linaria vulgaris, one from cross-pollinated and the other from self-pollinated seeds, both of which he obtained from the same parent plant. He observed, "To my surprise, the crossed plants when fully grown were plainly taller and more vigorous than the self-fertilized ones." He continued horticultural experiments for another 12 years on 57 species and described his results in The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876). Here he developed the theme that there are hereditary advantages in having two sexes in both the plant and animal kingdoms--to ensure cross-fertilization, which, as he knew from experiments, produced healthier, more vigorous offspring.
In "On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants" (1875) Darwin advanced an adaptive explanation for the tendency of the stems of certain plants to spiral toward heat and light, bending either clockwise or counterclockwise. Through experimentation he had discovered that a twining plant would not twine around an object larger than six inches in diameter. This characteristic Darwin interpreted as preventing a vine from climbing up a large tree where the shade from the upper branches would deprive it of sunlight. Still interested in the mechanism that enables some plants to climb and bend, Darwin continued experimenting and pinpointed "some matter in the upper part which is acted upon by light, and which transmits its effects to the lower part." He reported these researches in The Power of Movement in Plants (1880).
A chance observation of flies caught on the leaf of the common sundew initiated Darwin's investigation of carnivorous plants. He was especially impressed by the fact that the living cells of plants possess a similar capacity for irritability and response as the cells of animals. Darwin published these findings in Insectivorous Plants (1875). In his last botanical work, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, which appeared only six months before his death in 1881, he demonstrated the service that worms perform in digesting leaves and recirculating organic matter. It was a pioneering study in the field of quantitative ecology. (see also Index: earthworm)
A man of his time. Darwin worked alone at home, leading the life of an independent scientist (a privileged existence open to a fortunate few in Victorian England). Money from Robert Darwin made it unnecessary for Charles to seek employment. After his return from the voyage Darwin knew he would never become a clergyman like his mentor, Henslow. Nor would he remain a bachelor like his brother, Erasmus, who was a man-about-town. After drawing up lists of the benefits and drawbacks of marriage, he proposed to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, whom he married on Jan. 29, 1839. She brought fortune, devotion, and considerable housewifely skills that enabled him to work in peace for the next 40 years. Newly married, the Darwins moved into a house on Gower Street in London, but within a few years Darwin's increasingly poor health prompted them to move to the country. In 1842 the Darwins moved into Down House in the village of Downe, Kent, only 16 miles from London but remote from easy access to the city.
Charles and Emma Darwin had 10 children: two died in infancy and a third, Anne, died at age 10. The surviving five sons went away to school. George, Francis, and Horace became distinguished scientists, and Leonard, a major in the royal army, was an engineer and eugenicist. William Erasmus was undistinguished, as were his sisters, who prepared at home to follow their mother into marriage. Henrietta married; Elizabeth remained single at Down. Darwin was devoted to his wife and daughters but treated them as children, obliging Emma to ask him for the only key to the drawers containing all the keys to cupboards and other locked depositories.
Darwin noted in The Descent that the young of both sexes resemble the adult female in most species and reasoned that males are more evolutionarily advanced than females. His attitude toward women coloured his scientific insights. "The female is less eager than the male," he wrote, "She is coy," and when she takes part in choosing a mate, she chooses "not the male which is most attractive to her, but the one which is least distasteful." (see also Index: "Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, The")
His medical school experience had left him sympathetic to the popular antivivisectionist movement, but he admonished women for their involvement in it in a letter to The Times of London on June 23, 1876: "Women, who from the tenderness of their hearts and from their profound ignorance are the most vehement opponents of such experiments, will I hope pause when they learn that a few such experiments performed under the influence of an anaesthetic, have saved and will save through all future time thousands of women from a dreadful and lingering death." All expressions of cruelty offended him, and he was an ardent opponent of slavery.
Comfortable in English society, Darwin treasured his place and feared alienating those who he knew would be offended by his theory. He benefited at the beginning of his career from the scientific fraternity in London, who helped him understand the specimens from the Beagle, and he appreciated his intellectual give and take with Henslow, Hooker, Lyell, and Huxley. He was a beneficiary of this conservative English society, and his fear of ostracism was one of the forces that prevented him from publishing his theory sooner. He also dreaded the hurt he knew that his ideas would inflict on his close friend Henslow and especially on Emma, both devout Christians, for whom his theory was heresy.
The conflict between his science and his realization of what publication would imply for the society he was so much a part of manifested itself in physical pain. The once adventurous young naturalist was a semi-invalid before his 40th year. Darwin's illness has been the subject of extensive speculation. Some of the symptoms--painful flatulence, vomiting, insomnia, palpitations--appeared in force as soon as he began his first transmutation notebook, in 1837. Although he was exposed to insects in South America and could possibly have caught Chagas' or some other tropical disease, a careful analysis of the attacks in the context of his activities points to psychogenic origins. Throughout the next decades Darwin's maladies waxed and waned. But during the last decade of his life, when he concentrated on botanical research and no longer speculated about evolution, he experienced the best health since his years at Cambridge.
Darwin made his home at Down into his laboratory, where he experimented in his garden and observed the local fauna. Dogs and cats were part of the Darwin household, which also was not without a child under school age between 1839 and 1856. By no means a recluse, Darwin often attended scientific meetings in London; he was away from home for about 2,000 days between 1842 and 1881. He was a member of 57 leading foreign learned societies and was no less a prominent figure in the village of Downe, treasurer of the Friendly Club and a Justice of the Peace. Darwin sent his children to village dances, and, even though he was a skeptical agnostic, he participated in church functions that were part of village life.
Darwin died at Down House on April 19, 1882. Within hours the news reached London, and a Parliamentary petition won him burial in Westminster Abbey. By this time the theory of evolution through natural selection was generally accepted. His ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, but his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. (B.Ke.)
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서론 다윈
(Charles
(Robert) Darwin). 1809. 2. 12 영국 슈롭셔~1882. 4. 19
켄트 다운.
영국의 박물학자. 생물의 진화를 주장하고,
자연선택에 의해 새로운 종이 기원한다는 자연선택설을 발표했다.
그의 진화설은 주로 〈자연선택에 의한 종의 기원에 관하여
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection〉(1859)와 〈인간의 유래 및 성(性)에 관한 선택
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex〉(1871)에서 제의된 것인데,
당시의 과학 및 종교의 진로에 많은 영향을 주었으며,
인간의 생각에 혁신을 가져왔다.
아버지 로버트 워링 다윈은 의사였고,
어머니 수재나는 유명한 도예가인 조시아 웨지우드
1세의 딸이었다.
할아버지 에라스무스 다윈은 박식한 의사·시인·철학자·박물학자·발명가였으며,
우생학의 창시자 프랜시스 골튼의 할아버지이기도 했다.
소년·청년시기와 교육 다윈의 어머니는 그가
8세 때 죽었으며,
큰누나 캐롤라인이 그를 키웠다.
다윈은 그녀가 자기에게 인도주의 정신을 가르친 데 대해 늘 감사했다.
소년 다윈은 다른 사람에 비해 성장이 느렸으며 어릴 때 이유 없이 거짓말을 꾸며내고 공상하기를 좋아했고,
실·우표·조약돌·광물 따위의 수집을 즐겼다. 1817년 슈루즈베리에 있던 주간학교에 다니다가
1818년 그곳의 버틀러 기숙학교에 입학하여
1825년까지 다녔으나 우수하지 못한 학생이었다.
그는 후에 이 학교에서는 고전(古典)만 배웠을 뿐 자신의 장래를 위한 건전한 기초는 얻지 못했다고 불평했다.
당시 그의 아버지는 "너는 총사냥·개경주·쥐잡기 이외에는 좋아하는 것이라고는 아무것도 없구나.
너는 장차 네 자신과 너의 가족의 명예를 손상시킬 것이다"라고 말하면서 그를 꾸짖기도 했다.
그후 그의 아버지는 의학 공부를 시키기 위해 그를 에든버러대학으로 보냈으나 실패했다.
그는 강의를 들으면 과학이 싫어지고,
수술하는 것을 보면 싫증을 느꼈다.
그는 바다나 물웅덩이에서 해양 동물을 채집하고,
굴잡이를 하는 어부를 따라다니며,
박물학자를 따라 남아메리카에 갔던 흑인에게서 새 박제하는 방법을 배우는 것만 좋아했다.
그의 아버지는 그의 누나로부터 다윈이 의사가 되고싶어하지 않는다는 말을 듣고 실망하여 이번에는 다윈을 영국교회의 목사를 만들 목적으로
1827년 에든버러에서 케임브리지로 보냈다.
그는 케임브리지대학교 크리스츠 칼리지에서 정식 교육과정에는 별로 관심이 없었고 그와 마찬가지로 사격·승마·사냥에 열심이며 운동을 좋아하는 한 무리의 젊은 사람들과 만나게 되었다.
그렇지만 그때 몇 사람의 유명한 과학자들도 알게 되었는데,
특히 식물학교수인 존 스티븐스 헨슬로 교수와 친하게 되었다.
헨슬로 교수는 다윈이 박물학에 흥미를 갖도록 자극하고,
자신감을 갖게 하는 등 많은 영향을 주었다.
비글호 항해 1831년 영국 해군은 비글호 항해 때 로버트 피츠로이 함장과 동행할 박물학자를 구하고 있었다.
항해 목적은 파타고니아, 푸에고 섬,
칠레, 페루 등 남아메리카의 해안과 태평양의 섬들을 조사하여 일련의 세계 크로노미터 측점(測點)을 수립하려는 것이었다.
이때 헨슬로 교수가 다윈을 추천했는데 본인은 원했지만 그의 아버지가 처음에는 반대하면서
"만약 네가,
너에게 가라고 권유할 상식이 있는 사람을 발견할 수만 있다면 나는 승락할 것이다"라고 말했다.
이 상식 있는 사람의 구실을 한 사람이 바로 다윈의 외삼촌인 조시아 웨주우드
2세였고,
그의 설득으로 다윈은 1831년
12월 27일 비글호를 타고 데이번포트를 떠나
5년간 항해할 수 있었다.
케이프베르데 제도에서 처음으로 화산에 관한 실물교육을 받았는데,
그는 화산에 관해 찰스 라이엘의 〈지질학 원리
Principles of Geology〉의 유효성을 스스로 시험할 수 있었다.
이 책은 헨슬로 교수가 다윈에게 가져가라고는 권하면서도 믿지는 말라고 했던 것이었는데 다윈은 자신의 현지 관찰을 통해 라이엘의 동일과정설(同一過程說)의 원리를 확실하게 받아들이게 되었으며 장차 과학자가 될 기초를 다졌다.
브라질에서는 처음으로 열대림을 보았고,
아르헨티나에서는 처음으로 나무늘보·
마스토돈·
말 따위의 화석을 발견했다.
푸에고 섬에서는 사람이라고 보기 어려울 정도의 미개한 인종도 보았다.
칠레에서는 지진을 목격하고 육지의 융기에 대한 지진의 영향,
화산 폭발과 지진과의 관계 등을 관찰했다.
항해중 상륙하면, 말을 타고서 길고 위험한 탐험을 나가 채집하며 사냥하는 것을 되풀이했는데,
후에 이러한 탐험에 열중했던 것이 헛된 일이 아니었음을 보여주었다.
그는 어디에서나 산을 보면 등산했으며,
칠레에서 안데스 고원을 넘어 아르헨티나로 가는 여행도중에는 벌레들에게 많이 물리기도 했다.
비글호는 갈라파고스 제도로부터 타히티,
뉴질랜드, 오스트레일리아,
코코스 제도, 모리셔스 제도,
남아프리카, 세인트헬레나 섬 등을 항해한 다음 크로노미터를 점검하기 위해 다시 브라질에 갔다가 귀국했다. 1836년
10월 2일 플리머스 항에 상륙하여
10월 5일에 고향인 슈루즈베리에 돌아왔다.
비글호 항해중에 예리한 통찰력으로 자연을 관찰하면서 얻은 식견,
사고, 채집품 등은 그의 진화사상의 확립과 자연선택설의 수립은 물론 기타 연구 업적의 모태가 되었다.
특히 그는 자연선택에 관한 견해들 중의 많은 것들에 대한 영감을 갈라파고스 제도에서 관찰한 동물들의 생활상태에서 얻었다고 했다.
초기의 연구활동 다윈의 저서 〈1832~36 H.M.S.
비글호가 방문한 여러 나라의 지질학과 자연사에 관한 저널
Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H. M. S. Beagle, 1832~36〉(1839)에 나타난 바와 같이 그의 주된 관심사들은 지질학에 관한 것이었으며,
따라서 그의 관찰들은 〈산호초의 구조와 분포
Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs〉(1842)·〈화산도(火山島)에 관한 지질학적 관찰
Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands〉(1844)·〈남아메리카에 관한 지질학적 관찰
Geological Observations on South America〉(1846)
등 3권의 책으로 출간되었다.
후세 사람들에게는 이 저작들이 다윈의 진화에 관한 폭발적 인기 때문에 빛을 잃어서 경시되어왔으나,
이 저서들은 그가 후에 이룩한 업적의 기본이 되는 것이었다.
한 예로서 환초(環礁)와 보초(堡礁)의 생성원인에 대한 그의 견해를 보면,
산호의 폴립이 깊이가 37m 미만이고 수온이
20℃ 이상의 맑은 바닷물에서만 살고,
환초와 보초는 모두 해수면 근처에 있다는 사실로 미루어 환초와 보초는 바다 바닥이 내려앉은 결과로써만 생길 수 있고 산호는 그 기부가 밑으로 내려감에 따라 위로 자라 올라가는 것이라고 주장했다.
그의 주장은 152m 깊이 가까이에서 한 때 표층의
3.7m 이내에서 살았던 죽은 산호를 찾아냄으로써 확인되었다.
채집한 동물 표본들은 한 팀의 전문가들에 의해 기재되어 〈비글호 항해의 동물학
The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle〉(1840~43)이란 제목으로 출판되었다.
그러나 그의 생물학적 공헌은 이런 것과는 다른 성질의 것이었다.
항해를 떠날 당시에는, 다른 사람들과 마찬가지로 그 역시 종의 불변성을 의심하지 않았으나 그 후 몇 가지 의문이 생겨 다음과 같은 생각을 하게 되었다. "왜,
지리적으로 멀리 떨어져 있는 곳에 비슷한 동물들이 많이 살고 있을까?
예로 남아메리카의 레아류는 왜 아프리카의 타조와 그렇게 많이 닮았을까?
왜 같은 종은 아니지만 이웃 지역에는 비슷한 종이 살고 있을까?
갈라파고스 제도의 섬들은 자연조건이 서로 같아 보이는데,
왜 각 섬들의 새들과 육상 거북들은 서로 다를까?"
귀국 후(1837) 그는 이런 의문들과 비교해부학,
발생학, 분류,
지리적 분포 및 고생물 등에서 제기된 더 많은 의문들은 만약 종이 진화하여 다른 종으로 된다면,
즉 많은 종들이 공동조상을 가지고 있다면 만족스럽게 설명되리라고 생각했다.
이것은 곧 조상종으로부터 변화된 후손종이 생겨날 수 있다는 진화의 견해인데,
오늘날에는 이 견해를 지지하는 생물학상의 증거가 많이 제시되어 있다.
다윈은 당시의 상황으로서는 진화가 어떻게 일어났는지를 설명할 수 없는 한 사람들을 납득시키려고 시도해도 소용이 없다는 것을 실감하고 있었다.
진화의 원인을 탐구하던 중에 그는 재배식물과 가축에서 사람들이 변화를 일으키는 데 성공할 수 있는 비결은 희망하는 특질을 지닌 어버이를 주의 깊게 선택하는 일이라는 것을 알아내고,
선택이 자연계에서의 종의 창조에도 틀림없이 어떤 방식으로든 작용했으리라는 것을 감지했다.
그는 한 종의 모든 개체들은 서로 같지 않고,
변이를 나타낸다는 것을 알고 있었으며,
어떤 개체들은 살고 있는 곳에 잘 적응하여 번성하지만 어떤 개체들은 적응이 잘 안 되어 멸망하리라는 것도 실감했다.
이것은 다윈이 일찍이 1837년에 파악했던 자연선택의 원리였으며,
그는 더 나아가서 어떻게 자연이 이런 자연선택을 진행시키는가를 알아내려고 했는데 이는 그가 자연선택의 메커니즘을 설명할 수 없었기 때문이었다.
1838년 9월
28일 다윈은 맬서스의 〈인구의 원리에 관한 시론
Essay on the Principle of Population〉(흔히 인구론이라 번역함)을 읽었는데,
여기서 맬서스는 인구가 기하급수적인 증가를 하는데도 사람의 식량 공급은 겨우 산술급수적으로 증가하는 데 지나지 않으므로 인구의 증가가 억제되지 않으면 그 결과는 비참하고 빈곤한 사람들의 죽음을 가져오리라고 했다.
다윈은 바로 이 논리가 인위적으로 먹이의 공급을 증가시킬 수 없는 식물과 동물에도 적용되리라는 것을 깨달았다.
그는 또한 이와 같은 생물에서는 사망률이 매우 높을 것이며 따라서 성공적인 세대들의 어버이를 선택하는 메커니즘은 자동적으로 진행되리라고 생각했다.
다윈은 적응의 기원과 개량문제를 선택압(選擇壓)의 결과로 풀었으며,
세대를 이어가는 사이의 변화 즉 진화는 진공 중에서 일어나는 것이 아니고 그 종이 점유하고 있는 생태적 지위와 매우 깊은 관계에 있다고 보았다.
그래서 사람들은 그를 생태학의 창시자로 보고 있다.
생물의 진화설은 다윈 이전에도 프랑스의 몽테스키외·모페르튀·디드로 등의 사상가들과 박물학자인 뷔퐁,
다윈의 할아버지인 에라스무스 다윈,
프랑스의 라마르크 등에 의해 제창되었었다.
박물학자이며 진화론자였던 라마르크(1744~1829)는 처음으로 단세포생물로부터 인류에 이르는 진화의 계통수(系統樹)를 그려냈으나 진화의 증거를 제시하지 않았고,
진화의 원인을 "생물은 완성을 향하는 경향이 있다"는 가상적인 느낌과 생물의 욕구 총족에 대한 공상적 믿음에 호소하여 설명하려고 했기 때문에 다른 과학자들로부터 그의 진화설은 배척을 당했다.
이런 면에서 다윈은 진화에 대한 적절한 증거를 제시하고,
자연선택의 과정이 어떻게 적응을 일으키는가를 최초로 설명한 사람이었다.
다윈은 생물학사상 최대의 일반원리를 발견한 후,
그것을 간직해두었다가 1842년 대략적인 개요로 잡아놓았고(스케치) 1844년 이것을 좀더 보충하여(에세이)
친구인 식물학자 조지프 돌턴 후커에게만 보여 주었다. 1846~1854년 다윈은 관심과 에너지를 만각류(蔓脚類：따개비류)의 현생 및 화석종(種)
연구에 쏟았는데, 이러한 연구의 목적은 이들을 분류하는 것이었다.
이 지루한 연구에 의해 다윈은 한 종 내에서 발견되는 많은 변이와 분류상의 문제점들에 관해 직접적인 경험을 얻게 되었는데,
이는 종이 어디로부터 기원하는지를 연구하는 데 필수적인 것이었으며 이 연구는
1851~54년에 4개의 모노그래프로 출판되었다.
종의 기원의 출판과 보완 1856년 다윈은 진화와 자연선택에 관한 그의 발견들을 논문으로 쓰기 시작했다.
그동안 줄곧 분기문제(즉 많은 종들을 포함하는 널리 퍼져 있는 속에 속하는 종들의 커다란 변이성)에 관한 연구와 지리적 분포,
그리고 대양도(大洋島)의 생물을 퍼뜨리는 데 있어서의 바다와 바람의 역할에 관한 연구로 진화에 관한 증거를 수집했으며,
그의 친구들인 라이엘, 후커,
토머스 헨리 헉슬리와도 계속해서 토론을 했다.
그가 하는 일이 순조롭게 진행되던 중 1858년
6월 18일 뜻밖에도 당시 말레이 열도(列島)에 가 있던 박물학자 앨프레드 러셀 월리스로 부터 진화와 자연선택에 관한 〈변종(變種)이 원종(原種)으로부터 무한히 멀어져가는 경향에 관하여
On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitly from the Original Type〉라는 간결한 논문을 받게 되었다.
다윈은 이 논문이 20년 간이나 자신이 계속해온 연구 업적을 앞지를 위험이 있는 것으로 생각하여 큰 충격을 받았으나,
라이엘과 후커의 주선으로 1858년
7월 1일 런던의 린네 학회에서 다윈과 월리스의 논문을 공동으로 발표함으로써 위기를 모면했다.
이때 〈종이 변종을 형성하는 경향에 관하여：자연선택 방법에 의한 변종과 종의 영속화에 관하여
On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties：on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection〉라는 제목하에 다윈이
1844년에 쓴 '에세이'의 일부와
1857년 다윈이 그레이에게 보낸 편지,
그리고 월리스의 논문이 소개되었다.
그후 다윈은 그때까지의 모든 연구 업적을 간추려서 쓰기 시작했다.
그는 이것을 '적요'(摘要)라고 불렀는데 이 적요가 바로 〈자연선택에 의한 종의 기원,
즉 생존경쟁에 있어서 유리한 종족의 존속에 관하여
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life〉(줄여서 〈종의 기원
Origin of Species〉이라고 함)라는 책으로
1859년 11월
24일에 초판 1,250부가 출간되어 당일에 매진되고, 1872년까지
6판을 거듭했다.
이 〈종의 기원〉으로 다윈은 2종류의 적(敵)을 만들게 되었는데 첫째는 애담 세즈윅이나 리처드 오윈 같은 구식풍의 과학자들이고,
둘째는 정통파의 종교적 신앙을 지지하는 사람들이었다.
싸움은 1860년 6월
30일 영국과학진흥협회의 옥스포드 대회에서 벌어졌는데,
오윈의 주의깊은 지도를 받은 옥스포드의 주교 새무얼 윌버포스는 경멸하는 태도로 다윈의 견해에 대해 헉슬리를 공격했으나 헉슬리는 재치있는 응답으로 주교의 공격을 막았고 영국교회는 그후 다시는 공식적으로 과학과 교전하려고 하지 않았다.
다윈은 〈종의 기원〉에서 저술한 여러 원리들을 보충하고 부연하여 〈사육(飼育)에 의한 동식물의 변이
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication〉(1868)·〈인간의 유래 및 성에 관한 선택
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex〉(1871)·〈인간과 동물의 감정 표현
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals〉(1872)
등 3권의 책을 썼는데
3번째 책은 심리학에 크게 이바지했으며,
행동학의 창시이기도 했다.
기타 저서 앞에서 말한 것들 이외의 다윈의 저작들은 주로 식물을 다룬 것들이지만,
모두 적응을 주제로 하여 그 기원·발전·적응 등이 주는 생존의 가치를 담고 있다.
이는 〈곤충에 의해 수정되는 영국과 외국의 난(蘭)의 여러 가지 고안에 관하여
On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilized by Insects〉(1862)에서 확실하게 볼 수 있다.
이 책에서 다윈은 꽃이 곤충이 내려앉기에 알맞은 모양을 하고 있다고 말했다.
〈식물계에서 타가수정과 자가수정의 효과 The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom〉(1876)에서는 식물계와 동물계에
2가지 성(性)이 있는 것은 동식물들이 타가수정을 확실히 하도록 적응되었기 때문이라 했다.
〈덩굴식물의 운동과 습성 The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants〉(1875)에서는 감기의 메커니즘과 감아 올라가는 기능의 의의를 관찰과 실험을 통해 연구했고 〈식충식물
Insectivorous Plants〉(1875)에서는 식물의 가장 놀랄 만한 적응을 기술했다.
〈지렁이의 활동에 의한 식물재배 토양의 형성
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms〉(1881)은 수량생태학의 선구적 연구로 땅속 지렁이들의 여러 가지 역할을 연구했으며,
지렁이들이 땅속 흙을 위로 옮기는 양이 404.8㎡의 토양에서 연간 약
18t이 된다고 계산했다.
다윈의 연구 방법 다윈의 업적은 영국의 자본주의의 성장,
식민정책과 관계가 깊다.
그 이유는 그가 영국 식민정책의 상징이라 할 수 있는 해군의 군함 비글호에 편승했고,
산업혁명의 시작이었던 농업혁명의 상징이라 할 수 있는 품종개량의 수단인 인위선택에서 자연선택의 암시를 받았기 때문이다.
다윈은 연구과정에서 영국의 경험주의적 방법 즉 베이컨주의를 충실하게 따랐는데,
그는 비글호 항해중에 이것을 터득했던 것이다.
그는 자기의 관찰로부터 성서의 창조 설명은 명백한 거짓이라는 신념을 얻게 되었고,
비판적인 판단을 적용하는 것을 배웠다.
다윈 시대에는 일반적으로 과학은 귀납적인 방법만으로 발달한다고 생각했다.
그는 "나는 베이컨적 원리에 따라 연구했고 아무런 가설없이 대규모로 사실들을 모았다"고 기술했다.
그러나 라이엘에게 보낸 편지에는 "이론의 형성없이는 관찰이 있을 수 없다고 나는 확신한다"고 썼는데,
이처럼 그는 순수한 귀납적 관찰이라는 것은 없다고 인식했다.
다윈은 자기의 주의를 끄는 것에 대해 가설을 세운 다음 논박 또는 논증이 될 수 있는 결론을 연역(演繹)하는 식의 가설연역법을 사용하여 그의 이론을 폈다.
다윈의 건강과 가정 다윈은 원래 건장한 청년이었으나 비글호 항해에서 돌아온 뒤로는 건강상태가 좋지 않아 심한 권태감과 장(腸)의 불편함을 느꼈고 구토증과 불면증 때문에 자주 고생했다.
그 원인에 관해서 여러 가지 설이 있었는데,
어떤 사람은 1835년에 다윈이 침노린재과 트리아토마속(Triatoma)에 속하는 곤충에 물렸기 때문이라 했다.
트리파노소마속(Trypanosoma)에 속하는 샤가스 병원체를 매개하는 이 곤충의 발견은
1909년이지만 다윈의 증세가 샤가스병의 증세와 일치했기 때문이었다.
다윈은 1839년에 엠마와 결혼하여
10명의 자식을 얻었지만 세 아이를 잃었으며,
나중에 아들 2명은 과학자,
또 다른 아들 1명은 경제학자가 되었다.
일생 동안 정식 직업을 갖지 않았던 다윈은 1882년
4월 19일에 다운의 자기집에서 세상을 떠났다.
죽은 지 2일 뒤 20명의 국회의원이 서명한 청원서에 따라,
웨스트민스터 사원에 영국의 수상들과 왕들 옆에 나란히 묻혔다.
장례는 4월 26일에 치루어졌으며,
이때 관을 따라가는 사람들 중에는 후커와 헉슬리 그리고 수많은 외국 고관들이 있었다.
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Major Works MAJOR WORKS. Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle . . . (1839); The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842); 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 British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects, and On the Good Effects of Intercrossing (1862); "On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants" (1865); The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868); The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 2 vol. (1871); The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872); Insectivorous Plants (1875); The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876); The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (1877); The Power of Movement in Plants (1880); The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits (1881).
A comprehensive modern edition of Darwin's writings is The Works of Charles Darwin, ed. by PAUL H. BARRETT and R.B. FREEMAN, 29 vol. (1987-89). Of numerous editions of the Journal of Researches, the best is Voyage of the Beagle, ed. by JANET BROWNE and MICHAEL NEVE (1989), with a fine and informative introduction by the editors.
찰스 다윈의 비글호의 항해기
: C. 다윈,
장순근 역, 전파과학사, 1993
종의기원 : C.
다윈, 김창한 역,
집문당, 1984
Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY. FRANCIS DARWIN (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter, 3 vol. (1887, reissued in 2 vol., 1972); and FRANCIS DARWIN and A.C. SEWARD (eds.), More Letters of Charles Darwin, 2 vol. (1903, reprinted 1972), were written by one of Darwin's sons. JAMES MOORE, The Darwin Legend (1994), explains how the Darwin family crafted these volumes to protect Charles's public reputation. FREDERICK BURKHARDT and SYDNEY SMITH (eds.), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (1985- ), provides a vivid portrait of the man and his thoughts on evolution in many previously unpublished letters.
PAUL H. BARRETT (ed.), The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin, 2 vol. (1977, reprinted 2 vol. in 1, 1980), is a collection of his minor works. Darwin's earliest exposition of his discoveries is contained in CHARLES DARWIN, The Foundations of The Origin of Species: Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844, ed. by FRANCIS DARWIN (1909), also available as vol. 10 of the Works cited above; and in CHARLES DARWIN and ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, Evolution by Natural Selection (1958, reissued 1971). Darwin's notes from his voyage are published in PAUL H. BARRETT (ed.), Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries (1987). Darwin's original manuscript on natural selection, of which On the Origin of Species was but an abstract, is presented in R.C. STAUFFER (ed.), Charles Darwin's Natural Selection (1975, reissued 1987).
Biographical works include GERTRUDE HIMMELFARB, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (1959, reissued 1996), generally critical of Darwin's impact on modern society and morals; ADRIAN DESMOND and JAMES MOORE, Darwin (1991), a highly readable biography emphasizing the importance of social influences in shaping Darwin's thought; PETER J. BOWLER, Charles Darwin: The Man and His Influence (1990), a biography and assessment; and JANET BROWNE, Charles Darwin (1995- ), a massive and closely researched study. An examination of Darwin's botanical studies is MEA ALLAN, Darwin and His Flowers: The Key to Natural Selection (1977). WILMA GEORGE, Darwin (1982), discusses Darwin's biology. Darwin's illnesses and their impact on his thought are discussed in RALPH COLP, JR., To Be an Invalid: The Illness of Charles Darwin (1977); and JOHN BOWLBY, Charles Darwin (1990).
Studies of Darwin and his contemporaries include DAVID KOHN (ed.), The Darwinian Heritage (1985), an important collection of essays, including revised interpretations of Darwin's position among his contemporary scientists; ROY MacLEOD and PHILIP F. REHBOCK (eds.), Darwin's Laboratory: Evolutionary Theory and Natural History in the Pacific (1994), including essays on Darwin's Pacific research, biogeography, and Social Darwinism; and DAVID AMIGONI and JEFF WALLACE (eds.), Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays (1995), an eclectic but interesting collection. The intellectual origins and fate of Darwinian thought are discussed in PETER J. BOWLER, The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the Decades Around 1900 (1983, reissued 1992), Evolution: The History of an Idea, rev. ed. (1989), and Darwinism (1993). MICHAEL RUSE, The Darwinian Revolution (1979, reissued 1981), provides a philosophically oriented study of the reactions of the British scientific community between 1830 and 1875 to the idea of evolution. NEAL C. GILLESPIE, Charles Darwin and the Problem of Creation (1979), is a study of how Darwin and his contemporaries dealt with the idea of special creation. ADRIAN DESMOND, The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London (1989), analyzes radical evolutionary thought in Britain in the 1820s and '30s as background to explaining the formation and reception of Darwin's ideas. The contemporary reception of Darwin's ideas and their impact on Victorian literature are discussed in GILLIAN BEER, Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1983); and ALVAR ELLEGARD (ed.), Darwin and the General Reader: The Reception of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in the British Periodical Press, 1859-1872 (1958, reissued 1990).
과학의 역사-과학 혁명의 기원과 결과
: H. 버터필드 외,
이정식 역, 다문, 1990
찰스다윈(대우학술총서 자연과학
53) : 정용재,
민음사, 1988
다윈 : J.
밀러, 지방훈 역,
범우사, 1984
Important reinterpretations of Darwin's work can be found in DOV OSPOVAT, The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection, 1838-1859 (1981, reissued 1995), a revisionist suggestion that Darwin's theory of natural selection underwent a radical change between the late 1830s and the publication of On the Origin of Species; and four articles in Journal of the History of Biology: SANDRA HERBERT, "The Place of Man in the Development of Darwin's Theory of Transmutation," parts 1 and 2, 7(2):249-257 (Fall 1974) and 10(2):155-227 (Fall 1977), an important reinterpretation of Darwin's development; and FRANK SULLOWAY, "Darwin and His Finches: The Evolution of a Legend," 15(1):1-53 (Spring 1982), and "Darwin's Conversion: The Beagle Voyage and Its Aftermath," 15(3):325-396 (Fall 1982), a revised account of Darwin's interpretation of the Galapagos animals, with convincing arguments that Darwin came to his conclusions after his return from the voyage. ( B.Ke./Ed.)
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