Charles Darwin was born on this date in 1809. 10 things you may not know about him:
1. Darwin first went to university in Edinburgh to study medicine and become a doctor like his father. However, he found the subject of medicine didn't interest him and also that he couldn't stand the sight of blood. His next choice of potential career was to study to become a priest. He passed this degree but had already become very interested in naturalism, which led to his being chosen as companion to the captain of the Beagle.
2. As a young man, Darwin was very religious, but on his voyage, observing slavery started to make him question his faith, which he finally lost completely on the death of his daughter, Annie. However, although he stopped attending church, he described himself as an agnostic rather than an atheist.
3. He almost didn't get the job on the Beagle, because the captain, Robert FitzRoy, believed that facial features were a reliable predictor of character – and he did not like the shape of Darwin's nose. FitzRoy believed that Darwin's nose shape showed a lack of determination. Something made him change his mind, and the two men became great friends.
4. Charles Darwin's wife, Emma Wedgewood, was his first cousin. When deciding whether to propose to her, he wrote out a list of pros and cons of marriage. Pros included: A companion and friend in old age, who would be better than a dog; not wanting to live his life alone in a dingy flat doing nothing but work; someone to look after the house; Constant companion and friend in old age; an object to be beloved and played with — better than a dog; someone to take care of the house; the charms of music and female chit-chat.; someone to enjoy books and music with. The cons included: loss of freedom – being forced to visit relatives instead of going to a men's club for intelligent conversation; the expense and anxiety of having children; having less money to spend on books; fears that Emma would not want to live in London. His decision was to marry her. Despite his reservations about children, his knowledge of heredity and fears that his close relationship to his wife would lead to weaknesses caused by inbreeding, he still fathered ten of them!
5. Every night between 8 and 8:30 PM, Darwin would play two games of backgammon with Emma, and kept score of every game for years!
6. Darwin liked to eat the meat of strange and exotic animals; he belonged to a “Gourmet Club” when he was at university which would cook and eat animals not usually eaten. The wide range of creatures he ate during this time, and also on his travels included hawk, armadillo, puma, Iguana and giant tortoises. The best tasting meat, he said, was agouti (a type of rodent). His least favourite was owl, which he said was “indescribable”.
7. Darwin's health was often bad. He suffered from heart palpitations and chest pain, which at first he kept quiet in case it meant he wouldn't be able to sail with the Beagle; sea sickness; stomach problems and vomiting (one wonders if some of this, at least, wasn't down to eating all those exotic animals!); skin diseases, headaches, depression, vertigo and panic attacks. He was often confined to bed, but looked on the bright side – when he was ill, he didn't have to socialise. The causes of his ill-health were never fully explained, but modern doctors have come up with several theories, which include: migraine; lactose intolerance; Asperger's; arsenic poisoning; Crohn's disease; lupus; allergies; obsessive compulsive disorder; or that his symptoms were psychosomatic and brought on by stress and overwork.
8. Many things have been named after Charles Darwin, including: a mountain in the Andes; the city of Darwin in Australia; 120 species, including the genus of birds known as “Darwin's finches”; asteroid number 1991; the Darwin Wallace medal awarded by the Linnean Society; and Darwin Sound, where Darwin helped to save a landing party from being marooned by a large wave caused by a collapsing glacier.
9. Darwin's picture appears on the UK £10 note along with a Hummingbird and HMS Beagle.
10. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
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