Charles  Darwin. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   November,  1909. 
honor  and  privilege  of  representing  on  this  occasion  one  of  the 
younger  institutions  of  learning  of  the  western  world — the  Wiscon- 
sin State  University — has  considered  that  a  brief  record  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  celebration,  with  the  impressions  afforded  by  it, 
would  not  be  without  some  features  of  interest  to  those  engaged  in 
the  professional  pursuit  of  pharmacy. 
As  a  prelude  to  an  account  of  the  celebration  at  Cambridge  it  is 
deemed  appropriate,  and  it  may  be  hoped  instructive,  to  very 
concisely  note  some  of  the  more  important  events  in  the  life  of  the 
great  naturalist,  in  honor  of  whose  memory  these  ceremonies  were 
held. 
I.  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  CHARLES  DARWIN. 
Charles  Robert  Darwin  was  born  on  February  12,  1809,  at  The 
Mount,  Shrewsbury,  England,  the  home  of  his  father,  Robert  Waring 
Darwin,  a  Doctor  of  Medicine,  who  was  the  son  of  Erasmus  Darwin, 
poet,  physician,  and  philanthropist.  On  the  mother's  side  he  was 
the  grandson  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  founder  of  the  Etruria 
Pottery  Works,  in  Staffordshire.  In  181 7  Charles  Darwin  lost  his 
mother,  and  was  sent  to  a  day-school  at  Shrewsbury  kept  by  the 
Rev.  G.  Case,  a  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Chapel  in  which  Coleridge 
preached.  Here  he  remained  for  about  seven  years,  and  regarding 
this  period  he  has  written  as  follows :  "  By  the  time  I  went  to  this 
day-school  my  taste  for  natural  history,  and  more  especially  for 
collecting,  was  well  developed.  I  tried  to  make  out  the  names  of 
plants,  and  collected  all  sorts  of  things,  shells,  seals,  franks,  coins, 
and  minerals.  The  passion  for  collecting  which  leads  a  man  to  be 
a  systematic  naturalist,  a  virtuoso,  or  a  miser,  was  very  strong  in 
me,  and  was  clearly  innate,  as  none  of  my  sisters  or  brothers  ever 
had  this  taste."  The  tuition  received  in  these  early  years  appears, 
however,  not  to  have  been  attended  with  very  satisfactory  results, 
if  one  may  judge  from  the  opinion  which  Darwin  himself  has 
recorded.  "  I  was  at  school  at  Shrewsbury  under  a  great  scholar, 
Dr.  Butler.  I  learnt  absolutely  nothing,  except  by  amusing  myself 
by  reading  and  experimenting  in  chemistry."  When  it  became 
known  that  he  was  a  self-taught  student  of  practical  chemistry,  he 
received  the  school  nickname  Gas. 
Darwin  left  school  at  a  somewhat  earlier  age  than  was  usual 
at  that  time,  but,  apparently,  on  account  of  lack  of.  progress  in  his 
studies.    With  a  view  to  reading  for  a  degree  in  medicine  he  was 
