If this trend had continued to today, many of us might retreat to the basement to do some stem cell research or genetic engineering after a hard day at our jobs, and spend our weekends sitting in lecture halls being regaled by the latest advances in science instead of walking around manicured meadows hitting a little white ball. The best of their collections were displayed in the glass cases of the British Museum, where visitors thronged to view them. Many in the burgeoning middle class made these activities their hobby. The Victorians loved to dabble in science, which in those days consisted mostly of collecting and classifying plants and bugs and shells and fossils. Saying that someone is perhaps the greatest naturalist of the Victorian age is saying a lot, because that was a time when natural history, the study of the earth and the living things that inhabit it, was all the rage. Which is why the unusual career of the second person generally credited with articulating the theory of evolution is captivating. Everest? Who ran the second under-four-minute mile? Who was the second African American to play major league baseball? Who was the second man to set foot on the moon, and what did he say when he arrived there? If the public takes little note of those who come in second, scientists pay even less homage to the also-ran: priority of discovery is one of their few rewards. Who made the second successful ascent of Mt.
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