Mr. Darwin and the Racing Asparagus

The subject matter for this entry was really brought to my attention by a good friend of mine and a loyal member of my small, yet prestigious, "Dennis is interested in anything about Darwin" network - THANKS Robert!

The link is to a report (listen to the report) by NPR's Robert Krulwich on an aspect of a relatively new Darwin book titled, "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" by David Quammen (blog reading list). I just finished this read - it's great! - I always enjoy Quammen's writing (see the blog reading list above).

Anyway, It seems that Mr. Darwin became very interested in the geographical dispersion of plant and animal species. Doesn't sound like a very risky subject, right? But in the Victorian religious world it was. Mr. Darwin came to believe that plants and animals got to where they were (or where they weren't) pretty much under their own steam (so to speak) - mainly dispersion by floating across oceans - and to try an prove it he and his butler (manservant?) began soaking plant seeds in simulated seawater and then seeing if they still germinated - with interesting, sometimes stinking, slimey and amusing results - although Mr. Darwin was "drop-dead" serious about these experiments.

Speaking of experiments, the report's sidebar includes links to some interesting amateur science sites:

In the Spirit of Discovery (article sidebar)

To piece together his theories of evolution and natural selection, Darwin relied in part on the observations of amateur scientists. That is, his children, his neighbors and their children and multiple correspondents. Below, links exploring the contributions of other great amateur scientists from the past and organizations that encourage an everyman spirit of discovery:

Society for Amateur Scientists
Amateur Scientists
Backyard Astronomy
Denver Mad Scientists Club
Great Amateurs in Science
Victorian-Era Amateur Science Experiments (great, fun site!)

“Darwin Groupies”

In case you didn’t know, one of the objectives of this blog (other than not to have any objectives) was to document all things pertinent to a visit Mr. Darwin’s home that I’m planning for next year while on a business trip to England (What’s this all about?).

In preparation, and also because I am a huge Darwin fan, I’ve been reading the Darwin tomes written by Janet Browne (Volume 1 – “Voyaging” and Volume 2 – “A Sense of Place”). In the second volume I ran across some very interesting material concerning Mr. Darwin’s feelings about “visitors.”

It seems that as Mr. Darwin’s fame grew (like most of the rich, famous, beautiful and influential) he acquired groupies – “Darwin groupies”, but they didn’t call them that in his day. I think that in Mr. Darwin’s time they were simply known as “pests", or worse yet for Mr. Darwin, a waste of time. Even his mail (post?) became increasingly filled with every sort of crackpot idea, proposal and demand that you could imagine – his equivalent of “junk” mail, I guess.

Beginning in her second volume on page 381 in section III, Browne begins to write about the people who wanted to see Mr. Darwin. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s a stream of visitors attempted to see Mr. Darwin at Downe House (p.382). Downe House was intimidating in appearance to the uninvited – the private domain of a privileged and well-off Englishman. But regardless, people still came. Many visitors regarded a meeting with Mr. Darwin as a turning point in their lives. I'm a little old for "turning points" (however you never know) but I wonder how standing in Mr. Darwin's house, surrounded by his personal posessions might affect me - sounds like fodder for another (later) blog entry. Browne maintains that Mr. Darwin was uncertain whether some visitors were taking undue advantage. In many of these circumstances, Mr. Darwin’s widely-known “fragile health” served him well – as the ultimate excuse to cut short or avoid visitors when he felt it necessary. The famous visited Mr. Darwin as well. Notables of the time like Thomas Carlyle in 1875; Samuel Smiles in 1876; Thomas Edward in 1876; George Eliot in 1873.

I hope that Mr. Darwin doesn’t look down unkindly on my visit (pilgrimage?) to his ancestral home at Downe. Even though he doesn’t know me from any of the other visitors who invade his private spaces each year, I’d like to think that he no longer minds having visitors, and possibly even smiles at the modern trials they endure to come for a visit.

Saturday Afternoon with Mr. Darwin

"Better than a dog anyhow."

Mr. Darwin had odd (but characteristically "Darwinian") views concerning the subject of marriage. Early on, speaking frankly with his Father, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Darwin asked should he opt for married life and poverty in London ("like a prisoner") or married life and poverty in Cambridge ("like a fish out of water")? Dr. Darwin assured his son that his inheritance would insure that Mr. Darwin was always confortably provided for (Browne "voyaging" p. 378) - Ah, good ol' Dad's money - who says you can't inherit happiness? With that "burden" lifted Mr. Darwin began looking at the question of marriage differently. True to his nature, he constructed the following document now titled "Marry" or "Not Marry"?:

Mr. Darwin divided the document vertically and titled one side "Marry" and the other side "Not Marry". Now I know that this picture is somewhat hard to read in its original format, so here is basically what each side says:

Marry
Children (if it Please God)

Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one

Object to be beloved and played with.

Better than a dog anyhow

Home, & someone to take care of house

Charms of music and female chit-chat

These things good for one’s health—but terrible loss of time

My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, and nothing after all—No, no, won’t do

Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House

Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books and music perhaps

Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Great Marlboro Street, London

Not Marry
Freedom to go where one liked

Choice of Society and little of it

Conversation of clever men at clubs

Not forced to visit relatives and bend in every trifle

Expense and anxiety of children

Perhaps quarrelling

Loss of Time

Cannot read in the evenings

Fatness and idleness

Anxiety and responsibility

Less money for books etc.

If many children forced to gain one’s bread (But then it is very bad for one’s health to work too much)

Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool

************

Darwin was twenty-nine when he wrote this, and had been living, presumably in grand bachelor style, in London for almost two years. His five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle was done, and both his age and status brought marriage to mind. Clearly Mr. Darwin was facing the same dilemma that many folks face even today - career? / family?

O.K., so if Mr. Darwin were to marry, the question then becomes "Who to marry?" All this bar-hopping, dating, flowers, meeting the parents and long moon-lit strolls just WERE NOT Mr. Darwin's style - all this romantic love crap were not necessary and he didn't have the time or the prediliction for such nonsense. So how does Mr. Darwin solve this problem?

Well, he marches straight over to his first cousin's place (the Wedgwood's - who made a butt load of money of their own making pottery) and visits the youngest of those cousins, Emma Wedgwood. Mr. Darwin sticks around for about three days making small talk (no proposal) and then promptly turns around and heads back to London (he had lots of work to do and bigger fish to fry there!). Oh yes, here's what "Dear merry little Emma" looks like:

Emma is about one year older than Mr. Darwin and just about the only Wedgwood cousin left that was "marriage-able." About three or four months later in November (after he's done frying bigger fish in London), Mr. Darwin heads back to Maer Hall (the Wedgwoods house), immediately proposes to Emma and is "stunned" when she accepts - what the hell does he do now? Both Mr. Darwin and Emma were "underwhelmed" by the situation and carried on just as normal. Mr. Darwin took off for Shrewsbury (his Dad's house) to ask his permission to marry - a social detail - and the match was immediately accepted. A match of "great convenience" for everyone concerned. The fortunes (considerable) of both families stayed "in the family", and Mr. Darwin had a wife "better than a dog anyhow."

Well, they were married on 29 January 1839 - no honeymoon, no huffery and puffery - straight back to London. Even though this account sounds cold and loveless, their love and respect grew. Emma Darwin was Mr. Darwin's only lover, friend, cheerleader, nurse, confidant and keeper until his death on April 19, 1882. I'd say he chose wisely.

A “Victorian Networker”

In an earlier blog entry I posed some questions concerning Mr. Darwin’s use of the Internet (had it existed) and would its use have been a help or a hindrance to his thinking/discovering process. Since that entry I have completed Janet Brown’s first volume about Mr. Darwin (“Voyaging”) and am well into her second (“The Power of Place”). I’m also reading David Quammen’s new publication “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.”

All of these publications stress how much of a “Victorian Networker” Mr. Darwin was. A “Victorian Networker” is someone who voraciously and copiously corresponds (via handwritten letters) with a wide variety of individuals. Mr. Darwin was apparently a very good letter-writer and didn’t hesitate to use that skill to cajole, beg, ask and demand friends, acquaintances and total strangers to assist him with gathering the factoids, observations and information he needed to fuel and substantiate his thinking and creative processes.

I recently found this 1999 document:

http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/DarwinMiscSep99.html#AnchorTopofPaper

I believe that this document is material for one of Dr. Charles F. Urbanowicz’s (Professor of Anthropology, California State University, Chico) classes. In it I found this very interesting exert:

Darwin made several intuitive leaps based on his background, education, and training and he enlightened us all. I believe the WWW is a powerful tool that Charles R. Darwin would have willingly used! Michael Rose (Professor of EvolutionaryBiology at UC, Irvine) sums up "search engines" on the WWW as follows:

"The real world cares little for academic categories and conventions. The serious movers and shakers of every stripe often meet each other and appropriate each other's ideas. Themes from one area then show up in another, as poetry becomes politics becomes philosophy and then science." Michael R. Rose, 1998, Darwin's Spectre: Evolutionary Biology In The Modern World, page 192.

The WWW is powerful if one knows how to use it. It is not going to go away and Darwin would have loved it! One should read Darwin in the original and form your own opinion and not necessarily accept the opinion of others. In his 1876 Autobiography, Darwin wrote that at the time of Origin he could be viewed as a theist, or one who had the conviction of the existence of God. Perspectives change over time and in 1876 Darwin stated: "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic." (Nora Barlow, Editor, 1958, The Autobiography Of Charles Darwin 1809-1882, page 94). Darwin had his final and fatal heart attack on the 19th of April 1882. He made no deathbed statement as to his faith, but had he been asked the question: "Darwin, have you made peace with God?" perhaps he would have chosen to respond with the words attributed to Thoreau (1817-1862) on his deathbed, who is said to have responded to that question with: "I didn't know we had quarreled."

So, I have to admit, that had the Internet existed, Mr. Darwin would have almost certainly have used it to collect much more information much more quickly. But I’m still unsure whether or not this abundance of “quick” information would have ultimately aided his thinking and creative process.

I’ve also recently become a reader of the “slow leadership” blog which basically advises that the “quick/first answer” may not always be the “best” answer. I think there are connections here, but I don’t have time to think about it right now – I’ve got to go make some “quick” decisions.