Darwin and Cirripedia prior to 1846: Exploring the origins of the barnacle research

Abstract

Phillip Sloan has thoroughly documented theimportance of Darwin's general invertebrateresearch program in the period from 1826 to1836 and demonstrated how it had an impact onhis conversion to transformism. AlthoughDarwin later spent eight years of his life(1846–1854) investigating barnacles, thisperiod has received less treatment in studiesof Darwin and the development of his thought. The most prominent question for the barnacleperiod that has been attended to is why Darwin``delayed'' in publishing his theory ofevolution. A related but distinct questionconcerns the variety of earlier events andinfluences that led Darwin to the study ofCirripedia in 1846, apart from its role in thetrajectory that led to On the Origin ofSpecies (1859). In this paper I focus on four specific episodesprior to 1846 that inform a picture of whyDarwin had an antecedent interest in barnacles:(1) the orientation to collecting strange andcurious invertebrate organisms, as well as thestrong affinities of Darwin's invertebratecollecting on the Beagle voyage with thework of John Vaughan Thompson; (2) the criticalrole of marine invertebrate fossils in Darwin'sgeological reasoning aboard the Beagleand exemplified in his GeologicalObservations of South America; (3) the strangeabsence of a Zoology of the Beagle volumeon invertebrates and Darwin's original intentto publish some of the descriptions himself;and (4) the noteworthy presence of barnacles inDarwin's transformation theorizing between 1837and 1839. There is a wealth of support for thethesis that Darwin had a strong interest incirripedes prior to the formal barnacleresearch, blunting arguments that it was psychologicalaversion or a feeling of inferiority about histaxonomic abilities that drove Darwin to thecirripedes.