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Eminent Joburg scientists raise a glass to toast Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Through his On the Origin of Species, Darwin changed the way people thought about themselves and the world.
An impression of Darwin as a young man (Source: Wikipedia)
LAST night there were 650 Charles Darwin parties being held in 42 countries around the world. The party at Wits University was a joyous occasion.
Darwin, a naturalist, changed the way people thought about themselves and the world – in 1859 he published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, postulating that all life evolved from a common ancestor, through the process of natural selection.
After a parade of nine eminent scientists at the Origins Centre on the Wits campus on Thursday, 12 February, world-famous palaeoanthropologist professor emeritus Phillip Tobias stepped up to the podium.
The 83-year-old is bent now with age but his mind is as sharp as ever.
"I have never proposed a toast on a 200th birthday," he said, smiling broadly, saying he has never known anyone of that age. Tobias then raised his glass to Darwin, who was born in England on 12 February 1809, then sang a lusty happy birthday with some 100 other people in the room, throwing his fist into the air several times, while shouting "Hooray!"
He then blew out the two candles – each one representing a century – on the large colourful cake.
While other speakers had spoken about Darwin's extraordinary contribution to science and the way it changed humankind's thinking about themselves, Tobias spoke about Darwin's health.
Darwin's health
Almost from the moment he arrived back in London after his five-year exploratory voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, bringing back 5 000 skins and specimens and 1 700 pages of notes, Darwin was constantly ill. He spent the rest of his life, 46 years, in and out of bed, but wrote four volumes, the most famous of which, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, turned conventional religious explanations for the existence of humans, on their head.
World-famous palaeoanthropologist professor emeritus Phillip Tobias
Tobias said it was puzzling that Darwin spent three years at Cambridge University in England before his trip, and enjoyed "robust health". While explaining that Darwin's family suffered from "family neurosis", this doesn't explain why he was so well before he left on the Beagle.
"An exciting clue was discovered in 1935," says Tobias.
The Beagle travelled down the east coast of South America, then up the west coast, then north to Mendoza in Argentina, where Darwin spent a night with remote villagers. There he discovered the vinchuta beetle, which was possibly the clue to Darwin's illness.
Darwin described how these blood-sucking beetles walked over him at night. Some 70 years later it was proved that they carry Chagas Disease, which gobbles up nerve cells.
"This is what Darwin had," says Tobias, "Darwin made his greatest contribution from a body and mind beset by disease. To have made this contribution when he was 50 years and older is all the more amazing."
In the next breath Tobias says it is impossible to prove, but he would like to see the Royal Society of South Africa and London ask permission of the Dean of Westminster to take a tiny amount of tissue from Darwin's bones to test for Chagas Disease. Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey in London, along with other eminent scientists.
"Four great books all emerged from a very sick man - he could not work more than 3 to 4 hours a day," said Tobias, "he was a brilliant invalid."
Cape Town visit
Professor Francis Thackeray, newly appointed director of the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits, reminded the party-goers that Darwin stopped in at Cape Town on his voyage on the Beagle.
"Darwin first reached Cape Town in 1836 aboard the HMS Beagle and spent about a week on the Cape Flats. His first impression of South Africa (recorded in his diary) was that it was a rather desolate country. However, in a book describing his travels, he stated that 'there was no country like South Africa' with regard to the large animals that could be found in the interior."
Darwin also recognised that Africa was the continent from which distant ancestors of humankind evolved. "The discovery of fossils like the Taung Child (2,5-million years old) and Mrs Ples (2,1-million year old) proved that Darwin was right," says Thackeray.
"As early as 1871, in his book The Descent of Man, Darwin compared the anatomy of apes and other primates (including humans), and determined that the 'progenitors' (early ancestors) of humankind probably originated from Africa."
While in South Africa, Darwin discovered a bug in the Cape, and it is named after him - Kaapiad darwini.
Continuing Darwin's work
Most of the eminent scientists who spoke at the function were continuing the work of Darwin. Professor Bruce Rubridge is investigating human ancestors in the Karoo, some of which originate 300 million years ago. "What we have found fulfils the prophecies of Darwin," he said.
South African quagga (Marechal)
Dr Johann Neveling, the president of the Palaeontological Society of South Africa, said: "I often wonder what Darwin would have said if he saw the contribution of South African fossils."
Professor Bob Brain, past director of the Transvaal Museum, and chief scientific adviser to the PAST Trust, talked of Darwin's dilemma – an incomplete fossil record of the different stages of evolution. Many of those gaps in the record have subsequently been filled. "Darwin's dilemma is being resolved very quickly. His dilemma was not necessary at all."
Professor Trefor Jenkins, former acting director of the Institute for Human Evolution, and former dean of the Medical School at Wits University, commented on the huge leaps that have been made through our knowledge of genetics. "It is reasonable to speculate that Darwin would have appreciated this knowledge."
Darwin would surely have.
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