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Following the inception of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection in 1838, the development of Darwin's theory to explain the "mystery of mysteries" of how new species originated was his "prime hobby" in the background to his main occupation of publishing the scientific results of the ''Beagle'' voyage. He was settling into married life, but suffered from bouts of illness and after his first child was born the family moved to rural Down House as a family home away from the pressures of London. The publication in 1839 of his ''Journal and Remarks'' (now known as ''The Voyage of the Beagle'') brought him success as an author, and in 1842 he published his first major scientific book, ''The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs'', setting out his theory of the formation of coral atolls. He wrote out a sketch setting out his basic ideas on transmutation of species, which he expanded into an "essay" in 1844, and discussed his theory with friends as well as continuing with experiments and wide investigations. In the same year the anonymous ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'' brought wide public interest in evolutionary ideas, but also showed the need for sound evidence to gain scientific acceptance of evolution. In 1846 he completed his third geological book, and turned from supervising the publication of expert reports on the findings from the voyage to examining barnacle specimens himself. This grew into an eight-year study, making use of his theory to find hitherto unknown relationships between the many species of barnacle, and establishing his expertise as a biologist. His faith in Christianity dwindled and he stopped going to church. In 1851 his treasured daughter suffered a long illness and died. In 1854 he resumed his work on the species question which led on to the publication of Darwin's theory. ==Background== Charles Darwin became a naturalist at a point in the history of evolutionary thought when theories of Transmutation were being developed to explain discrepancies in the established faith based explanations of species. He considered these problems at first hand during the ''Beagle'' survey. On its return in 1836 his ideas developed rapidly. His collections and writings established him as an eminent geologist and collector. Darwin read Malthus's ''Essay on the Principle of Population'' in the context of his findings about species relating to localities, enquiries into animal breeding, and ideas of Natural "laws of harmony". Around late November 1838 he compared breeders selecting traits with a Malthusian Nature selecting from variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical & perfected",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Darwin transmutation notebook E p. 75 )〕 thinking this "a beautiful part of my theory"〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Darwin transmutation notebook E p. 71 )〕 of how species originated. His theory of how species originated had now come together in principle, but he was vividly aware of the difficulties he would face in getting it accepted by his friends and colleagues in the scientific establishment. On 19 December 1838 as secretary of the Geological Society of London Darwin witnessed the vicious interrogation by Richard Owen and his allies of Darwin's old tutor Robert Edmund Grant in which they ridiculed Grant's Lamarckian heresy, showing establishment intolerance of materialist theories. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Development of Darwin's theory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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