196 
Centenary  of  Charles  Darwin. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       April,  1909. 
THE  CENTENARY  OF  CHARLES  DARWIN.1 
By  Henry  Kraemer. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  take  the  time  of  the  meeting  by  attempt- 
ing to  give  a  resume  of  the  work  of  Charles  Darwin  or  an  estimate 
of  the  influence  and  character  of  this  savant  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  centenary  of  whose  birth  is  being  celebrated  throughout 
the  civilized  world  at  this  time.2  I  think,  however,  that  it  is  but  fit- 
ting for  a  professor  of  natural  science  of  this  college  to  place  on 
record  a  minute  that  we,  in  this  centenary  year,  paused  along  with 
other  scientists,  and  paid  our  tribute  of  praise  and  gratitude  to  this 
liberator  of  thought. 
Darwin  was  the  author  of  something  over  twenty  books  and 
nearly  one  hundred  papers,  about  one-third  of  his  writings  being  on 
botanical  subjects.  It  was  his  book,  "  The  Origin  of  Species  by 
Means  of  Natural  Selection,"  published  on  November  24,  1859, 
which  was  his  epoch-making  work,  freeing  us,  as  it  did,  from  the 
shackles  of  the  past,  or,  in  other  words,  freeing  us  from  the  necessity 
of  considering  the  supernatural  in  our  study  of  the  biological 
sciences.  While  this  is  true,  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  apart 
from  his  masterful  deductions  his  other  most  enduring  contribution 
to  science  lies  in  the  impetus  given  to  scientific  research  by  his 
comprehensiveness  of  vision,  his  ability  to  study  natural  phenomena 
at  first  hand,  to  discriminate  between  facts  and  opinions,  and  finally 
to  connect  facts  in  an  orderly  sequence.  In  short,  it  is  the  Darwinian 
method  which  has  proved  to  be  such  a  boon  in  scientific  research. 
Darwin  furnished  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  law  of  heredity 
for  which  he  claimed  so  much.  His  grandfather  on  his  paternal  side 
was  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  a  poet  and  philosopher,  his  name  being 
often  coupled  with  that  of  Lamarck,  as  an  early  evolutionist ;  and 
on  his  mother's  side  his  grandfather  was  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the 
inventor  of  wedgwood-ware,  formerly  used  much  in  making  mortars 
for  the  use  of  apothecaries.  His  father,  Robert  Waring  Darwin, 
F.R.S.,  was  an  eminent  physician,  and  it  was  his  desire  that  Charles 
should  likewise  study  medicine.  Accordingly,  in  1825,  he  was  sent 
to  Edinburgh,  where,  he  says,  he  found  the  lectures  on  geology  rand 
1  Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  held  February  16,  1909. 
a  Charles  (Robert)  Darwin  was  born  February  12,  1809,  at  Shrewsbury 
(England) . 
