JUNE - Events sorted by day of the month:

June 03 1836
A packet ship arrived with mail for H.M.S. Beagle. Darwin went onshore to pay a visit to Sir John Herschel who had been living there since 1833. He was in charge of the new Royal Observatory built at Cape Town. Darwin was pleased to discover that Herschel had a keen interest in natural history. They had many conversations about volcanoes, earthquakes, the movement of continents, the origin of mankind, and how new species come into being.

June 06 1832
The Beagle returned from Salvador. Three crew members had died from a fever and the ship's surgeon, Robert McCormick, resigned his position and headed back to England on the ship, H.M.S. Tyne. It was standard practice for the ship's surgeon to collect specimens during a survey voyage and McCormick felt his duty was usurped by Darwin. Benjamin Bynoe was made acting surgeon for the remainer of the voyage.

June 10 1869
The Darwin family went on holiday to North Wales, and along the way they visited The Mount for the last time.

June 16 1857
After a relapse, Darwin headed back to Dr. Lane's Hydropathic Spa for another two weeks.

June 17 1825
Darwin's father took him out of Shrewsbury school due to his poor grades and his having no direction in life. It is ironic to think that at this time his father castigated Darwin for his idleness, claiming that if he carried on this way he would end up being a disgrace to himself and his family. Apparently Darwin cared for nothing but shooting birds, playing with dogs, and catching rats!

June 18 1858
Darwin received a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace, who was still at the Malay Archipelago. The paper was titled: "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type". Darwin was shocked! Wallace had come up with a theory of natural selection that was very similar to his own. The paper contained concepts like "the struggle for existence," and "the transmutation of species". Upon further examination Darwin saw that Wallace had some ideas about natural selection that he did not agree with. For one thing, Wallace tried to mix social morality with natural selection, proposing an upward evolution of human morals which would eventually lead to a socialist utopia (Darwin's natural selection had no goal). What's more, Wallace believed that cooperation in groups aided in the progress of mankind (Darwin saw natural selection as being influenced by competition). Finally, Wallace's natural selection was guided by a higher spiritual power (there was no divine intervention in Darwin's version).

June 20 1837
After seven months of work his volume of the "Journal of Researches" was finally complete, but publication was delayed because the volume Capt. FitzRoy was writing was going slower than anticipated. Darwin started writing another book on South American geology, and also devoted much time to the study of transmutation - in secret of course.

June 23 1838
His health problems started to become worse - more heart troubles, stomach pains, nausea, and headaches. Figuring that some time in the country would do him some good, Darwin went on holiday to northern Scotland. He explored the Glen Roy valley, forty miles south-west of Inverness, where he studied the famous "Parallel Roads" running along the sides of the valley. He theorized that the roads were caused by the retreat of ancient seas as the valley rose over eons of time. If true, this would add support to his theory of raising land masses (these formations are now known to have been caused by the action of retreating glacial lake).

June 28 1858
Darwin's son, Charles Waring Darwin, died.

June 30 1849
Having been pronounced nearly cured, Darwin returned to Down House and immediately went back to his barnacles. During the summer he had a water cure bath setup in the backyard. He would sit under a forty gallon water tank and pull a cord which would released freezing cold water through a pipe onto himself.

June 30 1860
Professor William Draper of New York University gave a talk at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The meeting took place at Oxford University's Museum Library, and Draper's topic was the influence of Darwinian theory on social progress. Revd. John Stevens Henslow was the presiding president during this meeting. Apparently the talk was only mildly interesting, but most of the 700 to 1,000 people in attendance stayed to the end because they wanted to hear Bishop Wilberforce respond to the talk, and since Huxley was there as well, a lively debate on evolution was sure to follow. After Draper finished his talk, Wilberforce stood and gave his thirty minute rebuttal by way of attacking "Origin of Species" every way he knew how, and by verbally attacking Thomas Huxley. Although Huxley fought back admirably, he was not able to hold the audience. At some time during the debate, an elderly gentleman stood up, holding a bible overhead, and pleaded with the audience to follow god's word. It was Robert FitzRoy! Joseph Hooker, who had reluctantly attended the meeting, eventually stood before the audience and tore into Wilberforce. He accused him of never having read "Origin of Species" and said Wilberforce knew nothing what-so-ever about the botanical sciences. Although it is commonly believed that the debate was only between Wilberforce, Huxley, and Hooker, many other people spoke out in defense of the church or in support of evolution. The debate lasted about four hours, most of which, it seems, consisted of each side attacking the views of the other. There was much commotion in the audience (one lady even fainted!), and in the end both sides claimed they had won the day. Darwin was not able to attend the meeting, as he was quite ill and was at the time taking the water cure at Sudbrook Park in the village of Richmond, in Surrey.

Events some time during this month:

June (late) 1842
While at Shrewsbury Darwin wrote up a thirty-five page sketch of his ideas about transmutation. This was the very first rough draft of his theory. In it he had natural selection figured out, and had a basic description of descent, both of which he said obeyed strict laws of nature. It is interesting to note that at this time Darwin thought these "laws of nature" were set forth by god during creation, after which time god stepped back and no longer intervened with the universe.

June (late) 1847
Hooker attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting at Oxford. Darwin wanted to get as much feedback as possible from Hooker before he left for the tropics, so he went to Oxford with his essay in hand to asked Hooker more questions. He again pointed out key areas of the essay where his theory seemed to need work and gave general editorial advice.

June (late) 1850
At around this time Annie started to complain of feeling sick. Darwin worried that she may have inherited his illness. The family took Annie on a trip to Ramsgate for sea bathing treatmnents, and afterwards she took the water cure in the backyard. This seems to have done much good for Annie. Work on barnacles continued month after month.

June 1837
By this time Darwin was slowly becoming obsessed with transmutation. One of his earliest theories of species change was that each species has a fixed life span and somehow they became extinct when their "life force" was used up. In his "Red Notebook" which he started onboard the Beagle, he noted that the giant llamas of South America seemed to die out even though they had not experienced a climatic change. For Darwin this pointed to their "life force" running out. Still, he had to explain how new species of llama took the place of the extinct ones. This line of inquiry was put on hold because he had to finish editing his "Journal of Researches" and he was also working on his "Zoology" series. It was during this time that Darwin began to experience stomach troubles for days on end.

June 1839
Darwin finished working on his transmutation notebooks (N was the last one) and continued with his book - "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs". Concern that his ideas would be used for atheistic revolutionary ends, he decided not to publish anything from the notebooks and shelved them.

June 1879
Darwin finished, "The Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants" and sent it to John Murray for publication.