Charles Darwin's Life And Accomplishments

Charles Darwin

Early years

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Screwbury, England. His father Robert Waring Darwin (1766-1848) was a successful doctor and his mother, Susannah Wedgwood (1764-1817), came from a rich family. His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was also a successful doctor, and very good man. He refused payment from poor people and took money only by rich. He managed to make enough money from his profession. As a consequence of having successful father and grandfather, little Charles grew up in a large house called “The Mount”. The house had garden with flowers, trees, birds and insects. It was of these first contacts with nature that light the spark of his scientific curiosity. He liked to observe the nature

It was common practice in those years for the children to live in the school that they were attended.

Little Charles did like at all this type of school. He had to sleep in a dormitory with many other children. Additionally, he couldn’t remember for a long time the things he learned in school. He forgot them in a short period of time. Among other subject he had to learn Latin and Greek. He wasn’t good at at all in the lessons. And, as many children in his age, he missed his home. Fortunately his house was close enough to his school. So, little Charles sneak out in the evening, run to his house and then run again back to school before the doors were locked for the night.

His scientific curiosity shown very early since he and his brother had fixed a chemistry lab in the tool shed in the garden. From this activity came one of his nicknames “Gas”. But his love for experiments was not shared by everybody. When a teacher of Charles found out about this chemistry lab he said that it was useless and a waste of time. If Charles had been taking seriously his teacher’s words and stop experimenting and later in his life, asking questions, he may be was unknown today and he had never made the discoveries he

Charles waited almost three months in Plymouth.

The rooms were sailors lived, the cabins, were small. Ships had to save room for cargo and for the necessary for the crew water and food. Charles shared hs cabin with two officers. To have more space in the cabin Charles was sleeping in a hammock which was strung up over a table. He has had barely space to stretch feet. But the worse for Charles was that he got seasick with almost every wave that moved the ship.

At this time Charles was reading a book called Principles of Geology written by Charles Lyell. By reading this book Charles started to wonder about how the Earth and the islands had been formed. Lyell wrote in his book that the formation of the Earth was based on physical phenomena such as volcanoes and earthquakes. Charles was excited with the book. He decided to have a more scientific approach to the things he would see in the voyage. He also decided to observe and collect plants, animals and specimens form the place he visit during the voyage. And who knows? Maybe in the future he could write his own book and help other scientists to see the world differently and to inspire them to their researches in the same way he was inspired by Lyell’s