The TOUHG HATUEAIIST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 129. APRIL 29th, 1882. Vol. 3. 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



CHARLES DARWIN has passed 

 away. He died on Wednesday, 

 the 19th instant, after but a few days 

 illness. So sudden indeed was it, that 

 " probably but few knew he was indis- 

 posed, and the first intimation received 

 was the announcement of his death. 

 Born on the 12th February, 1809, he 

 had already passed the allotted three 

 score years and ten, and had entered 

 on the 74-th year of his age. Yet so 

 early was he known as a close observer, 

 that it is more than half a century 

 since he was selected as Naturalist to 

 the Beagle expedition to the Southern 

 Seas. Both on his father's and mother's 

 side was he descended from famous 

 men, so that he was a personal illus- 

 tration of the truth of his own doctrine 

 with regard to descent. His grand- 

 father was Dr. Erasmus Darwin, whose 

 " Zoonomia " is perhaps the best known 

 of his works. His father was a phy- 

 sician at Shrewsbury, of sufticient emi- 

 nence to gain for him the right to style 

 himself E.R.S. His grandfather on 

 his mother's side was the famous Josiah 



Wedgwood, who may well be called 

 the founder of the modern English art 

 of pottery. From Dr. Erasmus Dar- 

 win he appears to have inherited that 

 love of natural history studies wliich 

 afterwards became the labour and 

 pleasure of his life. When the Beagle 

 was preparing for her voyage in 1888, 

 Captain Fitzroy offered part of his 

 cabin for the accommodation of any 

 naturalist who might accompany the 

 trip. Mr. Darwin being selected for 

 that post, he offered to go without 

 salary and pay part of his own expenses 

 if he might have the disposal of his 

 collections. This voyage lasted nearly 

 five years, and must have done much 

 for his scientific education. On his 

 return he published a "Journal of 

 Researches into the Geology and 

 Natural History " of the various coun- 

 tries he had visited. He had been 

 much struck with certain facts in the 

 distribution of the organic beings in- 

 habiting South America, and in the 

 geological relations of the present to 

 the past inhabitants of that continent." 

 Pondering these things in his mnid, it 

 occurred to him in 1837 that "some- 



