Darwin

CHARLES, (darwin,) an English philosopher, B. 1809, accompanied Capt. Fitzroy in his exploring expedition (1831-6), the results of which are given in his charming work, Voyage of a Naturalist round the World. D.'s great fame, however, rests principally upon the remarkable ethnological theory embodied in The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), a work which has pa ed through numberle editions, been translated into all literary languages, and has caused the liveliest controversy in the scientific world. Dis theory, supported and illustrated with the greatest ingenuity, is, that there is a real variability in organisms, acting through the medium of the reproductive system; and that when the progeny so varied finds itself better adapted for the surrounding conditions than its predece ors, it gains an ascendency in the competition of the multitude of creatures for existence, establishes itself, and exterminates those which it has vanquished. [s. 265]