Charles Darwin

  b. 1809; d. 1882 | English naturalist

At The Bottom

— 1827

He left the university without completing a degree, to his father's ongoing dismay.

As a child growing up in Shrewsbury, England, Charles Darwin was curious about science and the natural world, but he did not apply himself very well to his studies.  His hobbies included collecting plants and dead insects, as well as bird watching and crystallography, but formal education did not interest him, and his work disappointed his headmasters as well as his own father, who once warned the young Darwin that he would be a “disgrace to yourself and all your family.” Darwin’s father, Robert, was a doctor who expected his son to follow in his own footsteps.  He sent the young Charles to the University of Edinburgh in 1825 to study medicine, but lectures bored him and he found himself to be squeamish at the sight of blood.  He attended lectures in zoology and geology and pursued studies of marine invertebrates, but he could not overcome his hatred for medicine.  In 1827, he left the university without completing a degree, to his father’s ongoing dismay.