RT (1809-1882).--Naturalist, _s._ of a physician, and
grandson of Dr. Erasmus D. (_q.v._), and of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous
potter, was _b._ and was at school at Shrewsbury. In 1825 he went to
Edin. to study medicine, but was more taken up with marine zoology than
with the regular curriculum. After two years he proceeded to Camb., where
he _grad._ in 1831, continuing, however, his independent studies in
natural history. In the same year came the opportunity of his life, his
appointment to accompany the _Beagle_ as naturalist on a survey of South
America. To this voyage, which extended over nearly five years, he
attributed the first real training of his mind, and after his return
_pub._ an account of it, _Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle_ (1840).
After spending a few years in London arranging his collections and
writing his _Journal_, he removed to Down, a retired village near the
Weald of Kent, where, in a house surrounded by a large garden, his whole
remaining life was passed in the patient building up, from accurate
observations, of his theory of Evolution, which created a new epoch in
science and in thought generally. His industry was marvellous, especially
when it is remembered that he suffered from chronic bad health. After
devoting some time to geology, specially to coral reefs, and exhausting
the subject of barnacles, he took up the development of his favourite
question, the transformation of species. In these earlier years of
residence at Down he _pub._ _The Structure and Distribution of Coral
Reefs_ (1842), and two works on the geology of volcanic islands, and of
South America. After he had given much time and profound thought to the
question of evolution by natural selection, and had written out his notes
on the subject, he received in 1858 from Mr. A.R. Wallace (_q.v._) a
manuscript showing that he also had reached independently a theory of the
origin of species similar to his own. This circumstance created a
situation of considerable delicacy and difficulty, which was ultimately
got over by the two discoverers presenting a joint paper, _On the
Tendency of Species to form Varieties_, and _On the Perpetuation of
Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection_. The publication in
1859 of _The Origin of Species_ gave D. an acknowledged place among the
greatest men of science, and the controversies which, along with other of
his works, it raised, helped to carry his name all over the civilised
world. Amon