Page 137 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

486 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but
the one most responsive to change. • Charles Darwin (1809–1882)

the journey, as the third volume of Fitzroy’s Narrative of Darwin was a famous naturalist while Wallace was
the Surveying Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle younger and less well known, but Darwin knew he
(1839). Over the next four years he oversaw the publi- would have to publish or forfeit credit for the originality
cation of various reports, by experts of the day, on the of his ideas.Through the support of his close colleagues
mammal, bird, fish, and reptile specimens he had col- Charles Lyell and the botanist Joseph Hooker (1817–
lected. He also wrote an important book on coral reefs 1911), Darwin and Wallace presented a joint paper to
and several monographs on fossil and living barnacles. the Linnean Society of London, and a year later, in
When his travelogue was reissued in an enlarged edition 1859, Darwin’s most famous book, On the Origin of
as the Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Species, was published.
Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of The book soon generated a storm of controversy. At
H.M.S. Beagle Round the World (1845) he received more the beginning of the nineteenth century, the study of nat-
widespread and popular acclaim. ural science was intricately intertwined with an appreci-
Darwin had long pondered the variety of life. He was ation of the wonders of God’s creation—many of the
influenced by the geologist Charles Lyell (1797–1875), most important naturalists of the day were clergymen. It
who outlined the idea that geological changes to the was assumed that species were fixed, created by a divine
earth had happened over millions of years, rather than hand and therefore immutable.
the thousands of years deduced from the biblical account With Darwin and Wallace came, for the first time, an
of Genesis and the great flood. The economist Thomas explanation of how species might change—an explana-
Malthus (1766–1834) had also written an influential tion that was coherent, plausible, and readily acceptable
book, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), in to the scientific community. It was not, however, accept-
which he argued that the population of the earth could able to the clergy. They took Darwin’s book to suggest
not expand forever and that at some point starvation, dis- that the world had not, after all, been created in a week,
ease, pestilence, war, and other “natural” causes would that mankind had not been created in God’s image but
prevent further increase. had begun as something more primitive. To them, Dar-
During his travels, famously including those through win’s book reduced the story of Creation, and of Adam
the Galápagos Islands, Darwin had regularly come across and Eve, to a myth.
unusual groups of very closely related species, which he Darwin died in 1882, without any formal state honor
likened to variations on a theme. Meanwhile through his or recognition.Today, however, Darwin is recognized as
gentlemanly pursuits he had come across bird, dog, and one of the most important figures in the history of science
horse breeders who had created new breeds that differed and, with Wallace, is credited with producing the theory
from one another as much as wild species might differ that still underlies all of biological science. Every aspect
from each other.These discoveries stimulated Darwin to of the study of living things, from ecology to genetics, is
construct his theory of evolution by natural selection. underpinned by their original concept of evolution by
Darwin had been working on a manuscript for many natural selection.
years when, in June 1858, he received an essay from a fel-
Richard A. Jones
low world traveler and naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace
(1823–1913). Wallace had independently arrived at See also Human Evolution—Overview
exactly the same conclusion as Darwin’s: that the vast
reproductive ability of living organisms, subtle variation
Further Reading
within species, and the struggle for survival would result
Bettany, G.T. (1887). Life of Charles Darwin. London: Walter Scott.
in the selection of any slight advantage and the inheri-
Burkhardt, F., et al. (1985–2001). The correspondence of Charles Darwin.
tance of that advantage in future offspring. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.