Darwin, Charles Robert. An English naturalist. Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809, the son of Dr. Robert Darwin and grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. He early devoted himself to the study of natural history. In 1839 Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood, and henceforth spent the life of a quiet country gentleman, engrossed in scientific pursuits - experimenting, observing, recording, reflecting, and generalizing. In 1859 his name attained its great celebrity by the publication of "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." This work, though still criticized in certain quarters, may be said to have caused nothing less than a revolution in biological science. In it, for the first time, Darwin expounded the theory of evolution as applied to plants and animals, the origin of species being explained on the hypothesis of natural selection. The rest of his works are largely based on the material he had accumulated for the elaboration of this theory. Darwin died April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

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