Charles Darwin

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Darwin at age 51 (photograph). It was around this age that he published his theory of evolution.
Darwin shortly before his death. Painting by John Collier
Signature of Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin [ tʃɑrlz 'dɑː.wɪn ] ( born February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury , † April 19, 1882 in Down House / Kent ) was a British naturalist . Because of his significant contributions to the theory of evolution , he is considered one of the most important natural scientists .

The second voyage on the HMS Beagle , which began in late 1831 and lasted almost five years and took the young Darwin around the world , was both a key experience and the basis for his later work. Darwin first became known to the general public through his travelogue published in 1839. With his theory about the formation of coral reefs and other geological writings, he gained recognition as a geologist in scientific circles . His studies of the barnacles ( Cirripedia ) also gave him a reputation as a respected zoologist and taxonomist in the mid-1850s .

As early as 1838 Darwin outlined his theory of adaptation to habitat through variation and natural selection , thereby explaining the phylogenetic development of all organisms and their division into different species . For more than 20 years he compiled evidence for this theory. In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote brief outlines of his theory, which he did not publish. From 1856 he worked on an extensive manuscript entitled Natural Selection . Finally, in the summer of 1858, a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace containing his Ternate manuscript with similar thoughts on evolution led to the publication of the theories of evolution by both of them. A year later followed Darwin's main work On the Origin of Species (About the origin of species) , which forms the basis of modern evolutionary biology as a strictly scientific explanation for the diversity of life and represents a decisive turning point in the history of modern biology.

In 1871, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , Darwin discussed sexual selection as a second mechanism of selection and used his theory to explain human ancestry. In the last decade of his life, Darwin studied creepers , orchids , and carnivorous plants , and made important contributions to botany . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Darwin ”.

life and work

childhood and study

The Mount House estate , where Charles Darwin was born, in a photograph from around 1860
Charles Darwin at the age of seven. Detail from an 1816 pastel by Rolinda Sharples .

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 at Mount House in Shrewsbury . He was the fifth of six children of the physician Robert Darwin and his wife Susannah, nee Wedgwood (1765-1817). His grandfathers were the naturalist and poet Erasmus Darwin and the pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood .

On July 15, 1817, when Charles Darwin was eight years old, his mother died. His three older sisters Marianne (1798-1858), Caroline (1800-1888) and Susan (1803-1866) took over his care. From the spring of 1817 he attended the day school of the Unitarian community. His mother was a Unitarian believer, his father was considered a non-believer, but Charles was baptized into the Anglican Church . In June 1818 he moved to Shrewsbury private boarding school, run by Samuel Butler , where he stayed for seven years. However, Darwin was not able to gain much from the conventional teaching geared towards ancient languages ​​and literature. On the other hand, he enjoyed penetrating complex issues such as Euclid's geometry , which he was taught by a private tutor, or fine-tuning a barometer, which his uncle Samuel Tertius Galton (1783–1844) explained to him. Darwin was already collecting shells, seals, coins and minerals by this time, and his constant forays into nature studying the behavior of birds sharpened his powers of observation. Stimulated by experiments by his older brother Erasmus (1804-1881), which he carried out in a self-built laboratory in his parents' tool shed and in which Darwin was allowed to help, he dealt intensively with chemistry. Charles was to become a doctor like his father and had already sat in on his practice.

In October 1825, like his brother Erasmus, Darwin began studying medicine at Edinburgh University . The lectures, with the exception of Thomas Charles Hope 's chemistry lectures , bored him. He was primarily concerned with scientific subjects. The most influential teacher during his time in Edinburgh was Robert Edmond Grant , a freethinker and supporter of Lamarck's theory of evolution . From him he learned marine zoology, scientific observation, and the importance of accurate records. He also dabbled in taxidermy, which he learned from John Edmonstone , a former black slave. Darwin was a member of the Royal Medical Society and the Plinian Society, where he gave his first scientific lecture on the automotility of Flustra (a bryozoan ) egg.

When Darwin's father noticed that his son was struggling to study medicine, he suggested that he become a minister in the Church of England and study theology . After a moment's reflection, Darwin agreed and began his studies at Cambridge in January 1828 , after having taken private lessons to brush up on his Greek. Although Darwin pursued his theological studies unenthusiastically and considered them a waste of time, he later described his time at Cambridge as the happiest of his life.

On the advice of his tutor, John Graham (1794–1865), later Bishop of Chester , he postponed his first preliminary examination, the so-called "Little Go". After two months of preparation, he finally passed the Little Go with ease in March 1830. Preparation for the final examination also included works by William Paley , a major representative of the natural theology then prevalent in England . Darwin was particularly impressed by Paley's work Natural Theology ; Paley's logic, reasoning and language would continue to shape him later. On January 22, 1831, he passed his final exam, which included questions on Paley, Euclid, and the Greek and Latin classics, ranked tenth out of 178 students. He was only able to receive the certificate for the first academic degree Baccalaureus Artium on April 26, 1831, since he had to stay two semesters in Cambridge due to the time he missed at the beginning of his studies.

Darwin remained on friendly terms with his botany professor John Stevens Henslow throughout his life.

Early in his studies at Christ's College , Cambridge, Darwin met his great cousin , William Darwin Fox , who introduced him to entomology and through whom he became an avid collector of beetles . In the summer months he undertook numerous entomological excursions, most of which took him to North Wales , and accompanied, among others, Frederick William Hope (1797-1862), George Leonard Jenyns (1763-1848) and Thomas Campbell Eyton and his father Thomas Eyton . Another small piece of scholarly recognition came when his name was mentioned in James Francis Stephens 's Illustrations of British Entomology , July 1829 .

Darwin held John Stevens Henslow 's botany lectures in high esteem . Through his great cousin Fox, he received invitations to the regular evenings held at Henslow's house, which he conducted for undergraduate students. A lifelong friendship developed between the two, which Darwin characterized as the most influential of his entire career.

During his last year at Cambridge he read John Herschel 's Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy and Alexander von Humboldt 's Voyages to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent . He made numerous notes on the Canary Island of Tenerife from Humboldt's work and began planning a trip there in April 1831. He started learning Spanish , which he found difficult. He obtained information about the costs and dates of passages to Tenerife and was disappointed to find that he would not be able to start the journey before June 1832.

As early as the spring of 1831, Henslow had persuaded him to study geology and introduced him to Adam Sedgwick , professor of geology at Cambridge. In August 1831 Darwin and Sedgwick undertook a geological excursion to North Wales, on which they spent about a week together. Upon his return to Shrewsbury on August 29, 1831, Darwin found a letter from Henslow. Henslow informed Darwin that Captain Robert FitzRoy was looking for a scientifically educated companion for his next voyage on HMS Beagle and that he had recommended him for this position. FitzRoy feared, without such a companion, to meet the fate of HMS Beagle 's first captain , Pringle Stokes, who committed suicide in 1828. The destination of the expedition led by FitzRoy was Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, in order to carry out cartographic measurements there. The coasts of Chile , Peru and some South Sea islands should also be surveyed. After Darwin and FitzRoy had met to their mutual satisfaction and he had obtained his father's approval of the proposed venture, Darwin traveled to London.

The voyage of HMS Beagle

The stages of Charles Darwin's circumnavigation aboard HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836
The HMS Beagle at the entrance to the Beagle Channel (Murray Narrows) in Tierra del Fuego . Depiction by Conrad Martens , HMS Beagle 's official ship's painter from 1833 to 1834

Storms repeatedly delayed the start of HMS Beagle 's survey voyage . It was not until December 27, 1831 that the HMS Beagle set sail from Devonport . The journey began unpleasantly for Darwin. He immediately became seasick , and his dream of exploring the species-rich subtropical vegetation on the Canary Island of Tenerife , as described by Humboldt, fell through due to a quarantine imposed on the crew due to a cholera outbreak in England. Darwin spent the early days on the ship examining microscopically the organisms (later called plankton ) caught in a tightly meshed trawl of his own construction. He began his first notebook, which was followed by numerous others, which he created for various purposes during the journey. There were notebooks that he only used during shore excursions. In his geological and zoological notebooks he organized the impressions he had made on land. He carefully numbered the samples he had collected in other notebooks.

On January 16, 1832 he landed near Praia on the Cape Verde island of Santiago for the first time. Henslow had advised Darwin to study the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology , and FitzRoy had given it to him before he left. During the three-week stay, he discovered a horizontal band of mussel shells 15 meters high in the cliffs of the coast and found for the first time confirmation of Lyell's theory of the slow, gradual , geological formation of the earth.

On February 28, 1832, almost exactly two months after departure, HMS Beagle reached the east coast of South America and anchored off Salvador da Bahia in All Saints' Bay . Darwin enjoyed the Tropical Rainforest , but also observed the effects of slavery , which he disliked due to his upbringing and about which he fell out with FitzRoy. Two months later he received the first mail from home in Rio de Janeiro . While HMS Beagle continued to survey the coast, Darwin stayed in Rio with some crew members and undertook geological surveys along the coast. In the second half of August he sent the first samples, mainly geological ones, from Montevideo to Henslow in Cambridge. By the end of June 1835, seven more shipments followed with plant, animal, fossil and geological finds and collectibles.

On September 22, 1832, Darwin discovered his first fossils near Bahía Blanca in Punta Alta . Better equipped, the next day he was able to uncover the skull of a Megatherium and a well-preserved skeleton of a Scelidotherium , both giant sloths. From the discovery site, a layer of shells, he concluded that the two extinct animals must have developed at the same time as the shells surrounding them.

At the turn of the year, HMS Beagle was in the Tierra del Fuego area where a mission station was being established for the Reverend Richard Matthews and the three English-bred Tierra del Fuegos that FitzRoy had brought to England on his first voyage . When the HMS Beagle visited the mission station again a good year later, it was deserted. After a month's stay in the Falkland Islands , HMS Beagle continued her survey work off the east coast of South America. Darwin, meanwhile, made excursions into the interior of Uruguay and Argentina from April to November 1833 . In early December, HMS Beagle left Montevideo, surveyed parts of the Strait of Magellan , among other things , and reached the Pacific Ocean on June 11, 1834 .

Remains of the Cathedral of Concepción after the severe earthquake of February 20, 1835

Via Chiloé , Valdivia and Concepción , HMS Beagle sailed to Valparaíso , where she arrived on 23 July 1834 and stayed for several weeks. Darwin undertook his first expedition through the Andes from August 14 to September 27, 1834 , which took him the first time to Santiago . While the HMS Beagle charted the Chonos archipelago , Darwin explored the geology of the island of Chiloé. On February 20, 1835, he witnessed the severe, three-minute earthquake near Valdivia. Six weeks later, he and FitzRoy saw the effects of this quake while riding to the badly damaged city of Concepción. When Darwin surveyed the island of Quiriquina off Talcahuano in early March 1835 , he found marine deposits that had been uplifted several feet as a result of the earthquake, which he saw as further confirmation of Lyell's theory and of the age of the earth. During a second Andean expedition in March and April, he discovered that the mountains far from the coast consisted mainly of submarine lava. He found fossil and petrified trees and began to develop his own geological theories. Until the summer he undertook two more expeditions, during which he carried out investigations in the Andes.

From Darwin's Collection: Grassroots of Galápagos
From Darwin's Collection:
Dust from HMS Beagle
From Darwin's Collection:
Specimens from Cape Horn

After the surveying work off Chile and Peru , which lasted until September 7, 1835 , the HMS Beagle left the South American west coast for good and headed towards the Galapagos Islands . On September 18, Darwin set foot on one of the many islands on San Cristóbal for the first time. The survey work lasted a good month. Darwin was able to carry out investigations and collect animal and plant samples on the islands of Floreana , San Salvador and Isabela . Nicholas Lawson, the director of the prison camp on Floreana Island, pointed out that turtles living in the Galápagos Islands could be assigned to specific islands based on their shells. Darwin didn't pay much attention to that remark at the time, nor to the Galapagos finches.

On October 20, 1835, HMS Beagle embarked on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. A good three weeks later, the atoll Puka-Puka was sighted in the Tuamotu archipelago and reached Tahiti on the evening of November 15 , where the ship anchored for ten days. In Papeete , Darwin and FitzRoy met the Tahitian Queen Pomaré IV . During the onward journey to New Zealand , Darwin completed his theory of the formation of coral reefs , which he had already begun on the west coast of South America. Darwin used the ten-day stay in the north of New Zealand's North Island again for excursions into the interior of the country. He visited the missionaries of the Te Waimate Mission and examined peculiar limestone formations at Kaikohe .

When HMS Beagle reached Sydney Cove in Port Jackson off Sydney , Australia on January 12, 1836 , Darwin was relieved to finally be back in a large, cultured city. On one of his trips he met some Aboriginal people who - for a shilling - demonstrated their javelin throwing skills to him. In Hobart , Darwin enjoyed the hospitality of Surveyor General George Frankland (1800–1838) , increasingly drawn home . He was celebrating his 27th birthday, catching skinks and snakes, collecting flatworms and numerous insects, including dung beetles , which he found in cow dung . The last stop of the two-month stay in Australia was Albany .

The further journey took him to the Cocos Islands and Mauritius and past the southern tip of Madagascar to South Africa . On May 31, 1836, HMS Beagle dropped anchor at Simon's Town in Simon's Bay . Darwin hurried overland to Cape Town , where he met with John Herschel . On June 29, HMS Beagle crossed the Tropic of Cancer . On St. Helena he surveyed the island's geology and on Ascension he climbed the 859-meter (2,800 ft) volcano Green Mountain . Home England was getting closer, but on June 23 Captain FitzRoy decided to return to Salvador da Bahia on the South American coast to rule out incorrect measurements. On August 17, 1836, the HMS Beagle finally went home. Praia was headed for again and a stopover was made at the Azores island of Terceira . The ship entered the English port of Falmouth at around 9 a.m. on October 2nd . Darwin immediately made his way to his family in Shrewsbury .

During the return journey, Darwin had organized his notes and, with the help of his assistant Syms Covington , compiled a total of twelve catalogs of his collections. His zoological notes ran to 368 pages, while those on geology were about four times as long at 1,383 pages. In addition, he had written 770 pages of his travel diary. 1529 species conserved in alcohol as well as 3907 skins, skins, bones, plants etc. were the result of his almost five-year journey. Looking back, Darwin later summed it up in his autobiography: "The voyage on the Beagle was by far the most important event in my life and determined my entire career."

Back in England - Beginnings of the theory of evolution

In 1837 Darwin first sketched his idea of ​​the genealogical tree of life under the note "I think" in his Notebook B.

Darwin's name was already known in scientific circles before his return in October 1836, since Henslow, unbeknownst to Darwin, had published some of his letters as Letters on Geology . Darwin briefly stayed in Cambridge, where he worked on his collection and on the manuscript of the journal . In March 1837 he settled in London. Here he soon made friends with Charles Lyell and Richard Owen . However, the friendship with Owen cooled in later years.

Darwin's first thoughts about species change occurred after his return, even though Darwin himself later brought this point in time forward to the time in South America. His belief in the constancy of species was particularly shaken by the work of John Gould in March 1837 on the birds of the Galápagos Islands. Darwin paid little attention to the birds on the voyage, nor did he assign the specimens he collected to the individual islands. Gould not only showed that all species are closely related (today referred to as Darwin's finches ), but that no clear distinction between species and varieties is possible in these birds, i.e. there are no clear species boundaries.

Darwin's reflections on the origin of species were accompanied by a wide range of reading in the fields of medicine, psychology, natural sciences, philosophy, theology and political economy. Darwin's goal was to base the origin of species on scientific principles. In particular, he now rejected Paley's natural theology, in the tradition of which he had been trained at Cambridge. Many of Darwin's later experiments and arguments served to refute Paley's argument from design and attribute adjustments to natural causes, not divine agency. Darwin often used the same examples as Paley and similar arguments. Philosophically, Darwin was primarily influenced by Anglo-Scottish empiricism in the tradition of David Hume , but also by Adam Smith , for example his theory of moral feelings. In terms of philosophy of science, John Herschel and William Whewell had great influence on him with their emphasis on the importance of induction and deduction for science.

Charles Darwin in an 1840 watercolor by George Richmond (1809–1896).
Emma Darwin in 1840, shortly after her marriage to Charles, watercolor by George Richmond

By the summer of 1837 at the latest, Darwin was convinced of the variability of species and began collecting information on the subject. In the following 15 months, the theory that he was not to publish until 1858/1859 slowly and gradually emerged. In March 1837, Darwin began writing down his reflections in notebooks, the Notebooks on Transmutation . On page 36 of the first notebook, "B", under the heading I think , he sketched a first sketch of the origin of species through splitting. An important basis for his considerations was gradualism , as he knew it from Lyell's Principles of Geology . Darwin was familiar with the variability of species and the selection mechanism (artificial selection) from animal and plant breeding.

The law of growth, as formulated by Thomas Robert Malthus in his essay on the Principle of Population and which Darwin read in September 1838, proved to be the crystallization point for the formulation of his selection theory. Malthus' theory is based on the observation that population grows exponentially (uncontrolled or externally restricted) while food production grows only linearly. Thus, the exponential growth can only be maintained for a limited time and at some point there will be a struggle for the limited resources. Darwin realized that this law could be applied to other species as well, and that such competition would result in beneficial variations being retained and unfavorable variations being eliminated from the population. This mechanism of selection explained the change and also the emergence of new species. This gave Darwin a "theory I could work with".

The time in London was the busiest in Darwin's life. In addition to his extensive studies in evolution, he published the multi-volume The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle (1838-1843). His travel book, first published as the third volume of The narrative of the voyages of HM Ships Adventure and Beagle (1839), was so successful that it was published separately in the same year under the title Journal of Researches . It is still his most-read book alongside Origins . Darwin wrote the geological works on the structure of coral reefs (1842) and volcanoes (1844) based on his observations during the voyage, which contributed significantly to his reputation as a scientist. Darwin's deep roots in society are shown by his admission to the Royal Society and the Athenaeum Club , and his appointment to the Council of the Geological Society of London and the Council of the Royal Geographical Society .

On January 29, 1839, Darwin and his cousin Emma Wedgwood (1808–1896), daughter of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, married. The combined fortune, which came from both his own father and the father of the bride, enabled Darwin to live a private life . He invested the fortune in real estate and later mainly in railway stocks. During the London period the children William Erasmus (1839-1914), Anne (1841-1851) and Mary Eleanor (1842-1842) were born. However, Mary Eleanor died after just a few weeks. William Darwin studied the expressions of the infant, which he would later publish.

Retreat to Down House

In November 1842 the Darwin family retired to Down House in the small town of Downe , south of London . Here Darwin hoped for more rest for his ailing health. Already since his return from the Beagle voyage, intensified since 1839, symptoms of illness had set in again and again, the causes of which are still speculated to this day. The symptoms were fainting spells, stomach pains, nausea and vomiting, increased heart rate and breathing problems. Darwin therefore lived a very secluded life, rarely traveled and never left the British Isles again throughout his life. In September 1843 their daughter Henrietta was born, and they were followed by six more children: George Howard (1845-1912), Elizabeth (1847-1926), Francis (1848-1925), Leonard (1850-1943), Horace (1851-1928 ). ) and Charles Waring (1856–1858).

Down House, home of the Darwin family from November 1842, is now a museum

In 1843 his friendship began with the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , who would become his strongest ally alongside Lyell and Thomas Henry Huxley . In a letter dated January 11, 1844, Darwin gave him the first clues to his theory of evolution, writing that he was "almost convinced, contrary to his original belief, that species (it's like admitting a murder) are not immutable." . Hooker replied that in his opinion "a gradual change in species" was taking place and he, Hooker, was curious about Darwin's approach as he had not yet heard a satisfactory explanation. Darwin had already set out his thoughts in a 35-page sketch in 1842 and worked this out in 1844 into a 230-page essay, which only his wife Emma got to read and which she was to publish in the event of his death. Both texts agreed in content and basic structure with the book published in 1859. Until now, the theory of transmutation has remained mainly limited to socialist, revolutionary and partly medical circles, but from 1844 it found its way into bourgeois circles: with the work Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation published anonymously by Robert Chambers , which – brilliantly but journalistically written – quickly became a bestseller, but was not taken seriously in scientific circles.

The next works Darwin published were Geological observations on the volcanic islands visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle in 1844 and Geological observations on South America in 1846. These were the collections of his world voyage worked up after ten years, except for a curious specimen of the barnacles . From the description of this species developed an eight-year process of processing all known living and fossil species of the entire subclass Cirripedia. This work, published in two thick volumes on the living and two narrow volumes on the fossil representatives, made him a recognized taxonomist, and he received the Royal Medal for it in 1854 . He received collections from all over Europe, the USA and all British colonies. Darwin himself, while working, recognized the importance of variation and the individual. During this period, Hooker became the sole authority on evolution, and in 1847 Darwin gave him his essay to read.

In 1849 Darwin went to Malvern for a 16-week water cure under the treatment of doctor James Gully , which improved his health considerably. In the years that followed, Darwin required frequent cures to recover, and he continued the cold ablutions at home. In 1851 his favorite daughter Annie became seriously ill and died on April 23, 1851. Her death shattered the last remnants of his belief in a moral, just world, which had already waned since his return from the Beagle Voyage. Darwin later described himself as an agnostic .

Detail from an 1854 photograph showing Charles Darwin at the age of 45

After completing work on the barnacles, Darwin resumed work on the theory of evolution in 1854. During these years he conducted countless experiments. Among other things, he tried to find a solution to the problem of colonizing islands. For example, he investigated the survivability of plant seeds in salt water and considered bird droppings and the wool of birds of prey as dispersal media. For the subject of variation, he turned to animal breeders, gathered information from them and began breeding pigeons himself in order to study artificial selection in practice.

Charles Lyell, to whom Darwin shared many of his views, urged Darwin in 1856 to publish his findings lest someone else preempt him. The reason for this urge was an essay by Alfred Russel Wallace , On the Law which has regulated the introduction of New Species (1855), the scope of which Darwin misjudged because of Wallace's cryptic language. Darwin now began to write down his findings in a manuscript entitled Natural Selection . The work dragged on because of the extensive material, in March 1858 ten chapters, around two thirds of the planned scope, were ready. In the meantime, he had found another correspondent in Asa Gray at Harvard, and in a letter dated September 5, 1857, he summarized his theory. In July 1857 Darwin was elected Justice of the Peace and in the same year made a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

In 1859 Darwin had estimated that it must have taken a little over 300 million years for a 500 foot limestone cliff in southern England to be eroded by the sea. The rock itself must therefore be much older. This was controversially referred to as "vague observations" by Lord Kelvin , since Kelvin, using thermodynamic calculations from cooling periods of the earth - even before the discovery of radioactivity - concluded an earth age of 20 to 400 million years.

About the origin of species

The title page of the first edition of
On the Origin of Species (1859)
This well-known Darwin cartoon appeared in The Hornet magazine on March 22, 1871 and was entitled "A venerable Orang-Outang. A contribution to unnatural history”.

The justification of Lyell's urging for publication was shown when, in June 1858, Darwin received mail from Wallace of the Moluccan island of Ternate with a manuscript entitled On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type , which contained essentially the same explanatory patterns as Darwin's own work included. It used the term struggle for existence and drew on the work of Lyell, Malthus, Lamarck and Robert Chambers ' Vestiges . Wallace asked Darwin to forward the manuscript to Lyell, but without mentioning a possible publication. Fearing for his priority of publication, Darwin forwarded the manuscript. Since his youngest son, Charles Waring, contracted scarlet fever on June 23 and died a few days later, Darwin left the matter to his friends Lyell and Hooker. They found the solution in a gentlemanly agreement , which included a joint presentation of the work of Wallace and Darwin, which took place on July 1, 1858 at a meeting of the Linnean Society . Neither the reading nor the subsequent printing of the lecture led to any significant reactions.

Rather than finish his book Natural Selection , which would have taken too long, Darwin decided to publish a summary of the book. The planned essay ultimately turned into a book of around 155,000 words. Hooker read and corrected the manuscript. The publisher John Murray , through Lyell's mediation, accepted the manuscript unseen and even paid the £72 cost of Darwin's changes in proofs alone. The first edition was increased from the originally planned 500 to 1250. On November 22, 1859, the fully pre-ordered edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life went on sale and was released on November 24 Sale. In the book, Darwin presented essentially five independent theories:

  1. evolution as such, the mutability of species ;
  2. the common descent of all living beings;
  3. gradualism , change through tiny steps;
  4. Propagation of species or speciation in populations
  5. and natural selection as the main, though not the only, mechanism of evolution.

The fact of evolution became almost universally accepted in scientific circles over the next few years, but natural selection, to which even Darwin's friends Lyell and Asa Gray could not sympathize, was much less accepted. John Herschel sharply criticized them as "law of the higgledy-piggledy" ("rule of cabbage and turnips"). Karl Ernst von Baer even compared them to a science fairy tale. Darwin's paternal friend Henslow opposed evolution but remained on friendly terms with Darwin. Sedgwick and Richard Owen, however, published negative reviews. Darwin's friends supported the book with several reviews, according to Huxley in the Times .

In June 1860, during a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University, a bitter argument broke out in Darwin's absence between the supporter of evolutionary ideas Thomas Huxley and one of its outspoken opponents, the Bishop of Oxford Samuel Wilberforce . During its course, Wilberforce and Darwin's former captain Robert FitzRoy argued against, Huxley and Joseph Dalton Hooker argued in favor of the theory. Both sides claimed victory in the debate.

The other books after On the Origin of Species

Albumen paper print from a photograph taken in 1868 by Julia Margaret Cameron

In the next few years Darwin published three more important books in which he elaborated aspects of the theory of evolution in much more detail than in On the Origin of Species .

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication , published at the end of January 1868, he presented all the material he had collected over the past few decades that explores variation, changeability , of animals and plants under the influence of man. In this book he also presented his speculations on a mechanism of inheritance, namely the pangenesis theory . She met with disapproval even from his friends and turned out to be false.

Up to this point, Darwin had always avoided discussing the origins of man. It was not until 1871, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , that Darwin laid out what was by then widely debated and what Huxley ( Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature , 1863) and Ernst Haeckel had publicly advocated: the kinship of man with the ape, with whom he shares common ancestors. Darwin's first assumption that humans evolved in Africa proved correct much later. Darwin also traced human mental traits back to evolutionary processes. Furthermore, he emphasized the unity of man as a single species and spoke out against conceiving of the races (or subspecies ) of man as different species (in the 7th chapter: "On the races of man"). He explained the origin of these human races by sexual selection . In the second part of the book he focused on sexual selection, the choice of mates by the opposite sex. With this theory, Darwin was able to explain phenomena such as deer antlers, which should not exist due to natural selection. The book was also a response to the liberal Duke of Argyll 's The Reign of Law , in which he, influenced by Owen, attacked Darwin's natural selection and traced the origin of natural law to God.

1872 followed On the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals) , in which Darwin explained that the feelings and their mode of expression in man and animals are the same and, like external characteristics, have arisen through evolution . The book was also an argument against Charles Bell and his book Anatomy and Physiology of Expression , in which he argued that the human facial muscles were created for the purpose of expressing his feelings. In the same year, the sixth and final edition of Origin of Species was published . In each edition, Darwin made numerous changes, corrected errors, and responded to criticism.

In 1874 Darwin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

The Last Decade: Botany

In the last decade of his life, Darwin's publications focused on botanical subjects. Darwin carried out numerous experiments for this purpose, in which he was particularly supported by his son Francis.

The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants of 1867 (expanded 2nd edition 1875) and the very voluminous 592-page book The Power of Movement in Plants of 1880 are fundamental works of plant physiology . While observing the irritability of oat coleoptiles , he postulated a messenger ( hormone ) that decades later would be identified as auxin . He studied the response of root tips to stimuli, analogizing the root tip of plants to the brains of inferior animals, an idea that was re-established in the 21st century as plant intelligence in the context of controversial plant neurobiology . Darwin discovered circumnutation , the endogenously controlled circular motion of many plants. In his 1875 book Insectivorous Plants , he demonstrated that some plants are actually carnivorous .

This contemporary depiction of Darwin's burial in Westminster Abbey was published in The Graphic magazine on May 6, 1882 .
Tombs of Sir John Herschel and Charles Darwin in Westminster Abbey
Presentation of the Darwin statue by Joseph Boehm to the Prince of Wales on 9 June 1885 by Thomas Henry Huxley

He dealt with flower biology in three works : In On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilized by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing Cross-pollination ) (1862) he showed that the flower structure of orchids serves to achieve the highest possible rate of cross- pollination . He described the deceptive flowers , such as the fly orchid , which mimics female digger wasps and thereby attracts the males. For the Malagasy orchid Angraecum sesquipedale with a 25 cm long nectar spur, he predicted a pollinating butterfly with an equally long proboscis, which would only be discovered years later. His publication The effects of cross and self fertilization in the vegetable kingdom ( 1876) was the result of extensive pollination experiments since 1866, some of which he carried out over ten generations of plants. Cross- pollination resulted in stronger offspring than self- pollination in most cases . In The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (1877) he showed that the different flower forms of some plants also serve to ensure cross-pollination, such as in heterostyly . The book was one of the few Darwin dedicated to one person: Asa Gray .

Darwin's last book dealt with a subject that had occupied him for over 40 years: the activities of earthworms . The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms , with observations on their habits was published in 1881, a few months before Darwin's death. He postulated a central role for earthworms in soil and humus formation. In a 30-year field experiment, he showed that the earthworms worked small pieces of lime from the surface up to a depth of 18 cm into the soil. He also refuted the then widespread opinion that earthworms were harmful to crop production. With this work Darwin was one of the pioneers of soil biology.

On Darwin's initiative, the Index Kewensis was created, the further financing of which he regulated in his will.

Charles Darwin died at his home in Downe on April 19, 1882 at the age of 73. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on April 26, at the foot of the monument to Sir Isaac Newton and next to Sir John Herschel . One of his pallbearers was Alfred Russel Wallace . The erection of a statue in the new Natural History Museum would have to wait until 1885, until the retirement of Richard Owens .

reception and aftermath

"Natural Selection": Caricature by Carlo Pellegrini in Vanity Fair magazine , September 30, 1871

Charles Darwin is considered to be one of the most important natural scientists due to his significant contributions to the theory of evolution and is still strongly present in the public consciousness due to this achievement. For example, in 1992 Darwin was ranked 16th in a list of the most influential people in history, and in the UK he was ranked fourth in the 100 Greatest Britons .

Today, the evolutionary theory for biology, which was founded by Darwin and has been continuously developed since then, represents the basic paradigm : It brings together all biological sub-disciplines, such as zoology, botany, behavioral research, embryology and genetics, "under one roof". Theodosius Dobzhansky formulated this succinctly in 1973 in the much-quoted sentence: "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Darwin's works, above all The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man , triggered a flood of reviews and reactions shortly after their publication. Darwin's theories not only touched on biological issues, they also had "far-reaching implications for theology, philosophy, and other humanities, as well as for the political and social realm." Darwin's theories were discussed not only in scientific circles but also by the clergy and the general public. Topics were, for example, the teleology problem , the role of a creator, the body-soul problem or the position of man in nature. The fact that man is not an independent creation, but a product of evolution like millions of other species, contradicts Christian teaching and many philosophical schools. Sigmund Freud called the theory of evolution one of the three affronts to mankind's self-love .

Important parts of his theory had caught on quickly: the fact of evolution itself and common descent. However, the mechanism of selection remained controversial for a long time and only one of several mechanisms discussed. At the first major anniversary of Darwin's centenary in 1909, there was almost no support for the theory of selection. This period was later dubbed the "eclipse of Darwinism" by Julian Huxley . Only the synthetic theory of evolution , also known as the second Darwinian revolution , helped the theory of selection to achieve a breakthrough. In the 20th century, under the influence of Darwin, new disciplines such as behavioral science and sociobiology emerged , the application of which to humans is discussed in philosophy as “ evolutionary ethics ”. Evolutionary epistemology ultimately goes back to Darwin, and important elements of evolutionary economics were influenced by his work.

Darwin's theories were improperly reinterpreted and transferred to the political sphere in the ideology of social Darwinism . This transmission, which is based, among other things, on a naturalistic fallacy , cannot necessarily be derived from Darwin's work, nor does it remotely correspond to Darwin's view of the world and man.

"No other scientist of the 19th century has influenced our modern worldview - both in biology and beyond - more than this English researcher."

honors

After Darwin were u. a. the Darwin finches , the Eocene primate genus Darwinius , and the nasal frog Rhinoderma darwinii . Also the following geographic locations: Charles Darwin National Park (Australia), Charles Darwin University (Australia), Darwin College in Cambridge (England), Darwin (Falkland Islands) , Darwin (Australia) , Darwin Glacier and Mount Darwin (California), Isla Darwin , Darwin Island (Antarctica), Darwin Sound (Canada), Darwin Sound ( Tierra del Fuego ), Monte Darwin (Tierra del Fuego), Mount Darwin (Tasmania) , Cordillera Darwin (Chile) and Cape Darwin (Eastern Antarctica).

The asteroid (1991) Darwin , the lunar crater Darwin , and a crater on Mars are also named for him.

Rostock Zoo opened the Darwineum in 2012 , a mixture of zoo and museum, in which evolution is explained.

factories

English first editions

  • The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle . Smith, Elder & Co. , London 1838–1843 (as editors); digitized version
  • Journal and remarks. 1832–1836 . Vol 3 by P Parker King, Robert FitzRoy, Charles Darwin: The narrative of the voyages of HM Ships Adventure and Beagle . Henry Colburn, London 1838-1839; digitized version ; as a separate publication: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle Henry Colburn, London 1839.
  • Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle . 3 volumes, Smith, Elder & Co, London 1842-1846:
    • The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Being the first part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy, RN during the years 1832 to 1836 . Smith, Elder & Co., London 1842; digitized version
    • Geological observations on the volcanic islands visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle, together with some brief notices of the geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Being the second part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy, RN during the years 1832 to 1836 . Smith, Elder & Co., London 1844; digitized version
    • Geological observations on South America. Being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy, RN during the years 1832 to 1836 . Smith, Elder & Co., London 1846; digitized version
  • Living Cirripedia . 2 vols., The Ray Society, London 1852-1854
    • Living Cirripedia, A monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidae; or, pedunculated cirripedes . London: The Ray Society 1852; digitized version
    • Living Cirripedia, The Balanidae, (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidae . The Ray Society, London 1854; digitized version
  • Fossil Cirripedia of Great Britain . 2 volumes, Palaeontographical Society, London 1851-1855
    • Fossil Cirripedia of Great Britain: A monograph on the fossil Lepadidae, or pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain . London: Palaeontographical Society 1851; digitized version
    • A monograph on the fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae of Great Britain . Palaeontographical Society, London 1855; digitized version
  • On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life . John Murray, London 1859; digitized version
  • On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilized by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing . John Murray, London 1862; digitized version
  • On the movements and habits of climbing plants. In: Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany). Vol. 9, pp. 1-118; digitized version
  • The variation of animals and plants under domestication . John Murray, London 1868; digitized versions
  • The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex . John Murray, London 1871; digitized versions
  • The expression of the emotions in man and animals . John Murray, London 1872; digitized version
  • Insectivorous Plants . John Murray, London 1875; digitized version
  • The effects of cross and self fertilization in the vegetable kingdom . John Murray, London 1876; digitized version
  • The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species . John Murray, London 1877; digitized version
  • The power of movement in plants . John Murray, London 1880; digitized version
  • The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits . John Murray, London 1881 digitized version

German first editions

  • Charles Darwin's Scientific Voyages to the Green Foothills Islands, South America, Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Islands, Chiloé Islands, Galápagos Islands, Otaheiti, New Holland, New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, Keeling Islands, Mauritius, St. Helena, Den Azores ec . German and with annotations by Ernst Dieffenbach . Fr. Vieweg and son, Braunschweig 1844, digitized .
  • On the origin of species in the animal and plant kingdoms through natural breeding, or the preservation of perfected races in the struggle for existence . Translated from the English for this German edition and annotated by Dr. H.G. Bronn . E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer, Stuttgart 1860; digitized version
  • On the facilities for the fertilization of British and foreign orchids by insects, and on the favorable results of cross-pollination . With additions and corrections by the author, translated from English by HG Bronn. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer, Stuttgart 1862.
  • About the movements of creepers. Extracts from a treatise contained in the Journal of the Linnean Society, IX, pp. 1-118. Presentation by AW Eichler.” In: Flora or general botanical newspaper. New Series, Vol. 24, pp. 241–252, pp. 273–282, pp. 321–325, pp. 337–345, pp. 375–378, pp. 385–398.
  • The variation of animals and plants under domestication . 2 volumes. Translated from English by J. Victor Carus . With the author's corrections and additions to the 2nd English edition and with an index. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1868
  • Man's Descent and Sexual Selection . 2 volumes. Translated from the English by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1871; Digital copy of the 3rd edition of 1875 = translation of Darwin's revision of 1874
  • The expression of the emotions in man and animals . Translated from the English by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1872
  • Ch. Darwin's Collected Works . Translated from the English by J. Victor Carus. Authorized German edition. 16 volumes. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1874-1888
  • A Naturalist's Voyage Around the World . Translated from the English by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1875.
  • insectivorous plants . Translated by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1876; Digitized and full text in the German Text Archive , digitized version
  • The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species . Translated by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1877; digitized version
  • The effects of cross- and self-fertilization in the plant kingdom . Translated by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1877; digitized version
  • The motility of plants . Translated by J. Victor Carus. E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1881; digitized version
  • The formation of soil by the action of worms . Translated from the English by J. Victor Carus . E. Schweizerbart'sche publishing house and printer (E. Koch), Stuttgart 1882; digitized version (PDF; 2 MB)
  • About the instinct. In: G. John Romanes: The spiritual development in the animal kingdom. In addition to a posthumous work: 'On Instinct' by Charles Darwin. Ernst Günthers Verlag, Leipzig 1885 ( full text at archive.org ).

Modern editions (selection)

  • The origin of species through natural selection or The preservation of favored races in the struggle for existence. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, translated by Eike Schönfeld, ISBN 978-3-608-96115-7 .
  • PH Barrett, RB Freeman (eds.): The Works of Charles Darwin. 29 volumes, The Pickering Masters, London 1986-1989.
  • PH Barrett: The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin. 2 volumes, Chicago, London 1977.
  • PH Barrett, PJ Gautrey, S Herbert, D Kohn, S Smith (eds): Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836–1844. New York 1987, ISBN 0-521-35055-7 .
  • F. Burkhardt, S. Smith et al. (Ed.): The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Vol. 1 ff., Cambridge 1985 ff.
  • Collected Works. Based on the translation from English by: J. Victor Carus , Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-86150-773-0 .
  • P. Wrede, S. Wrede (eds.): Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species. Annotated and Illustrated Edition, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-527-33256-4 .

proof

literature

itemizations

  1. ↑ Autobiography p. 27 f.
  2. ↑ Autobiography p. 23.
  3. ↑ Charles Darwin to Caroline Sarah Darwin, January 6, 1826, letter 20 ( memento of July 29, 2008 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 11, 2008).
  4. ^ a b c d Eve-Marie Engels. Charles Darwin , Person, Life and Works Section . Verlag C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54763-8 , pp. 16-41.
  5. ↑ Desmond/Moore, p. 42 f.
  6. ↑ Autobiography p. 46.
  7. ↑ Autobiography p. 58.
  8. ↑ Autobiography pp. 68f. Darwin Online, accessed 23 July 2009 : "Upon the whole three years which I spent at Cambridge were the most joyful in my happy life; for I was then in excellent health, and almost always in high spirits."
  9. ↑ Charles Darwin to Charles Thomas Whitley, August 10, 1828, letter 45a ( memento of September 24, 2008 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008).
  10. ↑ Charles Darwin to William Darwin Fox, March 25, 1830, letter 78 ( memento of September 4, 2007 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008).
  11. ↑ Janet Browne: On Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species . dtv, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-34433-4 , pp. 20–22.
  12. ↑ E. Janet Browne: Charles Darwin: Voyaging . Vol. 1, Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 1-84413-314-1 , p. 97.
  13. ↑ Francis Darwin : The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin . 3 vols., John Murray, London 1887, vol. 1, p. 163 ( online ).
  14. ↑ Autobiography p. 68.
  15. ↑ Darwin's insects in Stephens' Illustrations of British entomology (1829–1832)
  16. ↑ Autobiography pp. 60 and 64
  17. ↑ Autobiography p. 67 f.
  18. ↑ Preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy. In: Cabinet cyclopedia. 1831
  19. ↑ Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804 . London 1818-1819.
  20. ↑ Charles Darwin to William Darwin Fox, April 7, 1831, Letter 96 ( Memento of January 16, 2009 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  21. ↑ Charles Darwin to William Darwin Fox, May 11, 1831, Letter 100 ( Memento of January 16, 2009 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  22. ↑ Charles Darwin to Charles Thomas Whitley, July 19, 1831, Letter 102a ( Memento of September 4, 2007 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  23. ↑ Charles Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, July 11, 1831, Letter 102 ( Memento of January 16, 2009 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  24. ↑ Charles Darwin to William Darwin Fox, August 1, 1831, Letter 103 ( Memento of January 16, 2009 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  25. ↑ Charles Darwin to William Darwin Fox, July 9, 1831, Letter 101 ( Memento of January 16, 2009 at the Internet Archive ) in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 12, 2008)
  26. ↑ Paul H. Barrett, The Sedgwick-Darwin geologic tour of North Wales. In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 118, No. 2, April 19, 1974, pp. 146-164 online
  27. ↑ John Stevens Henslow to Charles Darwin, August 24, 1831, Letter 105 in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed June 14, 2008).
  28. ↑ Richard Darwin Keynes: From Bryozoans to Tsunami: Charles Darwin's Findings on the Beagle. In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 147, No. 2, 2003, p. 112 f.
  29. ↑ Desmond/Moore p. 214.
  30. ↑ Desmond/Moore p. 218.
  31. ↑ Autobiography p. 76.
  32. ^ a b c Ernst Mayr : The Growth of Biological Thought. Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance . 12th Printing, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2003, Chapter Charles Darwin. ISBN 0-674-36446-5 , pp. 394–425.
  33. ↑ Stephen Jay Gould: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory . Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-674-00613-5 , pp. 116-121.
  34. ↑ Desmond & Moore pp. 220-229.
  35. ↑ Autobiography p. 120. Darwin Online, accessed 23 July 2009 : "[…] it at once struck me that under these circumstances favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work; [...]"
  36. ↑ Janet Brown: On Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species . dtv, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-34433-4 , pp. 39–61.
  37. ^ a b Eve-Marie Engels: Charles Darwin. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, p. 207.
  38. ↑ Charles Darwin to Joseph Dalton Hooker, January 11, 1844, letter 729. The Darwin Correspondence Project, retrieved July 23, 2009 : "At last gleams of light have come, & I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with ) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.”
  39. ↑ Joseph Dalton Hooker to Charles Darwin, January 29, 1844, Letter 734. The Darwin Correspondence Project, accessed July 23, 2009 : "There may in my opinion have been a series of productions on different spots, & also a gradual change of species. I shall be delighted to hear how you think that this change may have taken place, as no presently conceived opinions satisfy me on the subject."
  40. ↑ Eve Marie Engels. Charles Darwin , section Genesis of the theory of descent . Verlag C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54763-8 , pp. 43-126.
  41. ↑ Charles Darwin to Emma Darwin, April 23, 1851, letter 1412. (No longer available online.) The Darwin Correspondence Project, formerly in the original ; retrieved July 29, 2009 : "My dear dearest Emma - I pray God Fanny's note may have prepared you." She went to her final sleep most tranquilly, most sweetly at 12 o'clock today.” Charles Darwin to Erasmus Alvey Darwin, 25 April 1851, letter 1416. (No longer available online.) The Darwin Correspondence Project, formerly in the original ; retrieved July 29, 2009 : "Will you be so kind as to get inserted as follows in Times & in any other one or two Papers of largest circulation. “At Malvern on the 23d inst; of Fever, Anne Elizabeth Darwin, aged ten years, eldest daughter of Charles Darwin Esq. of Down Kent.”—.” Note: In his autobiography on p. 97 Charles Darwin writes We have suffered only one very severe grief in the death of Annie at Malvern on April 24th, 1851, when she was just over ten years old. however, this information appears to be incorrect.
  42. ↑ Desmond/Moore, p. 439.
  43. ↑ Autobiography p. 94. Darwin Online, accessed 27 July 2009 : “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."
  44. ↑ Heuel-Fabianek, B. (2017): Natural radioisotopes: the "atomic clock" for determining the absolute age of rocks and archaeological finds. Radiation Protection Practice, 1/2017, pp. 31-42.
  45. ↑ Ernst Mayr: The Growth of Biological Thought. Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance . 12th Printing, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-674-36446-5 , pp. 505-510, Chapter Charles Darwin.
  46. ↑ Ernst Mayr: That is evolution . C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-570-12013-9 , p. 114.
  47. ↑ JR Lucas: Wilberforce and Huxley: A Legendary Encounter. In: The Historical Journal. Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 313-330; Retrieved online December 15, 2006.
  48. ↑ Desmond/Moore pp. 557-564.
  49. ↑ Desmond/Moore, pp. 615-617.
  50. ↑ The section The Last Decade: Botany is based on the biography by Desmond and Moore (1991): Ulrich Kutschera : Fact Evolution . dtv, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-423-24707-8 , Chapter 4: Unknown theories of the biologist Charles Darwin: From the barnacles to tendril movements to reef formation. pp. 103-130.
  51. ↑ Benjamin Dayton Jackson: The new 'Index of Plant-Names'. (Concluded from p. 71). In: The Botanical Journal - British and Foreign. Vol. XXV. West, Newman & Co., London 1887, pp. 150-151
  52. ↑ Hart, Michael (2000), The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Citadel, pp. 82 ff.
  53. ↑ The 100 Greatest Britons. Retrieved August 27, 2012 .
  54. ↑ Theodosius Dobzhansky: Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. In: American Biology Teacher. Vol. 35, 1973, pp. 125-129. (online) , retrieved June 6, 2008.
  55. ↑ Eve-Marie Engels: Charles Darwin. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, p. 208.
  56. ↑ Ernst Mayr: The Growth of Biological Thought. Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance . 12th Printing, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-674-36446-5 , p. 438.
  57. ↑ Sigmund Freud: A Difficulty in Psychoanalysis. Collected Works XII, pp. 6–8; ders.: Lectures on the introduction to psychoanalysis. Collected Works XI, p. 294 f.; Fischer paperback publishing house, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-596-50300-0 .
  58. ↑ Julian Huxley: Evolution. The Modern Synthesis. 1942, pp. 22–28. Quoted from Eve-Marie Engels: Charles Darwin. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, p. 219.
  59. ↑ Carsten Herrmann-Pillath : Outline of evolutionary economics , Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-8252-2340-X , p. 204.
  60. ↑ Eve-Marie Engels: Charles Darwin. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, p. 199 f.; Franz Wuketits : Darwin and Darwinism. C.H. Beck, Munich 2005, pp. 93–96.
  61. ↑ Thomas Junker : Charles Darwin. In: Ilse Jahn, Michael Schmitt: Darwin & Co. A history of biology in portraits. Vol 1 . C. H. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-44642-6 , p. 389.

further reading

  • Peter J. Bowler: Darwin Deleted. Imagining a World Without Darwin. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2013, ISBN 978-0-226-06867-1 .
  • Janet Browne: Charles Darwin. The Power of Place . 2 volumes, Knopf, New York 2002.
  • Eve-Marie Engels (ed.): Charles Darwin and his impact. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-29503-8 .
  • Johannes Hemleben : Charles Darwin: With self-testimonies and pictorial documents. 14th edition. Rowohlt paperback publishing house, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3-499-50137-6 .
  • S. Herbert: Charles Darwin, Geologist . Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2005, ISBN 0-8014-4348-2 .
  • Albert C Seward : Darwin and modern science . Essays in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species . Cambridge 1909.
  • Rebecca Stott : Darwin and the Barnacle . Faber and Faber, London 2003, ISBN 0-571-20966-1 .
  • Charles Darwin - The Voyage of the Beagle. Printing: Clausen & Bosse, leak, marebuchverlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-936384-95-6 .

web links

Commons : Charles Darwin  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Charles Darwin  – Quotes
Wikisource: Charles Darwin  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Darwin, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Darwin, Charles Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naturalist
BIRTH DATE February 12, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH The Mount
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1882
PLACE OF DEATH downe