Note 3 — Chapter II

This statement by Darwin disposes of Mr. Grant Allen’s assertion that geology was Darwin’s “first love” (p. 36). He reckoned himself an entomologist when he went to Cambridge, and certainly Mr. Ainsworth’s statement shows that he was a naturalist in a wide sense while at Edinburgh. C. V. Riley, the well-known American entomologist, says (Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, U.S., vol. i., 1882, p. 70) “I have the authority of my late associate editor of The American Entomologist, Benjamin Dann Walsh, who was a class-mate of Darwin’s at Cambridge, that the latter’s love of natural history was chiefly manifested, while there, in a fine collection of insects.” Indeed, he was one of the original members of the Entomological Society of London, founded in 1833, and showed an active interest in its affairs throughout life, being elected a member of its council in 1838. As early as January 4, 1836, a memoir based on insects sent home by Darwin from Chiloe, was read before the Society by Charles Babington, now Professor of Botany at Cambridge.