Alfred Russel Wallace 



heeding the fact that his son had already one passion in 

 life, apart from '^ shooting, dogs, and rat-catching," which 

 stood a very good chance of saving him from becoming the 

 disgrace to the family that his good father feared. So that 

 while Wallace was imbibing his first lessons in Socialism 

 at 14 years of age, Darwin at 16 found himself merely en- 

 during, with a feeling of disgust, Dr. Duncan's lectures, 

 which were ^^ something fearful to remember," on materia 

 medica at eight o'clock on a winter's morning, and, worse 

 still, Dr. Munro's lectures on human anatomy, which were 

 ^' as dull as he was himself." Yet he always deeply re- 

 gretted not having been urged to practise dissection, 

 because of the invaluable aid it would have been to him 

 as a naturalist. 



By mental instinct, however, Darwin soon found him- 

 self studying marine zoology and other branches of natural 

 science. This was in a large measure due to his intimacy 

 with Dr. Grant, who, in a later article on Flustra, made 

 some allusion to a paper read by Darwin before the Lin- 

 nean Society on a small discovery which he had made by 

 the aid of a ^^ wretched microscope " to the effect that the 

 so-called ova of Flustra were really larvae and had the power 

 of independent action by means of cilia. 



During his sec(md year in Edinburgh he attended 

 Jameson's lectures on geology and zoology, but found 

 them so '' incredibly dull " that he determined never to 

 study the science. 



Then came the final move which, all unknowingly, was 

 to lead Darwin into the pursuit of a science which up to 

 that time had only been a hobby and not in any sense the 

 serious profession of his life. But again how wide the 

 difference between his change from Edinburgh to Cam- 

 bridge, and that of Wallace from a month's association 

 with a working-class Socialistic community in London to 



16 



