Biologist, born in London. He studied medicine at London, worked as a naval surgeon, and developed his interest in natural history during a visit to the Australian coast. In 1854 he was appointed professor of natural history at the Royal School of Mines, and became the foremost expounder of Darwinism, to which he added an anthropological perspective in Man's Place in Nature (1863). He also studied fossils, influenced the teaching of science in schools, and wrote essays on theology and philosophy from an "agnostic" viewpoint, a term he introduced.