DARWIN, CHARLES R. 



183 



was appointed United States District Attorney 

 for Massachusetts, but resigned in 1865, in 

 consequence of not being in accord with An- 

 drew Johnson and his course in the presi- 

 dential office. Harvard College conferred 

 upon him, in 1866, the degree of LL. D. He 

 was a member of the Massachusetts Legisla- 

 ture in 1867-'68, but failed of election to Con- 

 gress, against Ben Butler, in 1868. President 

 Grant nominated him Minister to England, in 

 place of Mr. Schenck, in 1876, but the Senate 

 refused confirmation. The latter years of his 

 life were spent in Europe, in investigating the 

 subject of international law, with the intention 

 of preparing and publishing a treatise oil that 

 important branch of legal knowledge. 



Mr. Dana was an able writer as well as 

 learned jurist and statesman. Besides his first 

 work (noted above), his chief publications 

 were as follows : " The Seaman's Friend, con- 

 taining a Treatise on Practical Seamanship 

 (with Plates), a Dictionary of Sea-Terms, Cus- 

 toms, and Usages of the Merchant Service" 

 (1841) ; a new and revised edition of Washing- 

 ton Allston's " Lectures on Art, and Poems " 

 (1850); "To Cuba and Back," a volume of 

 travels (1859) ; a new edition, with continua- 

 tion, of Wheaton's "Elements of International 

 Law" (1866), which excited some unpleasant 

 controversy ; " Oration on the Life and Char- 

 acter of Ed ward Everett" (1865); and "Oration 

 on Lexington Common, at the Centennial An- 

 niversary of the Battle of Lexington " (1875). 

 In addition, Mr. Dana was a contributor to the 

 " North American Review," and wrote fre- 

 quently for the pages of the " Law Reporter " 

 and the " American Law Review." He de- 

 livered a course of Lowell Lectures, was au- 

 thor of numerous speeches, addresses on polit- 

 ical and other topics, etc. He was an earnest 

 and active member of the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church, and served faithfully for many years 

 as one of its most efficient laymen. 



DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT. This English 

 naturalist, distinguished as the expounder of 

 the development theory of the organic world, 

 died at the home where he had resided for 

 forty years, Down House, in the village ot 

 Down, near Orpington, England, on the 19th 

 of April. He had suffered for some time from 

 weakness of the heart, but was able to do a little 

 experimental work until he was finally pros- 

 trated, the day before his death. Charles Dar- 

 win, as he usually wrote his name, was born Feb- 

 ruary 12, 1809, at Shrewsbury, where his father 

 was a practicing physician. Robert Waring Dar- 

 win, his father, was the third son by his first 

 marriage of Erasmus Darwin, the author of 

 "The Botanic Garden," and was celebrated for 

 the boldness of his speculative views, some ot 

 which foreshadowed the famous doctrine of 

 which his grandson became the teacher. Charles 

 Darwin's father was also a thinker in science, 

 and was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 but he gave his main attention to his profession. 

 On his mother's side, also, the author of the 



theory of descent was descended from a man 

 of original genius, his other grandfather being 

 Josiah Wedgwood, the famous amateur artist 

 in pottery. 



Charles Darwin went at the age of sixteen 

 from the grammar-school at Shrewsbury pre- 

 sided over by Dr. Samuel Butler, author of a 

 text-book of geography, and afterward Bishop 

 of Lichfield to Edinburgh University. He 

 left there after two years for Christ College, 

 Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's de- 

 gree in 1831. At Edinburgh he gave some 

 attention to marine zoology, and before he left 

 he read two short papers before the Plinian 

 Society, the subject of the first being the move- 

 ment of the ova of Flustra. He is known to 

 have been fond of the sport of fox-hunting in 

 his youth. At Cambridge he was greatly in- 

 terested in the study of botany. 



In 1831 Captain Fitzroy, of the ship Beagle, 

 who had just returned from South America, 

 and was commissioned to continue his explora- 

 tions in a surveying voyage round the world, 

 offered to take with him a naturalist. Darwin 

 volunteered to serve without pay, on the con- 

 dition that he should have the disposal of the 

 collections, and was accepted. The voyage 

 lasted from December, 1831, to October, 1836. 

 They circumnavigated the globe, visiting Brazil, 

 Patagonia, Chili, Peru, the Galapagos and So- 

 ciety Isles, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, 

 St. Helena, and the Cape Verd Islands. No 

 scientist had received more favorable opportu- 

 nities for original work than fell to the lot of 

 the unknown young naturalist of the Beagle ; 

 but no corps of scientists on subsequent ex- 

 ploring expeditions have amassed a more co- 

 Eious store of observations than he did single- 

 anded, or have by their combined thought 

 derived from them so many profound and 

 original conclusions. To the reports of the 

 expedition published by Captains Fitzroy and 

 King, Darwin contributed a volume entitled 

 " A Journal of Researches into the Geology 

 and Natural History of the Various Countries 

 visited by H. M. Ship Beagle," which was re- 

 published separately in 1845. The zoological 

 results of the cruise were worked up by him, 

 with Professor Owen and Messrs. Waterhouse, 

 Jenyns, Gould, and Bell as contributing spe- 

 cialists, and published before the narrative in 

 1840, as was the treatise on the " Structure and 

 Distribution of Coral Reefs" (1842). Two 

 other original treatises, embodying further 

 fruits of his geological observations, were sub- 

 sequently published, and took rank among the 

 classics of that science a volume on the " Vol- 

 canic Islands visited during the Voyage of the 

 Beagle" (1844), and "Geological Observations 

 in South America " (1846). Other memoirs, 

 based upon the opulent store of observations 

 gathered by Darwin, are incorporated in the 

 " Transactions " of the Geological Society, the 

 first in the volume for 1838, and further re- 

 sults are recorded in various papers on botany 

 and entomology. He read a paper before the 



