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CHARLES DARWIN. ─ Although Mr. Darwin was not a strictly medical man his work has had a more powerful influence on medical thought than have probably the labors of any contemporary physician. His life, moreover, and his methods were those on which medical science can alone depend for furtherance. He was eminent in his loyalty to truth as revealed to him by exact observation and unprejudiced judgement. Ridicule and misrepresentation and denunciation never made him falter, but with his own work convictions to support him he dared to speak. Charles Darwin was one of the heroes of the nineteenth century. The record of his life is a most precious legacy to posterity.

Mr. Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, England, February 12, 1809, inheriting rare qualities for scientific observation and philosophic thought. His father was a worthy though not eminent member of the Royal Society, and his grandfather was the celebrated Erasmus Darwin, author of "Botanic Garden." His maternal grandfather was the founder of the famous pottery works at Etruria, Josiah Wedgwood, also a member of the Royal Society. His early educated was received at the public school in Shrewsbury, whence he passed to the University of Edinburgh, where he spent two years. He then went to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1831. His bent for natural research was not diverted by his schooling; and soon after his graduation he read a paper on marine zoology, giving such promise of scientific ability that he was offered the position of naturalist now the historic Beagle, soon to start on a cruise of scientific exploration round the world. Five years were spent on this cruise, during which those suggestive observations were made which led to the development of a new theory of the origin of species.

Returning from this voyage in 1835 Darwin made ready for publication his "Journal of Researches," and in 1840-42 he edited the "Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle." Shortly after he published the classic works on "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs." These works were rapidly followed by "Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands," in 1844, and "Geological Observations in South America," in 1846. Meantime his contributions to scientific publications and the transactions of scientific societies were numerous and valuable, as they were throughout his long and active life. The two-volume "Monograph of the Family Cirripedia," was published in 1851 and 1853, and soon after his two volumes on the fossil species of the same family. In 1853 the Royal Society awarded him the royal medal, and in 1859 he received the Wollaston medal of the

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Geological. His epoch-marking "Origin of Species by Natural Selection," appeared the same year. The controversies provoked by this work probably did more to attract popular thought to questions of natural science, and to change the popular as well as scientific mode of regarding such topics, than any other influence of the century.

The latter works of Mr. Darwin bear evidence of his untiring industry in collecting facts and his marvelous faculty for the rational interpretation of such facts. The work on the "Fertilization of Orchids by the Agency of Insects" appeared in 1862; "Habits and Movements of Climbing Plants" in 1865; "The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication" in 1867; "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex" in 1871; "The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animal" in 1875; "Insectivorous Plants" in 1876; "The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom" in 1877; "The Different Forms of Flowers and Plants of the Same Species" in 1880; and "The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms" in 1881.

This enormous volume of work has been accomplished by untiring industry, in spite of frequent illnesses which to most men would have been accounted sufficient cause for idleness. Personally, Mr. Darwin was greatly loved by his social and scientific acquaintances, and his home life was the happiest. He leaves five sons and two daughters, all of superior ability and high character.

Mr. Darwin died at his residence near Orpington, England, on Monday, April 19, A. D. 1882.