Excerpt from Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Vol. 8 Gauged by the tremendous sweep of Science since that period, it is fair to say that Science was then just starting on its real career. It will probably t be disputed that the age of Darwin is a sharp dividing line between ancient and modern science. Present methods of research and generalization are w so commonplace that the older limited, narrow systems seem to belong to the distant dark ages. And yet in the year 1830, Charles Darwin was an undergraduate in Cambridge University, which he had entered in prospect of being a clergyman. He was w becoming fascinated with natural science, and his history-making voyage in the Beagle was to begin the following year. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.