J. E. Gray, Charles Darwin, and the Cirripedes , 1846-1851

Abstract

The exchanges, correspondence or other, between John Edward Gray (1800-1875), Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum from 1840, and Charles Darwin (1809-1882), are so few that the little there is assumes unusual significance. It is however, a fortunate circumstance that their one and only working collaboration reflected favourably on the character and generosity of both men. This concerned an investigation into a sub-class of the Crustacea, the Cirripedia , comprising the barnacles (the acorn shells and forms related to them). The common goose-barnacle, Lepas anatifera , had long drawn attention to itself by adhering to the bottoms of ships, and so acquired a high nuisance value which prompted further study. The first naturalists associated with investigations of its structure and classification from the eighteenth century onwards include several famous European names: among the French, Cuvier, Blainville and Lamarck who removed it from the mollusca into the Crustacea; and among the English, John Hunter, Everard Home and W. E. Leach. It was Leach (1790-1836) who, having a large collection at his disposal in the British Museum, at Montagu House, provided the Encyclopaedia Britannica , Supplement of 1819, with the first English classification. It was this collection that gave both Gray and Darwin much of the material for their work, and since this paper is concerned with the relations between them rather than with the specimens, a word needs be said of the different course of their early careers.