Darwin's Return to England
Now widely respected in the science community, Charles Darwin began sharing his findings with other biologists and writing up his accounts from the expedition. He became the secretary of the Geological Society by 1838 and used this position to hire experts who could aid him in publishing the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S Beagle (1838-1843). With the help of his peers, he was able build a stronger understanding of the findings from his travels. An esteemed anatomist by the name of Richard Owen, identified that many of the fossils Darwin had brought back from South America were in-fact extinct animals, namely, large Sloths, Anteaters and Armadillos. The most valuable insight was provided when ornithologist John Gould, clarified that the birds Darwin previously thought were a combination of wrens, finches, gross-beaks and oriole relatives, were actually all ground-finches that had adapted differently on each of the Galápagos islands. Gould also stated the same thing about the mockingbirds found on the islands.
While the biological world was moving forward, England itself was still very much under an Angelican status quo and the act of even mentioning transmutation amongst wider society, would have been considered blasphemous. Darwin witnessed the persecution of his peers by the Church and in fear of being ostracized, kept his theories under wraps while gathering more evidence. By 1844 he had drafted a lengthy sketch of his theory of natural selection, but made no attempts to publish. Darwin bided his time and focused his attention on studying barnacles. He grew fascinated by their sexual differentiation and wrote four monographs on the subject of the hermaphrotdite creatures, earning him the Royal Society’s Royal Medal in 1853. With this accolade, he felt he could no longer be shunned on matters of biology.
Darwin's Finches
On the Origin of Species
Darwin maintained his research, studying seeds and pigeons and analysing how they adapted to their environments. By June 1858, he had produced a quarter of a million words for his theory of natural selection. One man, Alfred Russell Wallace, compelled Darwin to publish his work. Wallace had been working in the Malay Archipelago Islands and had been formulating a similar theory to that of Darwin’s. Worried that Wallace would take all the credit for their similar theories, Darwin wanted to publish his work but also give adequate credit to Wallace for his findings. It was decided that their work would be equally evaluated and on July 1st 1858, the Linnean society read through joint extracts from both men’s work. Unfortunately, tragedy struck Darwin and the agonizing loss of his 18 month old son meant he was not in attendance for the presentation.
Determined to make a more significant name for himself, but also wracked with the fear of losing what reputation he already had, Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. While he did draw criticism from members of society for his implication that humans had derived from apes, his book was largely well received, especially from those in the scientific community. Despite taking such a huge step in his career, he was still reluctant to defend his theories in public. Thomas Huxely, a young biologist, became a bold advocate for Darwin’s work, often content to have large public debates about natural selection in the name of scientific advancement.
By 1869, On the Origin of Species had become a worldwide bestseller and Darwin began on multiple new editions of the book. In the 5th edition, he introduced the theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ , an idea coined by philosopher Herbert Spencer and it became a much more prominent part of Darwin’s natural selection theory. He went on to publish The Descent of Man in 1871, where he was much more confident in expressing his professional theories on the evolution of the human species.