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Darwin in Edinburgh
Charles Darwin was an undergraduate at the University’s Medical School from 1825 to 1827.
Although he failed to pursue a medical career, his encounters with teachers, academics and curators in and around the University formed the basis of his brilliant later explorations.
The following is an excerpt from Dr Stana Nenadic’s contribution to “Darwin’s Edinburgh” held at McEwan Hall on Thursday 12 February.
Undergraduate studies
Charles Darwin's academic career at the University of Edinburgh was not impressive.
Though raised in a distinguished medical family, he was soon repulsed by his studies in these pre-chloroform days.
He thought his teachers at the medical school - which was arguably the finest in Europe - dull and boring.
He left without a degree and moved to Cambridge with a family hope, soon dashed, that he might try for another profession, that of Church of England clergyman.
Biographers regularly go back to Darwin’s Edinburgh years, convinced the seeds of all his later thinking lie there - and to a large degree they are right.
Janet Browne
Science Historian
Lasting influence
Though Darwin’s sojourn in Edinburgh was short, it is reasonable to argue that the shape of his later thinking was influenced by the cultural and intellectual milieu of Edinburgh.
He was a member of various student societies and also observed the intellectual life of the Royal Institution (now known as the Royal Scottish Academy).
In Edinburgh, Darwin would have been exposed to a variety of influences that, while not unique to the city, were certainly in evidence there.
The 1820s was a time of great religious debate and pluralism.
The authority of the established churches was diluted by new Christian sects, and by deism, romantic pantheism, atheism and apathy.
Young men on their own for education or employment engaged in a ‘pick and mix’ approach to religious observation and religious ideas.
This may have influenced the genesis of Darwin’s thinking.
Personal connections
Lothian Street plaque which reads "On this site Charles Darwin (1809-1882) author of The Origin of the Species lodged at 11 Lothian Street whilst studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh."
Darwin enjoyed a privileged social life among the great professors, lawyers, medical men and literary men of the late enlightenment city.
However he also formed strong personal connections with others.
One of Darwin’s neighbours in Lothian Street was John Edmonstone, a freed slave and taxidermist who taught Darwin that skill.
He also had close friendships with such younger scientists as Robert Grant, a marine zoologist, who took Darwin with him on collecting forays to tidal pools at Newhaven.
In his autobiography Darwin reflected on Grant’s impassioned espousal of Lamarckian evolutionary theory during the course of one of their companionable walks:
"it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them under a different form in my Origin of Species."
It is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them under a different form in my Origin of Species.
Charles Darwin
Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character, 1876
Lecture recording
The “Darwin’s Edinburgh” lecture was recorded and is available online.
This article was published on Oct 13, 2009