查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文（Charles Robert Darwin，1809-1882）对自然的兴趣可能受到他的祖父，同时也是诗人和博物学家的伊拉斯谟·达尔文的影响。但这种兴趣并不是高等教育的主流，年轻的达尔文在爱丁堡学习医学和在剑桥学习神学都没有兴趣。在剑桥，他更加热衷于观察昆虫，他同时参加了约翰·史蒂文斯·亨斯洛（John Stevens Henslow）的植物学讲座，后者说服他开始学习地质学。他读了很多书，其中有包括洪堡、赫歇尔等人的著作。1831年，他从北威尔士的一次地质考察回来后，收到了一封来自亨斯洛的信，通知他在贝格尔号上提供了一个无薪博物学家职位，这艘船由菲茨·罗伊（Fitz Roy）上尉指挥，达尔文随船环游世界五年。达尔文出发时，携带了许多自然主义作品，尤其是地质学家查尔斯·莱尔的作品。从1831年到1836年，他收集了大量的样本，并记录了在南美洲、火地岛、加拉帕戈斯、塔希提岛、新西兰等地海岸所做的详细观察……他将许多观察结果发表于达尔1839年出版的一本书—《研究杂志》，现在这本书被称为《贝格尔号的航行》，这实际上是这本书1905年版的标题。对达尔文收集样本的进行详尽分析的有多位专家：理查德·欧文（Richard Owen）和乔治·罗伯特·沃特豪斯（George Robert Waterhouse）分别对化石和现有哺乳动物标本进行了分析，约翰·古尔德（John Gould）对鸟类标本进行了分析，伦纳德·杰宁斯（Leonard Jenyns）对鱼类标本进行了分析，托马斯·贝尔（Thomas Bell）对爬行动物标本进行了分析。它将作为丰富科研成果的基础，从而为达尔文赢得科学界的高度认可。

  但达尔文的眼光远远超出了他的观察内容。在他1876年为孩子们所写并在他死后出版的自传中，他写道：“……很明显，这些事实以及许多其他事实只能在物种逐渐进化的假设下解释。这个主题一直困扰着我。但同样明显的是，无论是周围条件的作用，还是生物体的意志，都无法解释无数种生物体完美适应的情况。它们的生活习惯——例如，啄木鸟或树蛙爬树，或用喙或羽毛散播种子。……”。1838年，达尔文阅读了马尔萨斯的《人口原理论文集》，使他能够将自己的思想概念化：“……已做好充分准备，通过对人类习惯的长期持续观察，来欣赏无处不在的生存斗争。动植物，我立刻想到，在这种情况下，有利的变异会被保存下来，而不利的变异会被摒弃，结果将是新物种的形成。在这里，我终于有了一个可行的理论……”

  1839年，达尔文与表妹艾玛·韦奇伍德（Emma Wedgwood）结婚，生了十个孩子。随着他继续发表他对珊瑚、火山岛的观察结果，他关于物种转变的想法逐渐形成……在健康问题的干扰下，他连续撰写了几篇草稿——第一篇是在1842年——一本介绍他的理论的巨著，但没有出版。1858年，当时在马来西亚的英国博物学家阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士（Alfred Russel Wallace）将一份手稿寄给达尔文，以便与莱尔交流，描述了通过自然选择改变物种的想法。“我从未见过比这更惊人的巧合”达尔文说，“如果华莱士在1842年写出了我的手稿草图，他将无法做出更好的简短摘要！”由于意识到了达尔文理论的先进性，莱尔和胡克提议在林奈学会学报（1858年7月1日的会议）上将达尔文的一篇文章（实际上是他手稿的摘要）与华莱士撰写的论文一起发表并联合出版。尽管存在健康问题，达尔文随后着手出版他的著作一个不那么雄心勃勃的版本：“物种起源”，该版本将于1859年11月出版。该出版物的成功立竿见影：连续出版了六个版本，最后一版是在1872年出版。直到1881年，达尔文继续发表了其他研究成果，其内容都是一些他最关心的主题，尤其是植物：兰花、花卉二态性、驯化……这最后一个时期最重要的出版物是1871年的《男性的血统，以及与性别有关的选择》。1882年去世后，他被安葬在伦敦的威斯敏斯特教堂。

 

 

It is possible that Charles Robert Darwin‘s (1809-1882) interest in Nature was influenced by his paternal grandfather, the poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. But this interest developed mainly on the fringes of higher education, which did not interest the young Darwin both in Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, and in Cambridge, where he studied theology. In Cambridge, he devoted himself more to his passion for insects, attending lectures on botany given by John Stevens Henslow who persuaded him to start studying geology. He reads a lot: Humboldt, Herschel… In 1831, on his return from a geological excursion in North Wales, he found a letter from Henslow informing him that an unpaid naturalist position was offered on the HMS Beagle, commanded by Captain Fitz Roy, who was going around the world for five years. Darwin left, taking with him many naturalist works, especially those of geologist Charles Lyell. From 1831 to 1836, he collected very large quantities of samples, taking notes on all the detailed observations made on the coasts of South America, Tierra del Fuego, Galapagos, Tahiti, New Zealand, etc… Many of his observations were published by Darwin in 1839 in a book, “Journal of researches”, now known as “The voyage of the Beagle”, which is in fact the title of the 1905 edition of this book. The exhaustive analysis of the samples collected by Darwin was carried out by various specialists: Richard Owen and George Robert Waterhouse, respectively for fossil and current mammals, John Gould for birds, Leonard Jenyns for fish, Thomas Bell for reptiles. It will serve as a basis for an abundant scientific production that will earn Darwin great scientific recognition.

But Darwin sees far beyond his observations. In his Autobiography, written for his children in 1876 and published after his death, he wrote: “[…] It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the organisms […] could account for the innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully adapted to their habits of life—for instance, a woodpecker or a tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. […]“. In 1838, Malthus’ reading of “Essay on the Principle of Population” allowed him to conceptualize his ideas: “[…] being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable 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……”.

In 1839, Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood and had ten children. His ideas on the transformation of species took shape as he continued to publish his observations on corals, volcanic islands… Disrupted by health problems, he wrote successively several drafts – the first in 1842 – of a huge book presenting his theory, but without publishing them. In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist then in Malaysia, sent a manuscript to Darwin for communication to Lyell describing the idea of a transformation of species through natural selection. «I never saw a more striking coincidence» says Darwin,«If Wallace had my manuscript sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract! ». Aware of Darwin’s anteriority, Lyell and Hooker proposed a joint publication in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (meeting of July 1, 1858): a text by Darwin, in fact a summary of his manuscript, was published with the essay written by Wallace. Despite health problems, Darwin then set out to publish a less ambitious version, in volume, of his work: “The Origin of Species”, which would appear in November 1859. The success of this publication was immediate: six successive editions were published, the last one in 1872. Until 1881, Darwin continued to publish on themes that were close to his heart, especially plants: orchids, floral dimorphism, domestication… The most significant publication of this last period is, in 1871, “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex“. After his death in 1882, he was buried at Westminster Abbey in London.

 

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Further reading

• Point G. Tort P. (2015) Le Monde de Darwin, Éditions de la Martinière, ISBN 978-2732471044
• https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/charles-darwin-de-lorigine-dune-theorie
• http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/dossiers/dosdarwin/darwin.html
• http://darwin-online.org.uk/
• http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1497&pageseq=1

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