Charles Darwin was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London
Darwin considered Malthus's argument that human population increases more quickly than food production, leaving people competing for food and making charity useless.
He later formulated this in the terms of his biological theory as: "Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence; consequently he is occasionally subjected to a severe struggle for existence, and natural selection will have effected whatever lies within its scope." (Descent of Man, Ch.21) He related this to the findings about species relating to localities, his enquiries into animal breeding, and ideas of Natural "laws of harmony". Towards the end of November 1838 he compared breeders selecting traits to a Malthusian Nature selecting from variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practised and perfected", and thought this "the most beautiful part of my theory" of how species originated. He went house-hunting and eventually found "Macaw Cottage" in Gower Street, London, then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. He was showing the stress, and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." On 24 January, 1839 he was honoured by being elected as Fellow of the Royal Society and presented his paper on the Roads of Glen Roy.
The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660[1] and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence.[2] Although a charitable body, it serves as the Academy of Sciences of the United Kingdom (in which role it receives funding from HM Government). Fellowship, granted for life, is awarded to scientists after their election by existing fellows, and is considered a great honour. Fellows must be citizens or residents of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland, while the smaller number of Foreign Members are drawn from other countries. The Royal Society is a member organisation of the Science Council and the International Council for Science.
