OBITUARY NOTICES. 
Charles Darwin. By Professor Cossar Ewart. 
Charles Robert Darwin, who was the son of Dr. R. W. Darwin, 
and grandson of the distinguished Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was 
born at Shrewsbury on February 12, 1809. His mother was a 
daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Of his early life little is at present 
known. For a time he attended the school at Shrewsbury, of 
which Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, was master. It 
having been decided that he should study medicine, he was at the 
age of sixteen (1825) sent to the University of Edinburgh. After 
two sessions at Edinburgh, he gave up the study of medicine, and 
entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, to study for the Church. 
While in Edinburgh Mr. Darwin seems to have directed his atten- 
tion chiefly to botany and natural history. During his second 
session (1826-27) he became a member of the University Plinean 
Society, and, as the MS. records testify, took part in its discus- 
sions, and read before it at least two papers. One of these papers 
referred to the ova of Flustra , the other pointed out that the small 
black globular body hitherto mistaken for the Fucus lor was in 
reality the ovum of the Pontobdella muricata. These papers pro- 
bably contained the results of Mr. Darwin’s earliest scientific obser- 
vations. At a subsequent meeting of the Society he presented 
“ specimens of Pontobdella muricata ova and young.” 
After the usual course at Cambridge, Mr. Darwin obtained the 
B.A. degree in 1831, and in 1837 he was promoted to the degree 
of M.A. Already an entomologist, on entering Cambridge he soon 
became acquainted with the distinguished naturalist Professor 
Henslow. Judging from letters published, Professor Henslow seems 
a 
