Darwin, Charles Robert

Darwin kept revising successive editions of The Origin of Species, to account for various scientific criticisms that were raised. In addition, he produced a series of monographs that elaborated different aspects of matters discussed in The Origin of Species. The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) expanded the analogy between “artificial” and natural selection, pointing out that animal and plant breeders could produce significant new variations simply by selectively breeding offspring. “How much more powerful than man,” he insisted, “is Nature herself.” The Descent of Man (1871) tackled the emotive issue of human evolution (which he had avoided in The Origin of Species), and also developed a theory of sexual selection as another mechanism of organic change, complementing natural selection. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) was essentially an essay in comparative psychology, drawing on Darwin’s close observations of the early development of his own children.

Darwin was also a gifted botanist who used his own gardens at Down to great effect. In the last two decades of his life he wrote five botanical books, describing a wide range of observational and experimental work. It included the role of insects on cross-fertilization; the adaptations of climbing plants such as ivy; the intriguing sensitive plants that respond to touch and are sometimes insectivorous (such as the Venus flytrap); and the important function of the humble earthworm in breaking down leaves and turning earth into fertile soil.

By the time he died on April 19, 1882, Darwin was a world-famous scientist. He had been given many with honours and awards, such as fellowship of the Royal Society, and honorary membership in many scientific academies. Despite the controversial nature of many of his ideas, the scientific establishment recognized his worth and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Although Darwin was not the first evolutionist, modern evolutionary biology begins with him. He was the first to marshal enough scientific evidence to convince his fellow scientists that biological species can change over time by natural means. However, the principal mechanism he proposed—natural selection—was not properly appreciated until the 20th century, when the work of biologists such as John Burdon Haldane, Sewell Wright, and Julian Huxley (T. H. Huxley’s grandson) combined Mendelian genetics and population dynamics to produce what was called Neo-Darwinism. This synthesis remains the basis of much contemporary research in evolutionary biology.

During Darwin’s lifetime, his vision of struggle as a brute fact of biological life was more widely accepted. The English social theorist Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” as an alternative to Darwin’s less-loaded “natural selection”, and social Darwinism (more accurately called “social Spencerianism”) became the basis of much social and economic thought. In particular, evolutionary ideas were used to explain many social phenomena and to justify the dominant capitalistic and imperialist ideology of the age. As evolution and development became fundamental features of the modern world-view, few areas of human life and endeavour escaped an evolutionary analysis, although in many cases it has been misunderstood or misappplied.