"Pleasure of imagination. . . . I a geologist have illdefined
notion of land covered with ocean, former animals, slow force
cracking surface &c truly poetical." from Charles Darwin's
Notebook M, 1838
The early nineteenth century was a golden age for the study of
geology. New discoveries in the field were greeted with the same
enthusiasm reserved today for advances in the biomedical sciences.
In her long-awaited account of Charles Darwin's intellectual
development, Sandra Herbert focuses on his geological training,
research, and thought, asking both how geology influenced Darwin
and how Darwin influenced the science. Elegantly written,
extensively illustrated, and informed by the author's prodigious
research in Darwin's papers and in the nineteenth-century history
of earth sciences, Charles Darwin, Geologist provides a fresh
perspective on the life and accomplishments of this exemplary
thinker.
As Herbert reveals, Darwin's great ambition as a young scientist
one he only partially realized was to create a "simple" geology
based on movements of the earth's crust. (Only one part of his
scheme has survived in close to the form in which he imagined it: a
theory explaining the structure and distribution of coral reefs.)
Darwin collected geological specimens and took extensive notes on
geology during all of his travels. His grand adventure as a
geologist took place during the circumnavigation of the earth by
H.M.S. Beagle (1831 1836) the same voyage that informed his magnum
opus, On the Origin of Species.
Upon his return to England it was his geological findings that
first excited scientific and public opinion. Geologists, including
Darwin's former teachers, proved a receptive audience, the British
government sponsored publication of his research, and the general
public welcomed his discoveries about the earth's crust. Because of
ill health, Darwin's years as a geological traveler ended much too
soon: his last major geological fieldwork took place in Wales when
he was only thirty-three. However, the experience had been
transformative: the methods and hypotheses of Victorian-era
geology, Herbert suggests, profoundly shaped Darwin's mind and his
scientific methods as he worked toward a full-blown understanding
of evolution and natural selection."
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