Charles Darwin

      But for Charles Darwin  (1809 – 1882)  I might still be a believer in the Creation.

My father-in law Doctor John Dent was a great believer in this great Charles Darwin.

 He was the originator (with Alfred Wallace) of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

 He studied medicine at Edinburgh.  At Cambridge he became interested in botany, zoology, & geometry   He was born into Anglicans - Dr Robert Darwin and Susannah (nee Wedgwood).   His mother died when Charles was eight.  While on holiday from Shrewsbury boarding school he helped his father treat poor people.  Hoping he would study medicine his father sent him to Edinburgh university.    But being only interested in natural science he moved to Cambridge to study wildlife, biology and geology.  He also took an interest in fossils from marine invertebrates.  He became sceptical about creatures being placed on earth by a God.   He speculated that over long periods of time live organisms could change and adapt to their environment and that diversity of life could take place gradually.

     In order to support his theories he decided to travel abroad and search for evidence.

In December 1831 he joined Captain Robert Fitzroy on H.M.S. Beagle for the voyage from Plymouth that was to become historic.    They went south as far as Natal on the East coast of South America and then eastwards below South Africa  making  Zoological discoveries, and fauna on coral reefs, volcanic islands, fauna, & flora.  They continued below Australia and then northwards and across to the volcanic Galapogos Islands near the East coast of South America.   He learned much there and at neighbouring Santiago, Santa Cruz, & San Cristobal and later during his studies on Tierra Del Fuego.  Then they sailed further south to reach the Falklands before turning north to return to Plymouth with a great collection of specimens.

 They had been exploring on land for 3 years and 3 months and at sea for a year and six months.

Darwin’s conclusions were too controversial to be acceptable to many ordinary people.   He was slow in publishing them because he knew they would offend his wife and most devout Christians.   Queen Victoria was interested in his studies and had an open mind about his theories.  While studying the expression on the face of an Orangutan on a visit to a zoo she said    “ He is frightfully human`-looking.”

In 1858 Alfred Russel Wallace published an article praising the research carried out by Darwin.  Within a year Darwin was brave and confident enough to publish his “Origin of Species”.

Benjamin Disraeli in a debate in the House of Commons asked “ Is man an ape or an angel ?  I am on the side of the angels and I repudiate these new-fangled theories .” 

But the leading thinkers of the time were impressed.    The  first 1,250 copies were bought immediately and changed the thinking of millions of people.

The book showed that in the War of Nature most creatures died young and survival was largely dependent on smell, sight & speed.   

  Darwin established that all species descended from a common ancestry  and that a branching pattern of evolution resulted from natural selection.  It was said that he opened the door to our knowledge of genes, DNA and mutations.

Darwin was not just interested in living things ; he admired them.     He wrote :-

“ Sympathy with the lower animals is one of the noblest virtues with which man is endowed.”  His daughter Annie died in 1851 at the age of 11.  He cried whenever he remembered her.  He kept her hair and her shells.

Darwin was not aware of Gregor Mendel’s research on Plant Hybrids in the garden of his monastery in 1866.   That was the foundation of genetics but it was not reported for some years.

     On another voyage in the Beagle while exploring the ocean north of Australia he landed in 1839.  His writings on evolution were more acceptable than those of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin who died 7 years before he was born.   Two of his sons became famous – one as an astronomer  and the other as a botanist.

On my three Aussie trips I never did get to the northern territory.   I remember thinking about it while I was in Port Augusta.    Approaching an entrance to the great Stuart Highway I caught sight of a sign “Darwin  2,200 K”.   Something magnetic in the name tempted me for one brief moment.  But in the next the 2 before the comma told me it was just too far.   So I steered Eastwards around the town until I saw a sign saying Broken Hill 430.   It led me on to a flat monotonous road out into the outback.   Three hours later the skyline was broken by a hill.   It loomed  larger and taller as I got nearer to it.   It turned out to be what Australians call the “hog’s back”.  It is actually a giant slag heap that towers over one of the world’s most famous mining towns.  The rich strip about seven Kilometres long and over two hundred metres wide was claimed in 1883 by a German called Charles Rasp.  With six mates he formed a syndicate that mined millions of tons of lead.