DARWIN AND WALLACE 23 



inherited tastes, for he was a grandson of both. Born 

 in 1809, on the banks of the Severn in England, 

 Charles Darwin was the delicate son of a practicing 

 physician of modest but sufficient means. Owing to 

 his lack of early vigor, Darwin spent much time in 

 the open air, and in his excursions about his home was \ 

 chiefly interested in collecting beetles. This taste, 

 which lasted through all his young manhood, is the 

 one early indication of the traits that were later to 

 develop. At first in the day-school and later in the 

 preparatory school Charles Darwin was anything but 

 a satisfactory student. Even a kindly desire later to ^ 

 make the most of him makes it impossible to find 

 traces of any especial fondness for earnest study. 

 He himself believed his education to have been nearly 

 useless, although he doubtless under-estimated its 

 value. At the age of sixteen he went to Edinburgh 

 at his father's desire, to study medicine. The sight 

 of the dissecting-room nauseated him completely, and 

 he refused to continue working in it. Later an opera- 

 tion which he witnessed in a clinic at the hospital 

 sickened him so thoroughly that he declined to attend 

 further operations. It became evident that the young 

 man was not adapted to the life of a physician. The 

 next move was to educate him for the church, and 

 for this purpose, at the age of nineteen, he went to 

 Cambridge. Here it soon appeared that he was no 



