At the start of the nineteenth century science was a minority cultural interest. By the end it had become one of the central components of contemporary thought. The growth of science as a profession was largely due to the influence of just a small group of men, and who these men were, and how they created the foundations of the modern scientific community is revealed in this thought-provoking book. Set against the backdrop of a changing world of improved communication and travel, the author uncovers how scientists such as Darwin, Faraday and Buckland fought against the limitations of an education in the classics and strove to develop their scientific interests into a profession.