Darwin

His mother died when he was only eight and the next year he became a boarder at the Shrewsbury School. After finishing school, Darwin went to Edinburgh University in 1825 to study medicine.

At Edinburgh his disgust at the anatomy lectures of professor Alexander Munro III and his revulsion at the brutality of surgery at the time led him to neglect his medical studies, but in his second year he became active in student societies for naturalists. In the Plinian society he became an avid student of Robert Edmund Grant, learning from Grant's enthusiasm for the theories of Lamarck and Charles' grandfather Erasmus about evolution by acquired characteristics. He joined Grant in pioneering investigations of the life cycle of marine animals on the shores of the Firth of Forth where Grant found evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals had similar organs differing only in complexity. In March 1827 Darwin made a presentation to the Plinian society of his discovery that black spores often found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech. Darwin also sat Robert Jameson's natural history course, learning about stratigraphic geology and getting to assist with the collections of the Museum of Edinburgh University, then one of the largest in Europe. At professor Robert Jameson's Wernerian Natural History Association Charles saw John James Audubon give a demonstration of his method of using wires to prop up birds to draw or paint them in natural positions.
His father, unhappy that his younger son would not become a physician and fearing that Charles would become a "ne'er do well", enrolled him at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1827 on a BA course to qualify as a clergyman. This was a sensible career move at a time when a "living" as an Anglican parson provided a comfortable income and when most naturalists in England were clergymen who saw it as part of their duties to explore the wonders of God's creation.

At Cambridge Charles preferred riding and shooting to studying, and along with his cousin William Darwin Fox became engrossed in the current craze for the (competitive) collecting of beetles. Fox introduced him for advice on this to the Revd. John Stevens Henslow, professor of botany, and Charles subsequently joined his natural history course. Henslow's outings were attended by 78 men including the Revd. William Whewell and Charles became the 'favourite pupil', known as "the man who walks with Henslow". When exams loomed Charles focused on his studies, becoming particularly enthused by the set texts by Paley which included the argument of divine design in nature. He got private tuition from Henslow whose subjects were maths and theology, and in his finals in January 1831 he shone in theology and scraped through in classics, maths and physics, coming 10th out of a pass list of 178.

Although he had gained his degree, residence requirements kept Darwin at Cambridge till June and following Henslow's example and advice he was in no rush to take holy orders. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative he wanted to study natural history in the tropics and planned to visit Madeira with some class-mates upon graduation. Knowing the need for geological skills, Henslow introduced Charles to the great geologist the Revd. Adam Sedgwick and Darwin joined his course, then that summer worked with him at mapping strata in Wales.

Darwin was surveying strata in Wales on his own when he received a message that his intended companion had died, dashing his plans to visit Madeira, but on his return home he received another letter. Henslow had recommended Darwin for the position of gentleman's companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle which was departing in December on a two-year expedition to chart the coastline of South America and would give him opportunities as a naturalist. His father objected to the voyage, thinking it a waste of his son's time, but was eventually persuaded by Josiah Wedgwood to agree to Charles going and to pay for his son's expedition which eventually stretched to five years. Darwin's work during the Beagle expedition let him study at first hand geology, fossils and a multitude of living organisms as well as meeting native peoples. He methodically collected an enormous number of specimens, many new to science, which established his reputation as a naturalist and made him one of the precursors of ecology. His detailed notes formed the basis for his later work as well as providing social, political, and anthropological insights into the areas he visited.

* From reading Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology postulating gradual processes over huge periods of time, Darwin wrote home that he was 'seeing' land-forms as if he had the eyes of Lyell. * He discovered fossils of gigantic extinct South American Megatheriums and Armadillos in strata which showed no signs of catastrophy or change in climate, and found later that these were relatives of creatures still living in the area. * Argentinian Rheas, and mockingbirds on different Galápagos Islands, formed distinct species in nearby territories. On return he would find that this also applied to Galápagos tortoises and finches. * The natives of Tierra del Fuego appeared to him savages little above animals, yet three natives returning with them as missionaries had become civilised in two years. When revisited after a year, the one they met preferred savagery to a return to civilisation. * Stepped plains of shingle and seashells in Patagonia appeared to be raised beaches. In Chile he experienced an earthquake raising the land, then saw seashells high in the Andes. * While in South America he contracted Chagas' disease from insect bites. For the rest of his life this caused recurring episodes of illness and disability. * An Australian marsupial rat-kangaroo and a platypus made him think that an unbeliever might exclaim "Surely two distinct Creators must have been [at] work". * He theorised that coral atolls formed on sinking volcanic mountains, and this was confirmed by survey in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.