Monday, March 23, 2009

Old book sheds new light on Darwin

Some books found in a storage room at the University of Cambridge shed new light on the student life of Charles Darwin.

The six leather-bound books, discovered within the past year, include a list of debts owed and paid by some of the students who attended the university during the years in which Darwin was there. Listed are some of Darwin's expenses from 1828 to 1831.

They books show Darwin had accounts with local businesses in Cambridge and that the university kept a record of those debts, said John van Wyhe, director of the Darwin Online Project, which is based at the University of Cambridge and which plans to post the documents on its Web site Monday.

The books show Darwin paid people to clean his chimney, polish his shoes and that he also had accounts with a barber and a tailor. Darwin didn't spend much on books, said van Wyhe, further confirmation that Darwin preferred collecting beetles to coursework.

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