Inception of Darwin's theory: Encyclopedia II - Inception of Darwin's theory - Animal observations

Inception of Darwin's theory - Animal observations

By February 1838 Darwin was on to a new pocketbook, the maroon C notebook, and was investigating the breeding of domestic animals. He found the newspaper wholesaler William Yarrell at the Zoological museum a fund of knowledge, and questioned if breeders weren't going against nature in "picking varieties". He was now writing of "Descent" rather than transmutation, and hinting at ideas of "adaption" to climate.

At the zoo on 28 March he had his first sight of an ape, and was impressed at the orang-utan's antics "just like a naughty child" when the keeper held back an apple. In his notes he wrote "Let man visit Ourang-outang in domestication, hear expressive whine, see its intelligence.... let him look at savage...naked, artless, not improving yet improvable & let him dare to boast of his proud preeminence." Here Darwin was drawing on his experience of the natives of Tierra del Fuego and daring to think that there was little gulf between man and animals despite the theological doctrine that only humanity possessed a soul.

He sent his parents the gossip that Miss Martineau had been "as frisky lately as the Rhinoceros. – Erasmus has been with her noon, morning & night: – if her character is not as secure, as a mountain in the polar regions she would certainly lose it". He began thinking about marriage himself, listing the pros and cons on the back of an old letter and noting that rather than being "a man tied down in London" going over information, "I have so much more pleasure in direct observation... In country, experiment & observation on lower animals, – more space."

Darwin found a pamphlet by Yarrell's friend Sir John Sebright with a passage reading: "A severe winter, or a scarcity of food, by destroying the weak and the unhealthy, has all the good effects of the most skilful selection. In cold or barren countries no animals can live to the age of maturity, but those who have strong constitutions; the weak and the unhealthy do not live to propagate their infirmities." After reading the pamphlet, Darwin commented "excellent observations of sickly offspring being cut off". Sebright talked of females falling to "the most vigourous males" and of how "the strongest individuals of both sexes, by driving away the weakest, will enjoy the best food, and the most favourable positions, for themselves and their offspring." To Darwin, while nature removed runts and thrust the fit forward, "the whole art of making [domestic] varieties" by selecting mates to breed an ornamental duck produced "a mere monstrosity propagated by art". Quizzing his cousin William Darwin Fox about crossing domestic breeds, he admitted for the first time that "It is my prime hobby & I really think some day, I shall be able to do something on that most intricate subject species & varieties." Pondering likely opposition to his ideas, he noted that there must have been "a thousand intermediate forms" between the otter and its land ancestor. "Opponents will say, show me them. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between bull Dog & Greyhound."

Inception of Darwin's theory - Secret speculations

Darwin's secret speculations in his notebooks deepened as he wondered how instincts and mental traits were passed on to offspring, finding it "difficult to imagine [thought as] anything but structure of the brain". He wrote of habits, beliefs and even the "love of deity" having evolved, adding to himself "oh you Materialist!". In private discussions with his cousin, "Hensleigh says the love of the deity & thought of him or eternity, only difference the mind of man & animals" which conflicted with Darwin's own experience with the "savages" of Tierra del Fuego. He struggled on with the Beagle geology, overworked, worried and suffering stomach upsets and headaches which laid him up for days on end. Privately he thought of the social implications of evolution, writing "Educate all classes, improve the women. (double influence) & mankind must improve." This was similar to the position of the radical Lamarckians, but female education was already supported by the whole Wedgwood-Darwin family, and strongly advocated by Martineau.

Darwin wrote "Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble & I believe true to consider him created from animals." He thought grinning was "no doubt a habit gained by formerly being a baboon with giant canine teeth... Laughing modified barking, smiling modified laughing. Barking to tell [troop] good news. discovery of prey. – arising no doubt from want of assistance. – crying is a puzzler."

In June as he worried at these ideas and the Beagle Geology his illness intensified, with stomach upsets, headaches and heart troubles, so that he became overworked and laid up for days on end. "I hope I may be able to work on right hard the next three years... but I find the noddle & the stomach are antagonistic powers, and that it is a great deal more easy to think too much in a day, than to think too little – What thought has to do with digesting roast beef,–I cannot say."

At the same time Darwin was gaining public position, and on 21 June 1838 was elected to the establishment Athenaeum Club, along with Charles Dickens. He would dine there daily, feeling " like a gentleman, or rather like a Lord... I enjoy it the more, because I fully expected to detest it... one meets so many people there that one likes to see."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Animal observations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki