Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his book On the Origin of Species. However, many favoured competing explanations which gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the s to the s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.
Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh ; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Studies at the University of Cambridge Christ's College encouraged his passion for natural science. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations, and in conceived his theory of natural selection.
His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms , he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.
His grandfathers Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood were both prominent abolitionists. Erasmus Darwin had praised general concepts of evolution and common descent in his Zoonomia , a poetic fantasy of gradual creation including undeveloped ideas anticipating concepts his grandson expanded.
Both families were largely Unitarian , though the Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism. Robert Darwin, himself quietly a freethinker , had baby Charles baptised in November in the Anglican St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury , but Charles and his siblings attended the Unitarian chapel with their mother. The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in That July, his mother died.
